The destruction of the Second Temple, known in Hebrew as Churban Bayit Sheni, was an immeasurable tragedy for the Jews (R. Telushkin, 138). The background in which the destruction took place can be understood in light of the Great Revolt against Rome. According to R. Telushkin, the Great Revolt (66-70 C.E.) was an uprising against the Roman occupation of Israel, which started in 63 B.C.E. The Romans oppressed and persecuted the Jews, while imposing harsh taxations on Judea. During this time period, various events led to increased discontent with the Roman domination. One such event was Rome appointing unqualified leaders for the role of the High Priest. According to R. Telushkin, the Anti-Roman rebels known as the Zealots (in Hebrew, Kanaim) urged the Jews to rebel against Roman domination. The Zealots believed in the use of all methods to achieve political and religious freedom. Another disturbing event was the fact that the Romans wanted to desecrate the Temple by introducing the statue of their emperor Caligula, who in 39 C.E. declared himself to be Rome’s newest deity. However, his sudden death prevented him from killing the Jews who refused to desecrate the Temple. Furthermore, Roman soldiers continued to subject Judaism to “gross indignities” (R. Telushkin, 134), such as Roman soldiers exposing themselves and burning a Torah scroll in the Temple. Furthermore, R. Telushkin notes that in 66 C.E., Gessius Florus, the Roman procurator of Judea from 64-66 CE, stole silver from the Temple, which outraged the Jewish masses, who attacked and destroyed the small number of Roman military forces present in Jerusalem. As a result, the Romans attacked Jerusalem with another army of 60,000 soldiers, and they sold into slavery or killed 100,000 Jews (R. Telushkin, 134).
The final catastrophe consisted in turmoil on two sides, the Roman troops who wanted to besiege the city from outside, and the Jewish civil war inside the city. According to Josephus, the Romans saw the Second Temple as a strategic point of battle since Jews could allegedly hide there and attack them (Josephus, 28) as well as for the fact that for Jews from Judea and Diaspora, the Holy Temple was a focal point of worship. Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, attacked Jerusalem with catapults that threw with stones, iron and fire, weakening the defenders of the city. After two months of intense fighting, in the summer of 70 CE, Titus was able to burn down the Holy Temple, killing about one million Jews (R.Telushkin, 134). According to the Roman historian Deo Cassius, as Titus approached the Temple, although outnumbered, the Jews fought harder and harder, trying to keep the Romans out of the Holy Temple:
"Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers [of Romans] who tried to crowd through the opening and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans. (…) Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the Temple and fall in its defense." (Aish, “The Destruction of the Second Temple” quote from “The Roman History” by Deo Cassius, Vol III.).
The destruction took place on the Ninth of Av of 70 CE, when Roman soldiers burned down the entire Temple (R. Telushkin, 594). However, the western side of the Temple’s courtyard, known as the Western Wall (Kotel ha-Ma’aravi) survived. The Kotel represents the holiest site in Jewish life (R.Telushkin, 138).
In light of the Great Revolt that ended with the destruction of the Holy Temple, various viewpoints examine its significance. In the book “The Jewish Wars”, Flavius Josephus, who was hired by the Romans to write history, blamed the Zealots for instigating the revolt and wrote about Romans in a positive light,
“For that it was a seditious temper of our own that destroyed it, and that they were the tyrants among the Jews who brought the Roman power upon us,who unwillingly attacked us, and occasioned the burning of our holy temple, Titus Caesar, who destroyed it, is himself a witness, who, daring the entire war, pitied the people who were kept under by the seditious, and did often voluntarily delay the taking of the city, and allowed time to the siege, in order to let the authors have opportunity for repentance. “ (Josephus, The Jewish Wars, pg.8).
An opposing perspective to the Jews joining in the Great Revolt against Romans comes from Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, an important Jewish sage and contributor to Rabbinic Judaism during the period of the destruction of the Second Temple (R. Telushkin, 136). Since the Zealots forbade the fellow Jews from leaving Jerusalem, Rabbi Yochan escaped from the city by pretending to be dead. He obtained from Vespasian permission to build a seminar in the town of Yavneh, where he established an academy for learning Judaism. Rabbi Yochan expressed his skepticism on whether the rebellion against Rome was a wise decision. After the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Yochan established a model of Judaism that would focus on “acts of loving-kindness, as G-d says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice” (Hosea 6:6) (R. Telushkin, 137). According to Rabbi Cooper, given that the Jews were left without the Holy Temple, G-d’s presence can be found within each person’s personal space, as "From the day that the Temple was destroyed, the Holy One, blessed is He, has nothing in His world, except for the four cubits of halacha (Jewish law)" (B. Berachot 8a). The destruction of the Temple led to the development of Rabbinical Judaism, as the rabbis began to provide guidance in the absence of practices that could be performed only in the Holy Temple.
Aish: Crash Course in Jewish History Class 35: The Destruction of the Holy Temple, 2008
Rabbi Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Literacy. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc, 1991.
Josephus, Flavius. The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem. Translator: William Whiston, 2001, Gutenberg Translation
Stone Edition of Tanach, Edited by Rabbi Nosson Scherman, Artscroll, 2006.
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