Western WallThe Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Hillel (b: 1st century BCE) (Hebrew: הִלֵּלHīllēl; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of the House of Hillel school of tannaim. He was active during the end of the first century BCE and the beginning of the first century CE. He lived through; The First Crusade in Palestine, though his wife and daughter were killed. He has been credited for writing the GOLDEN RULE in the negative
form of "Do not do unto others that which you would not have them
By August 70 ce the Romans had breached the final defenses and massacred much of the remaining population. They also destroyed the Second Temple. The Western Wall, the only extant trace of the Second Temple, remains a site of prayer and pilgrimage. The loss of the Temple for a second time is still mourned by Jews during the fast of Tisha be-Av.
Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai (1st century CE) 1st-century sage in Judea, key to the development of the Mishnah, the first Jewish sage attributed the title of rabbi in the Mishnah.
During the Byzantine era from 330-637 CE,Jews in Palestine were a significant minority population in small, agricultural villages and urban centers, existing in a complex and sometimes precarious legal and social position between a dominant Christian state and a larger, non-Christian demographic.
They were the ones we never hear about. They hadn't left. They were able to live through the Roman occupation and attack and the wiping out so many Jews in their attack on Jerusalem.
Their status was dependent on the fluctuating theological aims of the state, the effectiveness of its central rule, and the prevailing economic and political conditions, leading to periods of both relative prosperity and persecution. Jews were numerous and had significant roles throughout the history of the Byzantine Empire.
GOOD TIMES: HAD PROTECTION; In the Constitutio Antoniniana of 212, Caracalla bestowed citizenship on all residents including Jews of the Roman Empire, of which the Byzantine Empire is a continuation. This granted Jews legal equality to other citizens, and formed the foundation of their legal status in Byzantium following the founding of Constantinople in 330. Indeed, Jews enjoyed the right to practice their faith under the rule of the Byzantines, as long as they paid the Fiscus Judaicus. For example, circumcision, which was considered mutilation and therefore punishable by death if performed on a non-Jewish child, and by exile if performed on a non-Jewish adult, was legally permitted within Jewish religious practices. Byzantine law recognized synagogues as places of worship, which could not be arbitrarily molested. Jewish courts had the force of law in civil cases, and Jews could not be forced to violate Shabbat and their festivals.
HELLENIZATION-THE BIG CHANGE-ALTERING RELIGION: After the decline of the Greek-speaking Hellenistic Judaism in ancient times, the use of the Greek language and the integration of Greek culture into Judaism continued to be an integral part of life in Jewish communities in the Byzantine Empire.
The most famous rabbi from Palestine during 330-637 CE was Shimon bar Yochai, who was a central figure in the development of Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah. Other figures like him may have existed, but their stories or names are not as widely documented in readily available sources for that specific era.He is the legendary author of the Zohar, a foundational text of Kabbalah, and his teachings and influence were significant during this time and beyond.
Tannaim and Amoraim:
This era saw the compilation of the Mishnah (the work of the Tannaim) and the Talmud (the work of the Amoraim), which involved extensive commentary and debate by rabbinic scholars in Palestine.
The Mishnah is the first major written compilation of Jewish oral law, a compendium of legal discussions and interpretations of Torah traditions compiled by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi in the early 3rd century CE. Organized into six "orders" (sedarim) and 63 tractates (masechtot), the Mishnah's goal was to preserve and unify Jewish practice and belief after the destruction of the Second Temple, serving as a crucial foundation for the Talmudand subsequent rabbinic Judaism.
The Mishnah was redacted by Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi in the 2nd century, and the Babylonian Talmud was completed by rabbis around the 6th century. The Jewish people were led by Zugot, or rabbinic pairs, who taught the binding natures of both the Written Law and the Oral Law, during the first and second centuries BCE. Jewish practice dramatically changed after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE as the community focus shifted from Temple rituals to Torah learning. Threats of Roman persecution also grew, and Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi feared that the Jewish community would become fragmented and any oral traditions would be lost. At that point, he made a bold decision: he wrote down the Oral Law in a book called the Mishnah.
The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, serving as a compilation of ancient teachings and the primary source of Jewish religious law and theology, consisting of the Mishnah (the codified oral law) and the Gemara (commentaries and discussions on the Mishnah). It also includes various auxiliary materials and is written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, with the Babylonian Talmud becoming the most authoritative version over time. The Talmud is revered by traditional religious Jews and has profoundly influenced Jewish thought and practice for centuries.
Gamaliel VI (until 425 CE):The last nasi (patriarch) of the Jewish community in Palestine.
Termination of the Jewish Patriarchate (429 CE):The Byzantine Empire did not allow a successor to Gamaliel VI to be appointed, ending the official Jewish patriarchate in the Land of Israel.
Jews lived through this period. They had not left. They may have lost their king, butthey prayed for the return of their own government.
There came a time when Jews were not in control of their own lives; when they had been exiled to Babylonia from Jerusalem and their land of Judah. A Jewish girl had become the King's wife and Queen of Persia with her religion being unknown to her husband, Ahasuerus, and he was a real anti-Semite ! This is no fairy tale. It's part of Persia's history and their king known as Xerxes I, and it's an important part of our Jewish history.
The Book of Esther was first printed in the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh. It was later included in the Christian Old Testament.
The plot is structured around banquets (Hebrew: מִשְׁתֶּה, romanized: mišˈte, plural מִשְׁתָּאוֹתmištāˈhoṯ or מִשְׁתִּיםmišˈtim), a word that occurs twenty times in Esther and only 24 times in the rest of the Hebrew bible. This is appropriate given that Esther describes the origin of a Jewish feast, the feast of Purim, but Purim itself is not the subject and no individual feast in the book is commemorated by Purim.
The book's theme, rather, is the reversal of destiny through a sudden and unexpected turn of events: the Jews seem destined to be destroyed, but instead are saved.
In literary criticism such a reversal is termed "peripety", and while on one level its use in Esther is simply a literary or aesthetic device, on another it is structural to the author's theme, suggesting that the power of God is at work behind human events.
Talmud's Version
King Achashverosh hosted a lavish 180 day feast "for all his officials and servants, the army of Persia and Medea, the nobility and provincial officials." It culminated in a final week of festivities "for all the people who were present in their capital of Shushan; the aristocracy and the commoner alike."
It would appear to us to be an ancient precursor to Mardi Gras. However, it marked the 3rd anniversary of the reign of King Achashverosh while also marking 70 years since the beginning of the Jewish exile. The king was aware of he Jewish prophets telling of the end of the Babylonian and Persian exile after 70 years.
His calendar was different enough from the Jewish calendar for Achashverosh to miscalculate when the 70 years began and thought that the Jews would now be in utter despair, and that the land of Israel and the Jewish nation would become permanent gems in his own crown of glory. He staged this elaborate party and wore priestly garments plundered from the Temple. Also, the Temple vessels, now part of the Persian treasury, were on display for all to see. Then he invited Jews he knew.
Such a party would be like having a theme park built along the site of Auschwitz, and inviting Jews to come and enjoy the attractions; a high mark of insult for the Jewish people. And they accepted the invitation. They had become desensitized to the meaning of their history. These Jews of Persia had lost sight of their history so they accepted the mediocrity of the present. Their memories had faded along with sensitivity and commitment. They enjoyed themselves despite what they were celebrating ! I would call it being completely Hellenized!
Haman enters the story at this point with the threat of annihilation. The Talmud tells us tells us now of a new awakening in the Jewish people. The spark that ignited Haman's fury was only a simple confrontation with "Mordecai the Jew." At least he did not cover up who he was. Haman had been newly elevated to a high position of power;, and expected everyone in the kingdom to bow down and prostrate themselves before Haman.
The Talmud offers several interpretations of King Achashverosh, also known as Ahasuerus, from the Book of Esther.
The Talmud states that Achashverosh ruled over "the globe" (kippah), which some interpret to mean the entire world. However, the Book of Esther states that his kingdom included 127 provinces, which stretched from India to Ethiopia.
The Talmud describes Achashverosh as someone who was not of royal blood, but instead became king by purchasing the position.
The Talmud suggests that when Achashverosh promised Esther "up to half of the kingdom", he meant to exclude the rebuilding of the Temple.
The Midrash interprets the name Achashverosh as an acronym for acharit veraishit shelo, which means "the end and beginning are His".
The Midrash says that Achashverosh alludes to God, the King of the World.
Achashverosh is a central figure in the Purim story. He is often understood to refer to Xerxes I, who ruled the Achaemenid Empire from 486–465 BCE. By using this spelling of king (Ahasueros)-Achashverosh, I can see it is from a different source; this time from the Talmud.
Satan is found in the Bible. What we Jews think about him is different from the Christian viewpoint or the Islamic viewpoint.
Satan occupies a prominent place in Christianity, which generally regards him as a rebellious angel and the source of evil who will meet his ultimate demise in battle at the End of Days, which Judaism, Christianity and Islam all believe we are now immersed in.
Balaam and the Angel (1836) by Gustav Jäger. The angel in this incident is referred to as a "satan".The Bible contains multiple references to Satan. The word appears just twice in the , both times in the story of Balaam, the seer who is asked by the Moabite king Balak to curse the Jews. When Balaam goes with Balak’s emissaries, God places an angel in his path “l’satan lo” — as an adversary for him.
Jewish sources, commencing with Moses (born c 1391 BCE) on the whole don’t dwell as much on the satanic, but the concept is nonetheless explored in numerous texts. In Hebrew, the term Satan is usually translated as “opponent” or “adversary,” and he is often understood to represent the sinful impulse (in Hebrew,yetzer hara) or, more generally, the forces that prevents human beings from submitting to divine will. In the earlier biblical books, e.g. 1 Samuel29:4 (possibly written by King David or a friend) , it refers to human adversaries, but in the later books, especially Job 1–2 and Zechariah 3, to a supernatural entity.
He is also sometimes regarded as a heavenly prosecutor or accuser, a view given expression in theBook of Job, where Satan encourages God to test his servant. Job is the 3rd book in the hagiographic section of the Bible (the writing of the lives of saints. biography thatidealizesits subject. "a hagiography which is designed to serve a political agenda."
The Talmud (books of discussion of Jewish law) explains that Job was never a real person but was simply a parable; a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.Satan makes many appearances in the Talmud. A lengthy passage in the tractate Sanhedrin accords Satan a central role in the biblical story of the binding of Isaac. According to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, it was Satan that caused the Jewish people to despair of Moses returning from Mount Sinai by showing them an image of the prophet on his deathbed. A passage in the tractate Megillah says that Satan dancing at the party of the Persian King Ahasuerus is what led to the killing of Queen Vashti in the Purim story.
It tries to answer the problem of the suffering of a good or righteous people. Job is an example of a good person. He is a native of Uz who Satan tries to tempt to do bad things. His friends think that his suffering is the result of his wickedness, but Job says that he has not done anything bad. G-d finally steps in from a whirlwind explaining the Divine cosmic order of things and the pettiness of human understanding. The author of Job is unknown, possibly thought to be by some Edomite who wrote it between Mosaic and early 2nd Temple times. The book was not then read but recited by the high priest of the Temple on the eve of the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.
Only twice in the Hebrew Bible does Satan appear as a specific figure, as HaSatan — the Satan. One is the Book of Job and the other is a brief reference in the Book of Zecharia, where the high priest is described as standing before a divine angel while Satan stands at his right to accuse him.
Satan has a central role in the story as an angel in the divine court. According to the biblical narrative, Satan — here too commonly translated as the Adversary — seems to urge God to create hardship for his righteous servant Job, arguing that Job is faithful only on account of his wealth and good fortune. Take those away, Satan claims, and Job will blaspheme. God permits Satan to take away Job’s wealth, kill his family and afflict him physically, none of which induces Job to rebel against God.
Sephardi Jews also read the book on the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av) found on the Jewish calendar.'The ninth of Av') is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both of Solomon's Temples; in 586 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar; (After the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Jews of the Kingdom of Judea went into exile. The 2nd Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire during the First Jewish-Roman War. in 70 CE.)
The Romans subsequently crushed Bar Kokhba's revolt and destroyed the city of Betar, killing over 500,000 Jewish civilians (approximately 580,000) on 9 Ab 135 CE.[9]
Following the Bar Kokhba revolt, Roman commander Quintus Tineius Rufus plowed the site of the Temple in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.[10]
Over time, Tisha B'Av has come to be a Jewish day of mourning, not only for these events, but also for later tragedies that occurred on or near the 9th of Av. References to some of these events appear in liturgy composed for Tisha B'Av (see below). Note that dates prior to 1582 are in the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian calendar.
The Jews were expelled from Spain on 31 July 1492 (Av 7, AM 5252).[10]
Germany entered World War I on 1–2 August 1914 (Av 9–10, AM 5674), which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to World War II and the Holocaust.[9]
On 2 August 1941 (Av 9, AM 5701), SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval from the Nazi Party for "The Final Solution," which marked the beginning of the Holocaust during which almost one third of the world's Jewish population was murdered.[13]
On 23 July 1942 (Av 9, AM 5702), the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began.[13]
The AMIA bombing on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, killed 85 and injured 300 on 18 July 1994 (10 Av, AM 5754).[14]
The 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, according to some Religious Zionist rabbis like Yaakov Ariel and Dov Lior.[15][16]Kinnot have been composed about the withdrawal,[17][18] and the connection to Tisha b'Av was emphasized in 10-year anniversary commemorations.[19][20] The disengagement's timing lent itself to symbolic interpretation both by Religious Zionists and by wider Jewish culture.[21] However, even within Religious Zionism, Chaim Navon holds that the disengagement did not rise to the level of a calamity[22] and Shlomo Aviner has written that mourning the disengagement on Tisha b'Av is forbidden because it incites political division. Yona Metzger, then Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, ruled in 2006 that the disengagement was a tragedy but mourning rituals should not be integrated into Tisha b'Av, while Howard Jachter permits it in narrow fashion.
While the Holocaust spanned a number of years, most religious communities use Tisha B'Av to mourn its 6,000,000 Jewish victims, in addition to or instead of the secular Holocaust Memorial Days such as Yom HaShoah. On Tisha B'Av, communities that otherwise do not modify the traditional prayer liturgy have added the recitation of special kinnot related to the Holocaust.
The year of 5784 (2024) has Tisha B'Av on August 13.We are under a high alert
with Iran's Ayatollah giving the order to attack Israel and all Jews. Nine days from
now, what calamity might happen if any? Western intelligence sources told Sky News Arabia that they had evidence Iran plans to attack Israel on Tisha B’Av in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, which begins on August 12 and ends on August 13, the site reported on Friday. Iran’s attack will reportedly be coordinated with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group embedded in Lebanon.
Satan is explored in detail in Jewish mysticism, orKabbalah.
According to Kabbalah, God is Ein Sof, or "without end," and is never depicted in human form or as having a gender. Instead, Kabbalah defines God by describing what God is not.
Kabbalistic sources expand the view of Satan considerably, offering a rich and detailed portrayal of the demonic realm and the forces of evil in the world, which are to be warded off in some cases with various forms of magic, from amulets to exorcisms. Among the most prominent forms of Jewish mysticism is Kabbalah, which emerged in the 12th century and has since become a central component of Jewish mystical thought. Other notable early forms include prophetic and apocalyptic mysticism, which are evident in biblical and post-biblical texts.
The Jewish mystical tradition has much to say about Satan. Indeed, kabbalistic texts offer a rich description not merely of Satan, but of an entire realm of evil populated by demons and spirits that exists in parallel to the realm of the holy. Satan is known in Kabbalah as Sama’el (rendered in some sources as the Great Demon), and the demonic realm generally as the Sitra Achra — literally “the other side.” The consort of Sama’el (who is mentioned in pre-kabbalistic Jewish literature as well) is Lilith, a mythic figure in Jewish tradition more commonly known as the rebellious first wife of Adam.
The kabbalistic sources portray the demonic as a separate and oppositional realm in conflict with God. Kabbalah even offers explanations of the origins of the demonic realm, the most common of which is that this realm emerges when the attribute of God associated with femininity and judgment, is dissociated from the attribute of God associated with grace and masculinity, and becomes unconstrained. Evil, in this reading, results from an excess of judgment.
Many of these ideas would later find expression in Jewish folk beliefs and in the works of the Hasidic masters. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Poloniye, one of the chief disciples of Hasidism’s founder, the Baal Shem Tov, wrote in his Toldos Yaakov Yosef that God would eventually slaughter the angel of death during the messianic age — a belief that clearly echoes the Christian view of a final showdown between God and Satan at the End of Days. Hasidic folk tales are replete with descriptions of demonic forces, among them a famous story in which the Baal Shem Tov defends a group of children from a werewolf.
Even today some Hasidic Jews will seek out protections from such forces in the form of amulets or incantations. Some Jewish communities, particularly in the world, also prize amulets as protection from evil spirits and maintain a number of customs and rituals aimed at keeping those spirits at bay. Jewish sources dating back to biblical times including formulas for exorcisms to free the possessed of an evil spirit, known as a dybbuk.
The term appears in multiple other instances in the Prophets, often in a similar context — referring not to a specific figure as the Satan, but rather as a descriptor for individuals who act as a satan, i.e. as adversaries.
In Islam, Satan is called Iblis, and is also known as ʿAduw Allāh ("Enemy of God"), al-Aduw ("Enemy"), or al-Shayṭān ("Demon"). Iblis is the leader of the devils, or shayāṭīn, and is often compared to the Christian Satan.
Some of these Christian ideas are echoed in Jewish tradition, but some also point to fundamental differences — most notably perhaps the idea that, in the Hebrew Bible at least, Satan is ultimately subordinate to God,carrying out his purpose on earth. Or that he isn’t real at all, but is merely a metaphor for sinful impulses.
The kabbalistic and Hasidic literature complicate this view, offering a closer parallel to Christian eschatology. Both the kabbalistic/Hasidic and Christian traditions describe the forces of the holy and the demonic as locked in a struggle that will culminate in God’s eventual victory. According to some scholars, this is born of the considerable cross-pollination between Christian and Jewish thinking in the so-called “golden age” of Jewish culture in Spain during the Middle Ages, from whence many of the early kabbalistic texts, including the Zohar, emerged.
I'll conclude with Maimonides's thoughts. The word Satan, Maimonides writes, derives from the Hebrew root for “turn away.” Like the evil inclination, Satan’s function is to divert human beings from the path of truth and righteousness.Maimonides seems not to believe Satan actually exists, but rather that he is a symbol of the inclination to sin. The entire Book of Job, he writes, is fictional, intended merely to elucidate certain truths about divine providence. And even if it is true, Maimonides continues, certainly the portion in which God and Satan speak with each other is merely a parable. Maimon Ben Joseph (1110-1165) dayyan in Cordova, Spain, which he left in 1148 with his family because of persecution and went to Fez, upholding the faith of Jews who had been forced to convert to Islam; eventually settled in Egypt.
