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From the year 30 before the Common Era until about the year 200 of the Common Era, Jewish law developed based on the principles taught to Moses at Sinai. This oral law became the Mishnah. From the year 200 until the year 550, over another 350 years, the Talmud developed, exploring and explaining every idea of the Mishnah. Taken together, the Mishnah and the Talmud, also called the Gemara, became the basic books of Judaism. To understand anything about being Jewish, one has to know about the Mishnah, the oral law of Sinai, and the Talmud, the exposition of the Mishnah.
The Romans became increasingly oppressive. They insisted on instituting paganism and their way of life, including bath houses, which were places of immorality, and gladiator fights, places of violence. All of these things went against the Jewish spirit. Eventually, in the year 66 of the Common Era, the Jews revolted against Rome.
Different groups within the Jewish people held different views about this rebellion. The rabbis generally opposed the rebellion. They said the Jews were not strong enough to defeat Rome and that it would only bring about the destruction of the Temple and the further exile of the Jewish people. They urged that the people try to ride out the storm while living in the land of Israel. The Zealots, however, felt it was better to be dead than to serve under Rome, which the speaker notes is not a Jewish idea. The Jewish idea is to live; the goal is not martyrdom but life. There were also outlaws, like a mafia, who were brigands and joined the rebellion not for nationalistic reasons but for personal gain and loot. And there was the regular Jewish army. All of these forces combined and had initial success against the Romans.
However, the Romans sent many new legions into the land of Israel, and this was a terribly bloody war. No one fought the Romans with the ferocity that the Jews did, but by the year 68 it was obvious that the cause was lost. Nevertheless, the Zealots persisted. They insisted on going down with the ship, and the rabbis objected but were powerless to stop this headlong, suicidal course.
By the year 70, the future Emperor Vespasian, who was the general of the Roman army, had besieged Jerusalem, and it fell. On the ninth day of Av, or the tenth day of the Jewish month in August of the year 70, the Temple was razed to the ground and burned. Although it was a fireproof building, enough heat was generated that even stone catches fire, melts, and collapses. The Great Temple that Herod had built, one of the wonders of the world, was destroyed. The Talmud says that he who did not see the Temple of Herod never saw what a beautiful building looked like. Herod had imported Carrara marble and had done everything possible to make it a magnificent structure.
With its destruction begins the long story of roughly 1,900 years of Jewish exile, subservience to foreign nations, and a lack of independence, but also the great story of Jewish survival and spiritual growth even under the worst circumstances.
My name is Dr. Ben Wine, and I thank you for watching. For more on Jewish history, go to jewishhistorydotorg.