Antecedents of the Hanukkah Oil Story

2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Zvi Ron
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
The Past ◽  
Summer Palace ◽  
The Temple

When the rabbis in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 21b) recounted the miracle of the oil’s lasting for eight days as the etiology of the festival of Hanukkah, they were basing themselves on biblical antecedents, in which the dedication of the Temple/tabernacle was accompanied by the descent of heavenly fire. Although there is no trace of the legend of the oil in any source before the Talmud, an analogous story is found in 2 Maccabees 1 in relation to Nehemiah, whose dedication of the Second Temple was accomplished through the fire of the First Temple, which had in the meanwhile liquefied into naphtha and was kept in an empty cistern. Another story that adumbrates the same themes is the discovery of the lost scroll under Josiah, which leads to the purification and renewal of the Temple. In each case an object from the past survives catastrophe or the reign of bad kings to provide continuity. A final case is the narrative of the building of the Temple in Ezra 6, in which the discovery of a lost scroll in the Achaemenid summer palace authorizes the construction. The Talmudic Hanukkah story is thus seen as a midrash based on biblical precedents.

Historiography on the Jews in the ‘Talmudic Period’ (70–640 ce)

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Jewish Settlement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Roman Province ◽  
The Temple

This article presents a narrative history of the Jews between the destruction of the Second Temple (70 ce) and the Arab conquest of Palestine (c.640 ce). After the destruction, Palestine was made into a standard Roman province in a way which at least curtailed the Jews' traditional autonomy. Nevertheless, the Jews rebelled again, with disastrous results. The Diaspora Revolt (115–17 ce) seems to have ended in the decimation or destruction of the Jewish settlements in Egypt, Libya, and several other places, while the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–5) brought an end to the Jews' hopes for the restoration of Jerusalem and the Temple and, more tangibly, to Jewish settlement in the district of Judaea. The historiography of the past sixty years on the Jews in the ‘Talmud period’ can be divided into two very broad tendencies, which may be designated Israeli and non-Israeli.

The Fratricidal Hasmonean Conflict and the Murder of Onias

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vered Noam
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Original Version ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
The Political ◽  
Babylonian Talmud ◽  
Political Stance ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Temple

This chapter examines the story of the internecine struggle between the two Hasmonean brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, which brought the Hasmonean commonwealth to its end. Only in Josephus is the story of the murder of a righteous man, Onias, juxtaposed to the central tradition regarding the siege of the temple during this war, although this too was clearly an early Jewish tradition. In the rabbinic sources, the story of the siege and the sacrificial animals underwent multiple reworkings, and it is the Babylonian Talmud that reflects the more original version and message of the story. If in Chapter 2, we saw the “rabbinization” of the figure of John Hyrcanus, here the story itself underwent this process and its original moral message was replaced by multiple halakhic implications. In both corpora, this dissension between brothers is seen as the leading cause of the downfall of the Hasmonean dynasty. This was in contradistinction to the political stance represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which interpreted the Roman occupation as proof of the sinfulness of the Hasmonean state from its very inception.

Jewish Identity and the Intercommunal Links between Diaspora Jewish Communities in the Second Temple Period

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Jonathan R. Trotter
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Identity ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Jerusalem Temple ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The City ◽  
The Temple

Abstract Many diaspora communities identify not only with a distant homeland but also with others distant from the homeland. How exactly do these intercommunal connections take place and contribute toward a shared identity? What specific aspects of diasporan identity are created or strengthened? What practices are involved? This study will begin to answer these questions through investigating two practices which were widespread among diaspora Jewish communities during the last two centuries of the Second Temple period (1st cent. B.C.E.–1st cent. C.E.). First, we will show how sending offerings and making pilgrimages to the Jerusalem temple from these communities enabled regular intercommunal contact. Then, we will suggest some ways in which these voluntary practices reinforced a cohesive Jewish identity and the importance of the homeland, especially the city of Jerusalem and the temple, for many diaspora Jews, whether they lived in Alexandria, Rome, Asia Minor, or Babylonia.

Biblical History in the Thought of R. Ḥaim David Halevy

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Idan Breier
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
The State ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Military Force ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Prophetic Literature ◽  
Biblical History ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
The Temple

Abstract R. Ḥaim David Halevy was an exceptional voice in the Religious-Zionist camp in Israel. While espousing faithfulness to the halakhah, he recognized the importance of changing circumstances with respect both to halakhic rulings and philosophical issues arising in Hebrew law. He viewed the study of history as a practical imperative, necessary to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Frequently adducing biblical texts, he argued that Israel must learn from the patriarchs and maintain a strong military force. In particular, the events leading to the destruction of the Temple and exile prompted him to posit that the State should remain neutral and not take an active part in international affairs. On the basis of the historiographical and prophetic literature, he maintained that fidelity to the divine covenant – i.e., ethical conduct – would safeguard Israel’s existence.

The People of the Book, 200 BCE–200 CE

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maristella Botticini ◽  
Zvi Eckstein
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
First Century ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
The People ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Jewish Religion

This chapter discusses the well-documented shift of the religious norm that transformed the Jews into the People of the Book. During the first century BCE, some Jewish scholars and religious leaders promoted the establishment of free secondary schools. A century later, they issued a religious ordinance requiring all Jewish fathers to send their sons from the age of six or seven to primary school to learn to read and study the Torah in Hebrew. With the destruction of the Second Temple, the Jewish religion permanently lost one of its two pillars (the Temple) and set out on a unique trajectory. Scholars and rabbis, the new religious leaders in the aftermath of the first Jewish–Roman war, replaced temple service and ritual sacrifices with the study of the Torah in the synagogue—the new focal institution of Judaism.

scholarly journals Between family and temple: Jesus and sacrifices

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Destro ◽  
Mauro Pesce
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
New Beginning ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Temple

Sacrifice generally aims at obtaining from and by supernatural force the right to exercise control over life. As far as Jewish sacrifices are concerned, according to Leviticus, victims’ blood serves to purify the holy places of the temple and no sacrifices can expiate voluntary sins. In Mt  6:12 God’s forgiveness is obtained through a trilateral relationship between the sinner, the “debtor”, and  God, without any expiatory sacrificial act being required. Jesus did not, however, reject the  sacrificial rituals of the temple, those rituals that did not serve to expiate voluntary sins. In Jesus’ proposal, the forgiveness by one individual of another implies a social conception, which includes the absence of debt,  reconciliation, justice and equality. Jesus transforms and relocates two aspects of the religion of the Second  Temple. In his conception, the forgiveness of sins and  a new beginning of people’s lives brought about by the Jubilee can happen anywhere (not only in the temple)  and at any time (not only once a year for Yom ha-kippurim).

Purity beyond the Temple in the Second Temple Era

2003 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 247 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Poirier
Keyword(s):  
Second Temple ◽  
The Temple
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