Important Jewish Historical Event - Essay Example

College 70 CE IN THE JEWISH HISTORY 70 CE refers to the seventieth year of the current era that is commonly known as AD or the time after Christ. This era has an important Jewish historical event where the prophecy of the second siege of the temple was accomplished. This was because of the first great revolt of the Jews against Romans who had occupied Israel in 63 B.C.E and made the life of the Jews difficult by imposing high taxes, controlling the high priest and generally, how the Jews were treated. When the Romans were unable to scale the city’s defenses they camped outside making efforts to destroy until summer 70CE when they succeeded in breaching the walls of Jerusalem (Nickle 53). The destruction made everyone realize that the revolt had failed but the war continued for three years until the defeat of the Jews with the fall of Masada in 73 CE and many of the Jews joined Diaspora as slaves. It is clear that the war and the destruction of the temple were significant events seriously altered the competition and equilibrium among the constellation of religious groups. This lead to the legacy of the Rabbinic Judaism, which was reestablished by the pharisaic sect, and the rabbinic had a profound and lasting influence on the Jewish people and religion (Botticini and Eckstein 81). The complete change of Judaism into a literate religion was an outcome of the destruction of the temple, which destroyed one pillar of Judaism and made the other that is the written and Oral Torah, which is the surviving core of the religious practice that forced parents to educate their children. 2. Halakhah This is a term used to define the laws and the legal side of Judaism and it consists of the Jews religious laws such as the biblical law, Talmudic and rabbinic as well as the habits and traditions of Judaism. This shows the totality of laws and ordinances that have evolved since biblical era to regulate religious strictness and the day-by-day life and behavior of the Jewish people (Sandberg 2). One of the Halakhar law is the definition of a Jew as a person who is born of the Jewish mother or is halakhically transformed and the also covering of hair was compulsory to all women. Each period of Jewish civilization, affect how Jewish law is developed or discontinued in order to balance the need to remain loyal to the torah and its commandments with the adaptations and changes that serve the interests of Jewish people. Thus, the Halakhah has continually developed and altered to suit the changing fact in every generation such as the law of women covering their head has been changed and now women are only to cover their heads while praying. Halakhah can be extended quite far to react to new circumstances with wisdom and sensitivity while yet retaining its moorings. A good example is the Jews belief in the universal significance of their religion and this did not change even with the fact that they could no longer contest with the other cultures and but they had to invest in safeguarding their own cultural-religious by maintaining a fixed command of their way of life. 7. The Golden Age in Spain It started in the mid-eighth century along the south and west rim of the Mediterranean Sea where the Jews were widely permitted and accepted under Islamic rule and the Jewish religious, culture and economic life was developed. The Jews lived in convergence with both Muslims and Christians since the Muslims granted them the right to their own courts of law, and guarantee of safety of their property with only an exemption from military service. Thus, allowing the Jews to experience a Golden Age where the Jewish poets, scholars, scientist, statesmen and philosophers thrived within and integral part of Arab civilization. Among the greatest achievements was the perfection of the tradition of the paytanim prayers and poems as well as the opening of schools for study of Torah that indicated a mutual respect and peace of the Jews and Arabs (Weiss 84). The Jews were grated freedom that allowed them to grow and prosper in all dimensions where the Jewish economic expansion was incomparable, they prospered academically and they devoted to the study sciences and philosophy. This was a golden age that allowed most of the Jews to prosper and became famous of their bright brains and a blessed nation which exist till today despite the end of the Jewish golden age in Spain. 11. Anti-Judaism Anti-Judaism refers to the dislike of Judaism based on zero-sum association and is a compulsive dialogue of superiority that needs to see and feel the domination over Jews in order to be satisfied. Anti-Judaism is also used to refer to the western tradition where much of western civilization is spread out with contempt for and opposition to the Judaism. Anti-Judaism is a term used to refer to Christianity since the beginning of Christian tradition; life and thought caused the conflict against Judaism and was a major stress to the study of Judaism. Christianity grew strong especially in the cities with mixed pagan and Jewish, Christianity grew out of Judaism, and its establishers pledged to convince people why they need to leave behind the older religion and adopt the new religion (Davies and Finkelstein 244). The anti-Judaism continued and the new church trained people to see Jews as extremely legalistic and acquisitive, inadequately spiritual and shacked to a untruthful religion that Christianity replaced. There was fear of the strange practices and customs of Jews that led on occasion to invective and hatred that ended in massacre and efforts designed to exterminate the Jewish communities. This clash of customs and tradition belief caused the Romans to use the Graec-Roman metanarratives to legitimate their hegemonic rule of other nations and the Jewish attempted to defend Judaism against the domination of other civilization (Lange, Romheld and Weigold 150). It is clear that the Christian origins have revealed that early Christian anti-Judaism played a substantial role in Jewish civilization to the modern status. The transition from second temple Judaism to Rabbinic Judaism The second temple Judaism is the religion of Judaism during the second temple period from its construction until the destruction of the temple and this was a period of intense social changes for the Jewish people. The second temple Judaism was based on four sects; Pharisees, Sadducees, essences and zealots and several autonomous Jewish groups developed during this period. With the pharisaic concept that God is everywhere, the Sadducees found themselves losing authority as individuals began to come to the temple only for the Torah-mandated pilgrimage festivals. This led to the fact that the Pharisees became more famous with the interest of the people at heart while the Sadducees were viewed as elitists with their own interests (Berger and Gerson 70). As the ongoing religious conflict continued, there were ongoing political and military conflicts that lead to the great revolt of Jews against Romans. Agitation brewed in Judea, this culminated to the great revolt from 66 CE, and the Romans reacted with attacks that ended in the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. The siege of the temple lead to the bequest of the Rabbinic Judaism, which was reinstituted by the pharisaic sect, and the rabbinic had a profound and enduring influence on the Jewish people and religion (Baskin and Seeskin 65). This grew out of the pharisaic Judaism just after the systematization of the Talmud and the Rabbinic Judaism dominated all over with the redaction of the oral law and the Talmud. The narration of setting up of Yavneh depicted the birth of rabbinic Judaism, which focuses on Torah and Jewish law rather than temple worship or political self-rules. Following the temple destruction, the Romans governed Judea through a procurator and a Jewish Patriarch who was a former leading Pharisee and he reestablished the Sanhedrin at Yavneh under Pharisee control in a way meaningful to the vast majority of Jews. This brought about a dramatic change in Judaism because the Rabbinic Judaism developed upon Jewish tradition while changing to innovative realisms and the temple ceremonious was substituted with prayer service in synagogues. During this time, rabbinic discourse started to be recorded in writing where the oral law was codified in the Mishnah and Gemarah and was interpreted in rabbinic literature. In spite of the fact that the Rabbis traced their parentage to the Pharisees, the Rabbinic Judaism all the same involved a radical repudiation of certain elements of Pharisees’ that were basic to the temple Judaism. Since the Pharisees had been biased, different sects argued with one another over the correctness of their interpretations of the law and this lead to the end of the term Pharisee because the term was often used by non-Pharisees as well as the term was with great detail sectarian. The Rabbis claimed leadership over all Jews and this shift by no means found a solution to conflicts over the interpretation of Torah and shifted the sects’ debate to Rabbinic Judaism. The Rabbinic Judaism is attributed to Rabbi and Yavneh replaced Jerusalem as a new location of a restructured Sanhedrin, which reinstituted its jurisdiction and was able to reunify the Jews. References Baskin, Judith R. and Seeskin, Kenneth. The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture. New york: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Berger, Julia P. and Gerson, Sue P. Teaching Jewish History. New Jersey: Behrman House, 2006. Botticini, Maristella and Eckstein, Zvi. The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History,. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012. Davies, William D and Finkelstein, Louis. The Cambridge History of Judaism: The late Roman-Rabbinic period. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Lange, Armin, Romheld, Diethard and Weigold Matthias. Judaism and Crisis: Crisis as a Catalyst in Jewish Cultural History. Oakville: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011. Nickle, Keith F. The Synoptic Gospels: An Introduction. Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Sandberg, Ruth N. Development and Discontinuity in Jewish Law. Boston Way: University Press of America, 2001. Print. Weiss, Mosheh. A Brief History of the Jewish People. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Read More