2/17/2011

Topics Covered
 - Roman rule
- Sources of the 1st revolt
- divison of Herod's kingdom
- Timeline of the 1st Great Revolt
- Destruction of the Second Temple
- 2nd Bar Kokhba Revolt
- New Judaism
- The Rise of the Synagogue

When the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans, the Jewish people were in a state of cognitive dissonance again. Where would G-d go if this was actually supposed to be the house of G-d? There was also an idea of what was a Jew? Did the Jew need a Temple in order to be a Jew? From these ideas came the survival or the elimination of different sects in Judaism depending on their ability to adapt without a Temple. Sects such as the Essenes, the Pharisees, and the Christians were able to survive after the destruction because they had either long rejected the idea of the Temple and the practice in the Temple, or they believed that the Temple was not the end all, and Judaism could be practiced elsewhere. The Sadducees, on the other hand, the aristocratic of the society who controlled the Temple before the destruction. They followed the practices of the Temple strictly and once the Temple was destroyed, they had nothing to base their practice on or their religion on. As such, they did not survive for long after the destruction of the Temple.

Since the Temple used to be the center of religion and practice and it was no longer standing, the Jewish people needed to find a way to still have a central place of practice. To many this became the home, but the idea of the Synagogue became ever-prominent. Even before the actual destruction took place, there is evidence of synagogues springing up in different places such as Capernum, Masada, Herodium, Jericho, Gamla, Jerusalem...etc, but they became especially popular after the destruction.