The destruction of the house – a reason

‘Where does this tendency to always blame the people for historical disasters come from?’ It's throughout the Bible. It's always been that way.

On the 17th of Av, 5772

To Elisaf, Greetings,

The direct cause of the event does not necessarily reflect the reason why God allows the scenario to happen in this way and not vice versa.

For example, it could be that the direct cause of the destruction of the Temple was, as Josephus describes, that the Roman soldiers did not hear Titus' order not to burn the Temple. Apparently Titus was hoarse that morning 🙂

But the scenario could easily have changed. Why didn't Titus think of the ingenious possibility of giving an order to his assistant to shout not to burn the Temple?< Or why didn't the military doctor hand him a raw egg to make a 'Google Mogul' 🙂

It is unlikely that the 'leader of the capital' He will allow significant events to happen only because of a minor incident that could have been easily prevented, and therefore the likelihood is that Titus' sudden hoarseness that morning stemmed from the will of the Blessed One to destroy his house, as punishment for the sins of his people.

However, in the case of the destruction, 'unjust hatred' is the exact description of the historical cause of the destruction. Jewish society was scattered and divided, unable to unite for joint action. Some are drawn to revolt against the Romans, and some strive for cooperation and reconciliation with them. And even within each group, there are a thousand and one 'subgroups' that are unable to unite even in the face of the common enemy.

Does anyone know how to explain what the essential difference was between Shimon bar Giora and Yochanan Magash Halav, and between both of them and Eleazar ben Yair? Different nuances of 'the same thing' Or 'were just like that', that at some 'thorn of a needle' we continue to kill each other when the enemy is already at the door.

This atmosphere of blowing every 'thorn of a needle' out of proportion, does not stem from any religious or ideological reason; it is expressed stubbornly even in completely mundane matters. A certain person insists on expelling an unknown person who accidentally came to his banquet, and the one who was mistakenly invited insists on staying, and when they do not allow him, he goes and informs the authorities, etc., etc.'

The insistence on matters of honor and prestige, and the exaggeration of every injury and mistake into a 'catastrophe' is the precise historical cause of failure and destruction, and the more we manage to overcome it, ' the closer we will bring salvation.

With greetings, Sh"Z

By the way, the entire Roman takeover of the Kingdom of Judea came from the hatred of the Jannaean brothers, who invited Pompey to be their arbitrator, and he happily threw both sides in the trash and appointed Rome's agents as rulers of Judea.

On the 14th of Av, 5751

The Maharash of Netzach Yisrael says something interesting about the “humility of Zechariah ben Avkoles” who destroyed the Temple. As usual, Zechariah ben Avkoles is the man accused by everyone. The “right” will blame him for not eliminating the informer before he carried out his plan (as interpreted by Rashi), and the “left” will blame him for not offering the sacrifice despite the shock and thereby causing “provocation in the kingdom” (as interpreted by the Maharash).

In contrast, the Mahar says that the unfolding of the destruction by a rabbi's halachic ruling is the 'seal' that expresses that the destruction comes from a divine decree. God Almighty decrees that the halachic ruling will sign the authorization to carry out the destruction, so that we know that this is a 'decree of the King of the World'.

Perhaps it should be said that Zechariah ben Avkoles' concerns express the problematic nature of two opposing currents that threatened Judaism. On the one hand, Hellenism and Christianity and simply 'the nations' who argued against all the halachic stagnation of the Torah and loudly say 'the believers are near the altar'.

And on the other hand, there are the zealots who are ready to blow out every ‘thorn of a spear’ ready to kill a person even for an offense that does not require the death penalty, and they say loudly that ‘he who mutilates the holy places will be put to death’. For every ‘he who mutilates the holy places, the ‘conspiracy theory’ is given to the hypocrite that he planned it in order to destroy the people and their temple.

Zechariah ben Avkoles is not willing to surrender to either side. He insists on upholding the halacha, that those with blemish are not sacrificed, and he insists on the halacha that one does not kill a person based on far-fetched ‘conspiracy theories’. And the strictness of both ‘lest they say’ It is the foundation for a healthy Torah society, where strict observance of the law is observed without reaching the fanaticism of ‘one devours his neighbor’.

In that situation, there was a mistake here. The motives of ‘Bar Kamtza’ should have been thoroughly investigated and perhaps neutralized so that he would not go and betray him, and at the same time, find someone acceptable to the Romans (for example, Agrippa) who would explain to them why the sacrifice was invalidated.

But by and large, his direction was correct. We do not deviate from the law and do not kill a person for any remote concern. Zechariah's humility destroyed our temple, but this humility is also what restores and builds it.

With blessings, Sh”t

The Sages say what was the spiritual reason for the destruction of the Second Temple. Yerushalmi Yuma: We know of two who were diligent in the Torah and were careful in the commandments and tithes, and had every good regulation in them, except that they loved wealth and hated one another with gratuitous hatred. And the Netzib of Volozhin explained: Just as in the destruction of the First Temple, the leaders of those who erred were great Torah scholars, so the Second Temple, which came about through gratuitous hatred, was also the main one who erred, the many great Torah scholars, about whom the Torah shrieked in the song of the Hearer: A people of scoundrels and not wise. That is, they were not upright in their worldly conduct, and because they were not upright, they divided people into these and those in their crookedness and gratuitously hated those who were not like them. Therefore, after the destruction, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai asked his disciples: Go out and see which righteous path a person should adhere to. The answers of his students: a good eye, a good friend, a good neighbor, one who sees the future, and a good heart that includes all things, are the correction for the corruption of gratuitous hatred. With blessings.