Q&A: The Destruction of the Temple
The Destruction of the Temple
Question
I heard the claim that saying the Temple was destroyed because of baseless hatred is strange, and even stranger is that for very severe sins we were exiled only for 70 years, whereas over this matter our people have been in exile for hundreds of years. What do you think about that? And is it possible that we were exiled because of something more fundamental, such as changing Jewish law to Pharisaic law?
Answer
Anything is possible. Metaphysical speculations about the Holy One, blessed be He, and His reasons have no value whatsoever. I do not think anyone, including the Sages, can know anything about this. I assume people simply use this kind of reasoning to promote ideas that seem important to them (not to hate without cause, and so on). The same applies to the speculation that the exile came because of Pharisaic Jewish law.
Generally speaking, there is an assumption here that the exile was brought about by the Holy One, blessed be He. I am not sure about that. At least regarding the Second Temple, after He had already ceased being involved here through prophecy and miracles, it is doubtful how involved He was in the exile. Perhaps the Romans brought about the exile and not the Holy One, blessed be He, in which case the whole question does not arise in the first place.
See here: https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%9E%D7%94-%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A2%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%91-%D7%93-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A5/
Discussion on Answer
It is hard for me to accept this claim for the following reasons:
A. According to what you are saying, prayer has no meaning at all (both personal requests and national ones).
B. As for things I only recently learned about for my history matriculation exam, there is no explanation other than the intervention of the Holy One, blessed be He, in the world—such as the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.
Hello Shimi.
These matters have been discussed here on the site ad nauseam.
And your history matriculation exam is not even remotely relevant here. Both the Holocaust and the establishment of the state can be natural events. On the contrary, the claim that God brought about the Holocaust raises some very difficult questions.
C. The Torah portion of Bechukotai certainly proves providence on the national level in accordance with our actions as a people.
If I make the effort to write, I expect you to read what I wrote as well.
These are events that certainly could happen naturally, but anyone who reads about them sees a guiding hand:
The murder of millions in an orderly and ingenious method.
The ingathering of exiles from all over the world and the building of a modern Western state from scratch within a few short years, while at the same time fighting a continuous series of wars against all the surrounding countries and with very meager resources.
I simply didn’t see that you answered in the link about the matter of prayer and about the Torah portion of Bechukotai (let’s leave aside the Holocaust and the establishment of the state).
At most, these are events with low probability. But low probability does not prove that they are the handiwork of God. Over the course of history, low-probability events can also happen by chance.
I did answer about the Torah portion of Bechukotai (there is a difference between the period of the Torah and our own time). I did not answer about prayer because those matters have already been discussed here ad nauseam.
I didn’t understand—are you assuming that the Holy One, blessed be He, stopped watching over us in a particularized way from the time of the Second Temple onward?