Hayadan > The priesthood as you did not know it - chapter XNUMX - a total mess in Jerusalem

The priesthood as you did not know it - chapter XNUMX - a total mess in Jerusalem

The model of the Second Temple from Holyland - now in the Israel Museum

After the fall of the Galilee and the collapse of the entire system of rebellion against the Romans in the northern region, the campaign was concentrated in Jerusalem. This was properly prepared for the rebellion by fortifying the wall, accumulating weapons, training fighters, stockpiling food and water by the moderate government of the rebellion that arose in the summer of 66 CE. But this did not take into account the sublime, almost genius, ability of the Romans in conducting a siege war, and more than that, the government of the moderate rebellion did not take into account the takeover of the terrorist gangs, of the groups of delusional fanatics, who would invade Jerusalem and wage a war of hatred between them, or else it is a war of "hate - The free one."

The fall of the Galilee brought to Jerusalem the groups of zealots fleeing from the Romans straight from the north. Their concentration in Jerusalem was accompanied by a sense of a tremendous message of the apocalyptic, eschatological war - the "good" versus the "bad". The "bad guys" are the Romans?! Absolutely not. The "bad guys" are all the gangs themselves that stood against each other: the people of Shimon Bar Giora against the group of Yochanan from Gush Halab, and the latter against Elazar ben Hananiah. Also known was the group of Eleazar ben Shimon, who broke away from the faction of Shimon bar Giora and the group of Zechariah ben Amphiklos (Abaculos-Eoculus, who is told in the Talmudic literature that he initiated the cessation of the sacrifice for the emperor's peace in the temple, considering it a sign and a sign of the outbreak of the great rebellion), with the last two figures being among families of the priesthood. Each group took control of a different part of Jerusalem and each group believed that God was with them and the devil was with the rival.

About the groups of zealots, Yosef ben Matthieu often writes as follows: "(After filling their hands with the blood of their victims) ... they took in their hands the sentence to fill the hands of the high priests. They (the zealots) despised the houses of the ancestors, from which the high priests were chosen, suits in the law of inheritance, and set up nameless and dark priests for them, to find in them helpers for their abominations. Because the people who reached the top office without justice took it upon themselves to fulfill the will of the people, who filled their hands with it. In the language of gossip and slander, the Danes among the leaders of the people found their object in the quarrels of the people who stand up to them as Satan, and when the evil of their deeds to the people was full, their hearts became malicious to spoil the glory of God and to come with their impure feet (bathed in blood) to the Holy Temple" (Wars of the Jews XNUMX:XNUMX ').

This is because the rebels "forgot" who is the predator and who is the friend. Purity and morality will be mixed with them, not to mention the loss of tactical moves. They trampled on the custom of priestly succession and undermined the dignity of the priesthood by supposedly democratizing the election (made the election to be governed by the casting of lots), but the large number of contestants, most of whom are not at all worthy of the position and lack any experience and knowledge, added more priest and priest to the filth the holy And Yosef ben Matthew adds in this regard: "They based this evil act on an ancient law, saying that even before this the high priests were chosen according to fate, and they really thought that this would abolish the custom and seize power for them, by establishing in their hands the highest office" - referring to the office of the priesthood the big one It should be noted here that their reliance on some kind of ancient custom was fundamentally false, but that in order to create legitimacy for their actions, the Noel cling to the horns of the altar of alleged mythology.

And what did those zealots rely on? On the Book of Chronicles XNUMX:XNUMX which lists the "divisions of the sons of Aaron", that is, the families of the high priesthood, and indeed the operation of the lottery is mentioned there, but what, it is related to the order of work of the families in the Tabernacle, when the first was the Yehoirib family, the second - Yedaiah, the third - Harim, the fourth - Shaorim and so on. There is no connection between the matter of the lottery here and the priesthood lottery and priesthood servants. Therefore, the use made by the zealots of this ancient procedure has the purpose of undermining the work in the temple and gaining political achievements in Jerusalem, which is on the verge of total destruction.

And Yosef ben Matatiyo continues and says: "That's why (the zealots) called one of the departments of the high priesthood and its name is Yakin (in another wording - "Yakim" is the 12th guard of the priesthood) and they chose a high priest for them by lot. And in this case, the fate was won - and in this we can see the full extent of their wickedness - one man named Pinchas (originally "Peni", "Fenias") ben Shmuel from Kfar Hefta, who did not come out (was not a descendant) of the high priests nor did he understand what the high priesthood was, because he was A farmer works the land. However, they (the zealots) reluctantly dragged him from the field and as the act of playing in the Vision House (the theater) decorated him with a foreign mask (a cynical allusion to the prohibition in the Ten Commandments regarding "be killed and not be transgressed") and clothed him in the holy clothes and taught him the act of his work at the time of Mitzvah. In fact, this scoundrel was in their eyes a mirage and a children's laugh. However, the eyes of the other priests, who were standing at a distance (literally), shed tears at the sight of the engendered law and they sighed over the holy office being trampled under foot" (The Jewish Wars, XNUMX:XNUMX). Similar, apparently or not apparently, because there is no need to exaggerate words and interpretation about the difficult phenomenon that was revealed to our eyes, as we thought that here and there the bottom of the pit would reach, but we were wrong.

And perhaps the last straw was turning the temple into the exclusive possession of the fanatics, politically and worse - ritually. In any case, these moves only strengthened the political and economic status of the fanatical groups.

The Jerusalem leadership, and its leaders - Gurion ben Yosef and (Rabbi) Shimon ben Gamaliel - gathered the Jerusalem public and scolded them for their indifference. They encouraged him to take revenge on the delusional fanatics and cleanse the Temple of their carnage. They were joined by the high priests Yehoshua ben Gamla and Hanan ben Hanan. Hanan ben Hanan turned to the public and said with great pathos: "May I die before my eyes see the house of God filled with all these abominations, before they are the holy places, through which no foreigner shall pass (a reference to the bar that the foreign rulers backed the instruction against illegal entry into the Temple , as appears in the revealed address), to Mirams at the feet of murderers. But here I stand before you in the garb of the high priesthood and bear the great and honorable name among all the honorable names (the name of God written on the tzitz, or the very honorable name of the high priest). I am alive and I must preserve my soul, and I did not get to die in a good name in my old age. And I am also alone, I was left like a juniper in the prairie, is it true that I should spare my soul alone for the glory of God, for what would be the danger for me to prolong my days in the battle with a lost people, whose wet eyes see the troubles and whose heart is dead in his midst feeling his torments and pains. You are busy all day and tend to suffer like you. You beat and tear and carry your flesh and no one sighs at the level for the blood of the murdered. Woe to me for this malicious government! But why should I spare the Zadim? Is it because of your fault and the length of your nose that you grow up and become brave! Both when they were founded on you for the first time, when you were still a few, you saw their deeds and did not pay attention, you deafened them and allowed them to increase their number, and even when they girded on swords, you clasped your hands and caused their weapons of war in front of you. And under the fortifying of their spirit in the first place, when they poured scorn and reproaches on your brothers (and in another way - on the benefactors), you did not look at the work of their hands, and in this you encouraged the villains to commit acts of violence and robbery, and when they put houses to destruction, no one opened his mouth, and therefore it was easy They can also capture the owners of the houses. And after that they were carried away at the head of the streets, and they had no helper. That's why the scoundrels added courage to torture in prisons the people you betrayed... because you were like a herd of ignorant animals... and none of you raised a voice or waved our hands. Therefore put your mouths in the dirt and compare it to the sight of the temple being trampled underfoot, because you have extended the steps of these robbers to couch malice upon malice, and you do not have the right to complain about the elevation of their eyes, because they increased in their actions, if they had found something great for them in the temple to destroy it. And here they are now governors on the heights of the city, because the Temple Mount will not be called the name of a temple on this day, but the name of a citadel or a fortress... and what is your advice this time and how will you calm your spirits? Do you bear your face to help the Romans, because they will come to redeem your temple?! ..." (The Wars of the Jews in Romans XNUMX:XNUMX).

Hanan's dramatic speech went on and on and intensified line by line. It is not known whether this is his own speech or a later rewriting of Josephus. In any case, the high priest presents, one by one, the injustices that the zealots caused to the city of Jerusalem, the temple and the inhabitants in general. He does not mince words and courageously comes out as a buffer against the scum and injustice of the fanatics. He goes on to say emphatically that the zealots are the real enemies of Judah in general and Jerusalem in particular, and in front of them the malice and the very enmity of the Romans towards Judah and the Jews is whitened and whitened. Hanan glides with great pathos and places the blame on the shoulders of the people who in their passivity collaborated with the fanatics and brought Jerusalem to its catastrophic state and especially the temple.

Hanan was not satisfied with his flame-throwing speech, but called and urged the residents of Jerusalem to strike the fanatics. Masses of residents showed up to the resistance flag. These outnumbered the Zealots, but they lacked weapons and experience in combat and therefore their attempt was doomed from the start to failure, except that the motivation that Hanan the High Priest sowed among the public did its work and the masses of his supporters pushed the Zealots and tried them to the depths of the Temple Mount. Hanan avoided confronting them at the gates of the temple (and perhaps by doing so he missed the salvation of the temple. "He thought" - according to Yosef ben Matatiyo - "that even if he wins, he will violate the commandments of the Torah, by bringing the people to the gates of the temple before it is sanctified" (Wars of the Jews) Ibid., XNUMX).In other words, those who were jealous of the holy place and those who hated it destroyed Jerusalem, while Hanan was not ready to accept the possibility of saving the temple at the cost of his own sacrifice by the people. And this is the tragic-cynical "loop" in the whole story under discussion.

Yohanan of Gush Halab tried to use the above situation to his advantage. He positioned himself among the ranks of the fanatics on their various factions and slandered Hanan the high priest and also accused him that all his intentions were political, and more than that - Hanan's desire, according to Yochanan of Gush Halab, is to call the Romans so that they can conquer the city - an abominable lie that cannot be compared to him because in any case it is It was the intention of the Romans, and no leader Kahanan would hasten from here or postpone from there the breaking of the Romans into the city. The Roman army procrastinated because its commander, Vespasian, was alert and attentive to the messages that were supposed to arrive from Rome regarding the chances of his hardening, and also Jerusalem was naturally involved in a fratricidal war of fanatics against fanatics, and the Romans had no choice but to wait for the internal, immanent, collapse of Jerusalem.

This incident increased the anger of Eleazar ben Shimon and Zechariah ben Amphiklos - from the families of the priesthood that were the heads of zealots - to commit a horrific crime: they summoned the Reds to the city in order to massacre the moderates, the pursuers of peace and the opponents of the rebellion, all in the name of fear of the city being handed over to the Romans by Hanan ben Hanan the high priest. This is to point out that the fanatics actually ruled the city. Hanan ben Hanan sought to speak to the hearts of the Adomim to dissuade them from the expected criminal act, and made him Yehoshua ben Gamla, who was the elder of the high priests, when he stood at the top of one of the towers of the Jerusalem wall and gave a long and dramatic speech to the Adomim. In this speech he sought to reject one by one all the claims of the fanatics against Hanan the high priest and to make it clear to the Reds what a bad and evil deed they might commit in the city and bring to Jerusalem and the temple. He suggested that they enter the city and conduct a serious and thorough investigation regarding the accusations against Hanan as if he had sent angels to the Romans regarding his "criminal" plan.

Shimon ben Katla, one of the leaders of the Reds, replied to Yehoshua ben Gamla in a harsh and blunt tone, accusing all the peace-seekers and moderates of treason and therefore the Reds will not return their swords to rest.

The Reds therefore entered the city under the auspices of the zealots and with their encouragement, when they, the zealots, sawed off the entrance gates with the help of the giant saws they looted, no less and no more, than from the temple itself. The Reds staged a terrible massacre in the streets of the already desperate and destroyed city and the rivers of blood of the murdered could not be drained and absorbed. The balance of the massacre reached 8500 (an excessive and extreme number, but it has something to testify to the intensity of the bacchanalia that raged in the city).

"However, in all this murder, not one of the Reds returned (after the acts of murder they committed even in the temple of his body). They set their sights on the city and raided the houses and sent their hand in looting... and asked to (capture) the high priests... soon they caught them (the priests and their supporters) and Shatum and stood on the hollows and buried themselves in (the body of) Hanan (the high priest) because of the people's love for him and Joshua Ben Gamla (he is also one of the high priests) ... and in the strength of their wickedness they did not allow the bones of the dead to be buried ... and I am not mistaken in my words, because with Hanan's death the downfall of the city began, because the wall of the Jewish fortress collapsed and the evil came to them on the day when their eyes saw the high priest, standing over them for salvation, We were slaughtered in Rosh Chutzot... (And Yosef ben Matthiyahu extols the character of Hanan the high priest)... and it can truly be said that if Hanan had remained alive, the Jews would have made peace with the Romans" (Wars of the Jews XNUMX:XNUMX:XNUMX).

The hindsight of Josephus is not a kind of unnecessary amusement, because it was clear to anyone with sense at that time, that it was the madness of the zealots that led to the tragic fate of Jerusalem in particular and of Judah in general.

The war of brothers, the war of all against all, when the zealots win over the work of death, intensified in Jerusalem every day. The zealots would throw catapult stones at their opponents and some of the catapult stones fell in the temple, right next to the altar and caused the death of many Jews - priests and the rest of the people - who frequented the holy place - "... (and the blood of) the priests and the people mixed together..." - as Joseph ben Matthieu confessed. This commotion resulted in almost a complete shutdown of ritual activity.

Shimon bar Giura, one of the leaders of the zealots, tortured and tortured to death Matathiahu ben Beytus, one of the high priests, who inclined the heart of the people to agree to Shimon's words to come into contact with the Reds. Shimon decided that Matthias was a political risk for him, he stuck the guilt of collaboration with the Romans on his forehead - a guilt that is easy to prove because the high priesthood together with the Jerusalem aristocracy opposed the rebellion and showed a completely moderate position, a distinct peace-seeker. Shimon demanded to judge him, when he himself sits in court and prevents Matthew from any legal defense. The sentence was expected - a death sentence imposed on Matthieu and his three sons. And not only that, but Matthew begged to execute him in front of his sons and his request was contemptuously rejected by Shimon bar Giura. The terrible slaughter was carried out in front of the Roman camp, where along with Matthew and his sons, Hananiah ben Masbal the priest, the scribe of the council, and fifteen of Jerusalem's nobles were also slaughtered.

On the 70th of Tammuz, on the Sabbath of 516 AD, there were no priests left worthy to perform the work of the perpetual sacrifice, the one that was conducted every day in the Temple, starting with its first dedication in XNUMX BC. Priests were murdered and slaughtered and many others were not worthy to conduct the ceremony and quite a few priests, some of them high priests took advantage of a fitness hour and fled to the Roman camp. Such was the tragic situation in Jerusalem on the eve of the temple's fall and destruction.

Titus appealed to Yohanan of Gush Halab, the extreme zealot who controlled the temple precincts, through the mediation of Yosef ben Mattatiahu, and begged him to lay down his weapon before he was swallowed up by the temple, and for that Yohanan bore heavy responsibility. And if, in any case, Yohanan chooses to continue fighting, why would he do so in the area of the temple and not go face to face with the Romans? Yohanan's answer was decisive - it is right to continue fighting even at the cost of losing the temple. Titus managed to reprimand John for defiling the temple by his very presence there, and assured him that he was right because no Roman would dare to defile the temple if and when Jerusalem falls into the hands of the Romans.

And here it turns out that the Jews actually started the fire in the temple, so that it would not fall into the hands of the Romans and in order to cause the Romans approaching the temple confusion and a feeling of terror. The arsonists were none other than the fanatical rebels mainly from Camp Yohanan from Gush Halab.

A few priests who remained in the smoky and burning temple threw the "skewers" at the Romans - pointed stakes made of lead that were installed on the roof of the temple to prevent birds such as pigeons or crows from contaminating the roof. Other priests had no choice but to jump into the flames and were burned to death, including Meir ben Belga and Yosef ben Dalia.

The series of articles "The Priesthood You Didn't Know" by Dr. Yehiam Sorek