Rabbinic Constructions of the Past: The Destruction of the Temple and its Aftermath
The Rabbis Try to Make Sense of the Destruction
In an extended narrative in tractate Gittin of the Babylonian Talmud, the rabbis grapple with the events that led to the destruction of the Temple and its aftermath. While there are kernels of fact embedded in the story, it also includes imaginative and fantastical elements.
The rabbis struggled to explain why the Second Temple was destroyed. Tosefta Menaḥot 13:22 attributes the destruction to the people’s love of money and hatred of one another. (A later parallel text in b. Yoma 9b attributes it to “baseless hatred.”) The narrative in b. Gittin traces the destruction to a mix-up in which a servant mistakenly invites his master’s enemy bar Kamtza, rather than his friend Kamtza, to a feast. The master expels bar Kamtza from the party, and bar Kamtza, angry that the sages who were present did nothing to prevent his humiliation, informs on them to the Romans.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
For the Love of Money and Hatred of Fellows
Primary Source
Kamtza and bar Kamtza
Primary Source
The Famine in Jerusalem
b. Gittin 56a
Primary Source
Yoḥanan ben Zakkai’s Escape from Jerusalem
Primary Source
Titus Destroys the Temple and Challenges God
Related Guide
Ancient Rabbinic Constructions of the Past
Related Guide
The First Jewish Revolt
Trace the causes and battles of the First Jewish Revolt, from the siege of Jerusalem to the destruction of the Temple and the fall of Masada.
