Old City Tiyul - Second Temple

Old City Tiyul: The Herodian Mansions and The Southern Wall

A few weeks ago we went on a Tiyul to the Old City of Jerusalem, focusing on the Herodian Mansions and the Southern Wall.  

In the Herodian Mansions lived the social group called the Saducces. They were on good terms with the Romans and although the Temple and the Jewish Religion was the center of their life, they still were quite assimilated with Roman culture. In these Mansions we found evidence of their higher social class as well as both Jewish and Roman culture. We saw their social class i the size of the houses. Common in most of the Mansions were a spacious expanse for the time. Also, most, if not all, of the houses had multiple rooms and luxuries that poorer classes could not afford such as a personal bathtub. Their connection to the Jewish religion was seen in that there were also Mikvahs in the houses of the Saducces. The Saduccees were the priestly class of Jerusalem in the time of the Beit Hamikdash. Because of this they needed to go in and out of the temple a lot. For the purity of the temple they had to keep themselves spiritually clean at all times so they installed mikvahs in their houses. The presence of Roman culture in their own lives could be seen with some of the accommodations in their house which remain. These include mosaics on the floors and walls as well as frescos, plaster with paint designs over it, and Roman-style columns.  

At the Southern Wall, we studied the Beit Hamikdash and the role it played in society when it was in use for sacrifices and such. The Temple was in use for the whole nation during the 3 main festivals of the year, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. For these 3 festivals, pilgrims from all across the land of Israel would come from wherever they lived to make a sacrifice at the temple. The process of making a sacrifice was a long arduous one (It was spelled out pretty well in that weird video with the cup obsession if that helps jog your memory).  It started back in whatever village or place the pilgrims came from. They would stock up on food and make a weeks long journey to Jerusalem. Upon arriving, their one concern is being able to sacrifice. The first requirement for a sacrifice is a half shekel tax which must be paid. They pay this tax, then buy an animal to sacrifice. After buying an animal, the pilgrims would travel to the mikvah on the western side of the complex. We actually followed in the footsteps of our ancestors and went in this mikvah on this Tiyul. Following the MIkvah, the pilgrims would join thousands of other pilgrims on the steps of the Southern Wall, slowly walking up the awkwardly spaced steps to the 3 Arches which acted as entryways. A fun fact about these doors which we learned is that the majority of people entered through these 3 Arches in the Southern wall but people who were in mourning or exiled from their communities entered through a separate door, those who had either lost someone or lost themselves. Once through the arches, a priest would say a prayer and then you would offer your sacrifice. From there you would then exit the complex and join the community once again. This community is what made these sacrifices even more special than just the opportunity to sacrifice. Tens of thousands of people would come to the Beit Hamikdash, people from all different backgrounds, all different places, for the same purpose. This created a massive kehilah kidoshah, a special community of which everyone in the nation was part.

The process of making a sacrifice must have been awe inspiring. Coming to the Temple, a massive structure, the holiest place in the world, with thousands of other pilgrims just like you, juxtaposed with the small village lifestyle of most people during that time, would have been almost unbelievable to experience (once again I’d like to take your memories back to the weird cup-obsessed video because it does a very good job of capturing the momentousness of the occasion). Thinking about this process in the context of today, we share a similar experience in that each time we pray, we pray towards Jerusalem and towards the Temple Mount, spiritually traveling to Jerusalem as a community, just as our ancestors did physically. This Tiyul made me realize how important the Temple Mount is to Judaism. We, as an international Jewish community all pray facing the same place, all metaphorically praying together.

Our glorious leader Evan, said to us that the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE by the Romans is the most central event in Jewish history. This set back the Judaism of the time a massive amount and effectively changed the center of worship from the Temple to the Synagogue with Rabbinical Judaism as the Pharisees were the group of Jews which continued. With this tragedy, the practice of Judaism at the time took a massive step backwards. Do you think that Judaism has "recovered," from the destruction of the temple with the form that modern Judaism has taken?