Five Hundred Years of Communal Post-Temple Jewish Life in Palestine

Political scientist Shlomo Avineri argues that the resilience of the democratic tradition in modern-day Israel stems from centuries of communal self-governance experienced by Jews in the Diaspora. He writes that as a result of the lack of statehood and sovereignty the communities were ruled by its own members. I think it important to add that this description also applies to centuries of post-Temple communal self-governance by Jews in the Holy Land.

While Passover is over for this year, it is still useful to point out that the Passover Haggadah is a time capsule that describes the onset of a lengthy period of Jewish self-governance in Palestine. The clues lie in the identities of the nine sages mentioned in the Haggadah.

Five of them, Rabbis Tarfon, Elazar ben Azariah, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Yehoshua ben Hananiah and Akiva, spend a night together at the home of Akiva discussing the departure from Egypt. Additional sages mentioned in the Haggadah are: Shimon ben Zoma (who died before being ordained), Rabbi Yehudah (Yehudah bar Ilai, who provides an acronym for the ten plagues), Rabbi Yose the Galilean and Rabban Gamliel. Gamliel is credited with saying that whoever does not explain the three symbols of the Seder—the Passover offering, matzah and bitter herbs—has not fulfilled his duty. This Gamliel, Gamliel II, is the second of six Gamliels who were prominent Jewish leaders in Judea/Palestine from the first to the fifth centuries of the Common Era. The honorific Rabban was given to those who served as head of the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin (from the Greek synedrion, for assembly) was a Jewish legislative and judicial court that existed during the Second Temple period. While the existence of the Sanhedrin ended after the Temple’s destruction, a Sanhedrin (also called a Patriarchate), headed by rabbinic sages and having some political and judicial relevance, was reconstituted at Yavne and at locations in the Galilee. This court deliberated on matters of Jewish law, set the Jewish calendar and was the central body of authority of Jewish life. It was responsible for communicating with the Imperial authorities. At the end of the first century CE, for example, four of the sages mentioned—Gamliel II, Akiva, Elazar ben Azariah and Yehoshua ben Hananiah—voyaged to Rome to lobby on behalf of the Jews of Palestine.

Both Gamliel II and Elazar ben Azariah served terms as President (Nasi) of the Sanhedrin. Elazar ben Azariah assumed the position after Gamliel II was deposed by the Sanhedrin, for what was deemed imperious behavior. Gamliel was later reinstated. (This is not unlike contemporary politics!)

The nine sages were contemporaries. They were nine of the 120 Tannaim whose views are recorded extensively in the Mishnaic writings of the first and second centuries CE. The date of the meeting of the five sages portrayed in the Haggadah has to be between the first two (of four) Jewish revolts against Roman rule in Palestine. (A fifth major uprising, by Diaspora Jews against the Romans, the Kitos War, erupted in the years 115 to 117 CE in Egypt, Cyprus and Cyrenaica.)

The first Jewish revolt took place from 66 to 73 CE and ended with the fall of Masada. The details are well known from the writings of Josephus. It is common to describe the dispersion of the Jews and the subsequent 2000 years of wandering to the failure of this revolt. Yet, a significant number of Jews remained and prospered in the land for at least 600 years after the fall of Masada. Estimates suggest that after this first revolt the Jewish population in Palestine was two to two and one half million, about half the world total. Ironically, the same war that led to the destruction of the Temple and the end of Temple worship, also contributed to the ascendency of Rabbinic Judaism and the writing of the Talmud and Midrash.

Ironically, the same war that led to the destruction of the Temple and the end of Temple worship, also contributed to the ascendency of Rabbinic Judaism and the writing of the Talmud and Midrash.

The second rebellion against the Romans, the Bar Kochva Revolt, began in 132 CE and ended with the fall of the fortress of Betar in 136 CE. Until the 1960 discovery of correspondence between Bar Kochva and his subordinates, the main source of information about this conflict was provided by the Roman historian Cassius Dio. Significant numbers of Jews continued to live in Palestine (the name given by the Romans after the Bar Kochva rebellion) for a considerable time afterward. The reconstituted Sanhedrin was not discontinued until 358 CE (its last function contributed to establishing the Jewish calendar), and the Romans recognized a Jewish Patriarch in Palestine until 425 CE.

The intensity of post-Temple Jewish life in the Holy Land, especially in Galilee, is obvious from the number of archeological sites and synagogue ruins in evidence at sites such as Bar-am, Beit She’arim, Beit Alpha and Tzippori (the Roman Sepphoris). In “Twenty Centuries of Jewish Life in the Holy Land,” published in 1975 by the Israel Economist and edited by Dan Bahat, the remains of at least 80 synagogues, dating from the first to the sixth centuries CE, are mentioned. While many are concentrated in the Galilee, synagogue remains of this period have been found throughout the Holy Land, including east of the Jordan River.

There were two additional uprisings by Jews in Palestine against Roman rule. In both, the rebels tried to take advantage of Roman preoccupation with disturbances elsewhere. The Gallus Revolt, directed against Constantine Gallus, ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), took place from 351 to 352 CE. The focal points were at Tzippori and Tiberius, but there is evidence that it extended as far south as Lod (Lydda). The senior Roman commander, Ursicinus put down the revolt, killing thousands of rebels.

The last Jewish effort to gain autonomy in Palestine before modern times, the revolt against Heraclius, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, broke out in 614 CE in the midst of a broader conflict between Heraclius and the Sasanians (Persians). Twenty thousand to 26,000 Jewish men, recruited from a Jewish population estimated to range from 150,000 to 400,000, fought in this campaign. There were heavy losses on both sides. Initial Jewish successes, including a Jewish takeover of Jerusalem, came to naught in 617 CE when the Sasanians reneged on their support for the Jews.

Each of the four revolts failed and each loss resulted in a further reduction in the number of Jews living in the Holy Land. After the revolt against Heraclius, the Jews of Palestine no longer occupied a central position in the Jewish world.

The origins of the Passover Haggadah are uncertain, but it is believed that most of the version widely used today was compiled by the end of the Talmudic period (500-600 CE). The Haggadah reminds us that communal self-governance characterized the Jewish community in Palestine for more than half a millennium after the destruction of the Second Temple—an important point at a time when the historical connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish people is being widely denied.

Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Waterloo.