Faith and Nation in Judaism

Messianism in Jewish History

Jerusalem Mon 14th June 2010

A few weeks ago I stayed overnight with a group of tourists in Tiberias. Two other guides were there and we had dinner together. One of them, Giora,Uriah shalom, made a remark comparing the modern day settler movement, also known as the total Israel movement, to the zealots of Massada.

I hotly objected and we argued, in the sweltering Tiberias evening air, until late into the night. Giora had gone to bed and I continued with my colleague Uriah.

Here is an explanation why I objected. I think it’s important for everybody who supports Israel and the Jewish People to hear this explanation.

My main objection to this comparison is based on my conviction, the opposite of most opinions, that neither the settler movement nor the Zealots bring about catastrophe for the Jewish People in the form of the Diaspora.

I contend that movements like the Zealots or the Sicarii, which is the more correct name, in my opinion, as you see from the quote from Menahem Stern, are fanatic messianic movements which aren’t the cause of catastrophe but rather the result of it and the only solution to it.

As I mentioned to you I don’t consider the settler movement as a fanatic or messianic movement because it didn’t grow out of catastrophe. On the contrary it developed out of military success and in the first comfortable and secure environment which the Jewish People have enjoyed in many hundreds of years.

It may actually be on its way to causing a catastrophe because it didn’t grow out of and in response to catastrophe.

It’s clear from this quote from a lecture by Menahem Stern¹ that the Zealots instigated the rebellion against Rome in 66 and so were responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple

“According to the speech² his words are directed at events at the beginning of the great rebellion of 66 CE, but according to what was said earlier by Josephus, it appears that the intention here is to a declaration of the principle of the war against the Roman Empire, inspired by Judah the Golanite.

In the description of the various components of the mass of fighters against Rome, Josephus implies not only that the people of Massada were “Sicarii” but that also Elazar ben Jair was among those counted as the followers of Judah who roused the Jews to rebellion against the Romans, at the time when Quirenius came to conduct the census.

Josephus also clearly states that in those days of the census the “Sicarii” were united against those people who agreed to submit to the Romans and they behaved towards them as enemies’ because the Jews weren’t differentiated from non Jews, because they had foregone the freedom that was so precious to the Jews and they agreed to be slaves of the Romans.”

But I disagree with people who see their actions in the great revolt as the cause of the Diaspora.

That explanation of Jewish History might be a useful way for religious Jews, Christians and Moslems to explain the inevitability of the Diaspora as a sign of God’s will, but historically it’s simply incorrect.

On the contrary; I believe that many Jews left Judea before the rebellion because of almost unbearably cruel suffering under Roman rule.

There’s no doubt that many Jews left Judea, before, during and after the great revolt but most had every intention of returning² and there is plenty of evidence that many returned and that Jewish life thrived under Roman rule in Judah and the Galillee because of the rebellion, despite the fact that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed.

Both the Jews and the Romans suffered heavy losses and the rebellion caused the Romans to realize that only a sympathetic rule would succeed in Judea. If not there would be interminable war and the country would indeed be left totally desolate, something which the Romans did not want..

They relaxed their pressure on the Jews; instead of corrupt army generals as governors they appointed consuls who treated the population with greater consideration. It’s understandable that the Romans also sought to rule the colony of Judea in peace.

In the light of this more civilized, humane rule many Jews returned to their homes and life began to return to normal. The Jewish population must have even increased.

According to Oppenheimer³, by the time of the Bar Cochba rebellion Jews were the majority of the population in the Galillee and some villages were completely Jewish.

The situation was similar in Judah.

One can gauge the number of Jews in Judah from Dio Casius’⁴ account of achievements of the Roman army in the Bar Cochba rebellion:

“50 of their main fortresses and 985 of their most important villages were destroyed…..however many Romans also fell in this war, so in his report to the Senate he didn’t use the usual form of opening – If it goes well with you and your children I and my army are well.”

One can also gauge the strength of the Jews in another passage:

“One can say the whole world was in turmoil because of this, so Hadrian sent them the best of his commanders and at their head Julius Severus, who was sent from Britain, where he was governor, against the Jews.”

Certainly a small Jewish population couldn’t have constructed so many town and fortress and wrought such havoc on the Roman army.

It’s clear from the writings of Dio Cassius, Eusebius and the Talmud that after nearly 100 years of peaceful rule, Hadrian had decided on heavily increasing Roman control over Judea, even against the will of the Jews.

He increased the number of Legions in the country to 9, started building Aelia Capitolina, instead of Jerusalem, the temple of Jupiter, instead of the Jewish Temple, laws against circumcision, study of Torah, observance of Shabbat, celebrating festivals and many other repressive laws whose contravention was punishable in the most cruel ways. E.g. the ten martyrs, especially the death of Rabbi Akiva.

Although there is no proof concerning the date when these legions were brought to Judea or when Hadrians laws were made or when people were punished by death by torture.

Most scholars conclude, incorrectly, I believe, that these were all measures which Hadrian took to suppress the rebellion and to punish the Jews for their rebelliousness.

They debate interminably on this subject without reaching a conclusion.

I believe that the scholars are wrong; these measures were taken before the rebellion and they were so harsh that when someone suggested that a messiah has come to save them they grabbed at this hope, no matter how irrational it was. In fact the more irrational these promises the more people accepted them.

This is what lead to the formation of fanatic movements that promise miraculous salvation. They give people hope; they are so desperate they grab it even if , subconsciously they know it’s false.

Messianic movements typically develop in communities where the suffering is so bad that there is simply no escape by rational means.

We don’t lack examples of this throughout Jewish history from earliest times; Isaiah’s vision of the coming of a messiah is certainly the result of the terrible suffering he describes in the famous chapter 53. He isn’t talking about Jesus who is another example of a messiah in an age of suffering, he’s talking about a messianic era in his days to solve the suffering of his time.

The Macabees, lead by the messianic-like figure of Judah the Macabee also develops in a time of suffering under Seleucid rule.

The sicarii of the Great War against Rome are another example.

The Sabetean movement in Poland in the 18^th century developed in the face of terrible persecution of the Jews there.⁵

One could say that the immediate results of the Shabtai Zvi messianic movement were terrible anti-Semitism but it turned out to be the roots of the Jewish return to Israel.

Rabbi Akiva chooses Bar Cochba as messiah as an answer to the catastrophe of Hadrianic persecutions. The result is the Bar Cochba rebellion which is a debacle in terms of human suffering, but look at the positive long range results.

Once again, as in the first war against the Romans, although the fanatic warriors of Bar Cochba suffer terrible losses, in fact the area of Judah is left almost empty of population; the Galillee begins to thrive more than ever before and becomes the centre of Jewish life throughout the world.

The Romans embark on a regime of peaceful co-existence with the Jews. The economy is good because Roman roads criss-cross the country and goods are safely and easily transported from one part of the Roman world to another.

This period of prosperity which Judea enjoys and the central position it holds in the, now, international Jewish community is the result of the Bar Cochba rebellion and it lasts for more than 500 years.

Remember that they compiled Judaism’s main book of laws, the Mishna, in the Galillee during this period.

For sure Jews live in the Diaspora; Babylon is a great Jewish centre, Egypt begins to develop as a Jewish centre in the 9^th century. Syria, Spain, Morrocco, Algeria all become centres of Jewish learning, but the Jewish community of Judea surpasses all these.

This is why I object to the popular opinion, (unfortunately cited too often by Jews, some tour guides and our enemies) that the dispersion of the Jews started with the great war against Rome and that the Zealots should be held responsible for dispersion.

I believe that the dispersion really took place gradually, starting from the 7^th century and was the result of bad administration on the part of the new conquerors, the Moslem, who allowed the road system, established over hundreds of years by the Romans, to go to wrack and ruin and to become so unsafe that travel and hence the safe transport of goods from one country to the next, from one village to the next, became impossible and lead to the economic decline, which lead to the lack of motivation to cultivate the land; cultivation of crops and industrial production came to a standstill.

I personally think that if the Jews hadn’t rebelled against Rome Jerusalem and the Temple would have survived but the Jews as a nation would have lost ownership of their land, in the Galillee, and it would have become the property of non Jews who the Romans preferred because they had already started handing Jewish land to non Jews. This is the reason why the rebellion started in the Galilee, especially in the Golan.

The Jewish People survived. We didn’t simply accept suffering without rebelling against it. We didn’t let ourselves get wiped out.

Wishing you a great no news day.

Yours truly

Leon Gork

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1. Lecture המכון למדעי הידות 22 June 82, in

, מחקרים בתולדות ישראל בתקופהת הבית השני, אוסף מאמרים של מרכז זלמן שזר

2. Elazar’s farewell speech at Massada before they took their own lives.

2.The expression “Next year in Jerusalem” was certainly coined at this time.

3. Oppenheimer, The Galillee in the period of the Mishna.

4. Dio Cassius, The History of the Romans, book 69, 11-15

5. I heard this in a fascinating lecture by Prof. Rahel Elior, last night at the Leo Baeck Inst, on the subject of the Besht and his pupils. She described in vivid terms the terrible poverty and suffering of the Jews of Padoyah, where the Sabatean movement began in the beginning of the 18^th century.