Sin During the Days of the Second Temple

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Rebbi Simeon ben Yohai stated: Aqiba my teacher used to preach, there appeared a star out of Jacob there appeared Koziba out of Jacob. When Rebbi Aqiba saw Bar Koziba he said, this is King Messias. Rebbi Joḥanan ben Torta said to him, Aqiba! Grass will grow from your jaws and still David’s son (still has to) [will not have] come. Rebbi Joḥanan said, the voice of Emperor Hadrian killing eighty thousand myriads at Bettar. Rebbi Joḥanan said, eighty [thousand] couples of horn-blowers were encircling Bettar, each of which was commanding several army units…

Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 4:5:13

Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we break faith with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors? Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned what is holy to, and desired by, GOD—and espoused daughters of alien gods. May GOD leave to any man who has done this no descendants dwelling in the tents of Jacob and presenting offerings to GOD of Hosts. And this you do as well: You cover the altar of GOD with tears, weeping, and moaning…

Malachi 2:10-17

A son should honor his father, and a slave his master. Now if I were a father, where would be the honor due Me? And if I were a master, where would be the reverence due Me?—said GOD of Hosts to you, O priests who scorn My name. But you ask, “How have we scorned Your name?” You offer defiled food on My altar. But you ask, “How have we defiled You?” By saying, “GOD’s table can be treated with scorn.” When you present a blind animal for sacrifice—it doesn’t matter! When you present a lame or sick one—it doesn’t matter! Just offer it to your governor: Will he accept…

Malachi 1:6-14

Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel of the family of Elam spoke up and said to Ezra, “We have trespassed against our God by bringing into our homes foreign women from the peoples of the land; but there is still hope for Israel despite this. Now then, let us make a covenant with our God to expel all these women and those who have been born to them, in accordance with the bidding of the Lord and of all who are concerned over the commandment of our God, and let the Teaching be obeyed. Take action, for the responsibility is yours and we are with you. Act with resolve!”…

Ezra 10:2-19

We find that the Temple was destroyed the first time only because they were active idolators, and uncoverers of nakedness, and spillers of blood. And so the second time. Rebbi Joḥanan ben Torta said, we find that Shiloh was destroyed only because they slighted the holidays and desecrated the sancta. We find that the Temple was destroyed the first time only because they were active idolators, and uncoverers of nakedness, and spillers of blood. But of the second we know that they toiled in the Torah, were careful about the commandments and tithes, and every good custom was in them…

Jerusalem Talmud Yoma 1:1:20

Another matter, “The advantage of land” – the Holy One blessed be He said to the prophets: ‘If you do not perform my mission, I have many messengers.’ That is, “the advantage of land”; I can accomplish My mission with anything. Rabbi Aḥa said: The Holy One blessed be He accomplishes His mission with anything, even by means of a snake, even by means of a frog, even by means of a scorpion, and even by means of a gnat. The wicked Titus entered the chamber of the Holy of Holies with his sword drawn in his hand, and he stabbed the curtain…

Vayikra Rabbah 22:3

Another matter: “The advantage of land [is in every way]…” – the Holy One blessed be He said to the prophets: What do you believe, that if you do not go on My mission that I have no emissary? That is, “the advantage of land is in every way”; I can accomplish My mission with anything. Rabbi Aḥa said: Even by means of a snake, by means of a scorpion, by means of a gnat, and even by means of a frog.
The wicked Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a drawn sword in his hand and he cut the curtain. He seized two prostitutes in his hand and engaged in relations with them atop the altar…

Kohelet Rabbah 5:8:4

“The Lord demolished and had no compassion for all the abodes of Jacob; He destroyed, in His ire, the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He brought them to the ground; He profaned a kingdom and its princes” (Lamentations 2:2).
“The Lord demolished and had no compassion for all the abodes of Jacob.” Rabbi Pinḥas said in the name of Rabbi Hoshaya: There were four hundred and eighty synagogues in Jerusalem. From where [is that derived]? “Filled with [mele’ati] justice” (Isaiah 1:21), meleti is written…

Eikhah Rabbah 2:4

However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, and that they did not perform the sinful acts that were performed in the First Temple, why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed due to the fact that there was wanton hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of wanton hatred is equivalent to the three severe transgressions: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed.

Yoma 9b:8

You offer on My altar, etc., yet you say And if you say. “How have we defiled You?” How have we defiled for You the bread of Your altar? I reply to you that, in this manner you have defiled Me. By your saying, “God’s table is contemptible.” They would look with contempt on sharing equally the meal offerings and the hallowed foods, and they would say, “Since we may not share a meal offering for a meal offering, or a sacrifice for a sacrifice, it is too much bother and toil to divide each meal offering for the olive-sized piece or the bean-sized piece that is apportioned to…

Rashi on Malachi 1:7:1

Abba Ḥanan says: The verse states: “Who is strong like You, O Lord?” (Psalms 89:9). Who is strong and indurate like You, as You hear the abuse and the blasphemy of that wicked man and remain silent. Similarly, the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught that the verse: “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods [elim]” (Exodus 15:11), should be read as: Who is like You among the mute [ilmim], for You conduct Yourself like a mute and remain silent in the face of Your blasphemers…

Gittin 56b:10-57a:23

and that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain with fire offerings with which I am not placated, for I have no desire in you. And our Sages expounded in Torath Kohanim (7: 154): If a person says to his friend, “Close this door for me,” he does not demand compensation for it; [or if he says,] “Light this candle for me,” he does not request compensation for it. But you - who is there among you who closed My doors, gratis? Neither did you kindle fire on My altar gratis. Surely, things that are customarily done for compensation you did not do gratis…

Rashi on Malachi 1:10:2

There was an incident involving a certain man in Jerusalem, who made a feast. He said to a member of his household: ‘Go and bring me my friend, Kamtza.’ He went and brought his enemy, bar Kamtza. He entered and sat among the guests. [The host] entered and found him among those invited to the feast. He said to him: ‘You are my enemy, and you are sitting in my house? Get up and leave my house.’ He said to him: ‘Do not shame me, and I will give you the cost of my meal.’ He said to him: ‘You will not recline [at the feast]…

Eikhah Rabbah 4:3

It was taught in the baraita: “That they must perform”; that is referring to acting beyond the letter of the law, as Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Jerusalem was destroyed only for the fact that they adjudicated cases on the basis of Torah law in the city. The Gemara asks: Rather, what else should they have done? Should they rather have adjudicated cases on the basis of arbitrary decisions [demagizeta]? Rather, say: That they established their rulings on the basis of Torah law and did not go beyond the letter of the law.

Bava Metzia 30b:14

But [first] I will step forward to contend against you, and I will act as a relentless accuser against those who have no fear of Me: Who practice sorcery, who commit adultery, who swear falsely, who cheat laborers of their hire, and who subvert [the cause of] the widow, orphan, and stranger, said GOD of Hosts. For I am GOD—I have not changed; and you are the children of Jacob—you have not ceased to be. From the very days of your ancestors you have turned away from My laws and have not observed them…

Malachi 3:5-15

A son was born to him on the Ninth of Ave and they did fast. His daughter died on Ḥanukkah and they lit lights. His wife sent and told him, instead that you conquer the barbarians come and conquer the Jews who revolted against you. He intended to come in ten days and came and found them occupied [in the Torah with the verse:] He will carry against you a people from far away, from the ends of the earth, etc. He asked them, with what were you occupied. They answered him, with such-and-such. He said to them, this man is he since he intended to come in ten days but came in five…

Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:1:6

“For these I weep, my eye, my eye sheds water; for a comforter, restorer of my soul, has grown distant from me; my children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed” (Lamentations 1:16).
“For these I weep.” Vespasian filled three ships with the prominent ones of Jerusalem, in order to place them in the brothels of Rome. They stood and said: ‘Is it not enough that we angered Him in His Temple, that [we shall do so] even outside of Israel?’ They said to the women: ‘Do you consent to this?’ They said to them: ‘No…

Eikhah Rabbah 1:45

Now lift up your eyes and see Yet another is coming forth, that will come out from the Holy of Holies.

Rashi on Zechariah 5:5:1

The students of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai asked him: For what reason were the enemies of Jewish people, a euphemism for the Jewish people themselves when exhibiting behavior that is not in their best interests, in that generation deserving of annihilation? He, Rabbi Shimon, said to them: Say the answer to your question yourselves. They said to him: It is because they partook of the feast of that wicked one, Ahasuerus, and they partook there of forbidden foods. Rabbi Shimon responded: If so, those in Shushan should have been killed as punishment…

Megillah 12a:9-10

Also at that time, I saw that Jews had married Ashdodite, Ammonite, and Moabite women; a good number of their children spoke the language of Ashdod and the language of those various peoples, and did not know how to speak Judean. I censured them, cursed them, flogged them, tore out their hair, and adjured them by God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters in marriage to their sons, or take any of their daughters for your sons or yourselves. It was just in such things that King Solomon of Israel sinned! Among the many nations there was not a king like him…

Nehemiah 13:23-28

Relatedראו גם

Nehemiah

Ezra

Destruction of Jerusalem

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