The Situation during Bayit Sheni vs. the Situation Today
In class we looked at seven reasons given by Abarbanel as to why the Jews thought less of the second Mikdash period. Choose two of those reasons and discuss whether and how they may or may not apply today.
"They realized that they were “prey” to the surrounding nations." This is a significant reason for the Jews to feel less secure about the second bais hamikdosh then the first. This defiantly applies to us today. People can say that we should feel a sense of relief and be happy that we have Israel. But at the same time, we are getting terrorized in Israel. All the surrounding counties hate Israel. Lebanon, Syria and Jordan would not mind is Israel was destroyed. It is hard to feel a full sense of ease in having Israel while we are being destroyed at the same time. "There was no ruler of the house of David". This pertains to our time period as well. We do not have a set appointed leader that we all follow. We all have our own rabbis who we go ask questions to. This leads us to be divided. We all aren't doing the same thing. If we had a king then we will have a stronger sense of union.
"Not many people had left exile to come to Israel. Jews were outnumbered by the people who lived there and they had not much control over the land." This is a perfect example of the challenge we face today regarding Jews living in Galut. Even though millions of Jews live in Israel and millions have returned to the Land from Galut, there are still millions of Jews outside of Israel. The Jews, including ourselves, who live in diaspora live in places where we are outnumbered by the non-jewish citizens. In America, the Jews make up about 2.6% of the entire population. In the European Union, the Jews make up even less of the overall population. Since we are outnumbered, we do not have much power and we are vulnerable at times. In the time of the Second Beit Hamikdash, many people remained in Bavel like today many of us remain in countries all over the world and have not yet made the move to Israel.
The second reason is "They couldn’t feel the shechina. Things were missing in the second BHMK." Obviously we don't have to worry about things missing from the Beit Hamikdash, but we have to worry about something bigger: We are missing an entire Beit Hamikdash. As I said before, we are living among non-Jews, in secular society. It is hard to find that deep connection with G-d when you are living in the secular world surrounding by non-Jews. If we had a Beit Hamikdash now, I would assume that people would have an easier time feeling G-d's presence and developing a connection with Him.
"There was no one from Beit Dovid" We don't have any major king or king-like leader- someone we know we can trust- someone we follow because we know that this person was sanctioned by God. Whatever leadership we have is far from centralized, and sometimes we don't know who to trust. All of the Jewish people can't point to a person and say, "This person is the reason why we should return to Israel." Right now the Jews are very split up. Even among one sect of Judaism, there are still many different opinions and different leaders who disagree on some issues. Without a powerful central leadership, or voice, encouraging Jews to do something, fewer Jews will do it.
"They couldn't feel the shechina." This lack of the shechina was more difficult for the Jews back then because they were so close to the time period of the first BHMK, when the shechina's presence was so vivid. In today's society, we're not recently recovering from the destruction of any BHMK, and it's harder for us to even to define the word shechina. That's the problem. We are so far removed from the notion of the shechina because of these times. There are too many other options now. Before, the shecnina was more easily accessible; now, we have to seek it out. With all distractions of the 21st century, fewer and fewer people are seeking it out. But that doesn't stop them from saying they don't feel it.
1. The Shechina was not present - When the Jews were building the second Beit HaMikdash, one of the many reasons they were reluctant to use it was because they didn't feel Hashem's shechina, that was present in the first Beit HaMikdash. I think that this issue can still be prominent in today's society because we have the land of Israel, but we don't have the Beit HaMikdash which means Hashem's shechina is not there completely. While people do still go to the Kotel to pour their hearts out, there are probably some people in the world who won't because it isn't the actual Beit HaMikdash.
2. There wasn't a full return from Galut - When they were building the second Beit HaMikdash, they didn't have everyone who shared in the joy of building the first because either they were dead, or just didn't return. I think that this is very true still in today's society. One reason that we can't even build another Beit HaMikdash is that more than half of the Jews in existence are still in galut. It wouldn't feel right just building another Beit Hamikdash without the support of everyone.
1. "The people couldn't feel the שכינה." In my mind, this is one of the biggest issues today. Before the destruction of the first Beit Hamikdash, the people may have been religiously corrupted, but there was no doubt in their minds that G-d was there. Since the Churban, the direct link between the people and G-d was severed. With the building of the second Beit Hamikdash, the people tried to reforge the connection between them and G-d, but it was much harder to make that connection tangible. Today, after the destruction of both Batei Mikdash, we are so far removed that we really can't feel the shechina there. Sophie mentioned that people pour their hearts out at the Kotel because they believe that G-d is there, but many people can't feel that connection. We've all heard the statistics: Judaism will lose more people to assimilation in the coming years than it did during the Holocaust. This startling statistic, in my opinion, is partially caused by the fact that people no longer feel a connection with the G-d of their forefathers.
1. "There were still Jews living in exile voluntarily." This issue, interestingly, can stem from the previous issue. Only recently has the number of Jews living in Israel exceeded the number of Jews living in the diaspora. Again, how curious is this, seeing as Israel has been a country with a welcoming return policy for any Jew for the past 65 years. As I already said, assimilation is an increasingly large issue. The less of a connection the people have with Judaism, the less they want to return to Israel. On top of that, assimilated or not, the more comfortable people get in "exile," the less they want to return to Israel. This issue is incredibly important. The best hope for solving it is to motivate the our generation to move to Israel. After all, Israel is the Jewish state, not the "55% of Jews" state.
"They were prey to the surrounding nations." This definitely applies to today in that many nations want to wipe us off the map. Any opportunity they have, they try to destroy our nation and our land. Although the Holocaust seems like it's a part of our history, it's pretty recent. Jews are made fun of and tormented all around the world, and although we haven't experienced anything like the Holocaust in our generation, we know that other nations set out to destroy us. "The couldn't feel the shchina." During the 2nd BHMK, they couldn't feel the schina because it wasn't as apparent as it was during the days of the first BHMK. They felt removed from it, and nowadays we feel even more removed. It's hard to even grasp the concept of schina, let alone feel it. In this technological, physical driven 21st century world, it's impossible to even come close to feeling what even the people during the 2nd BHMK felt.
The people did not have a king from David- because they were without a king, they felt uncertain and lacking a guide. Today, we are still without a Davidic king,and the implications of this are strongly felt and far-reaching. We as a people are still not united under one leader, and still feel disjointed. There is also no one Jewish leader that all Jews are comfortable turning to.
They didn't have general settlement- All the people were not gathered together in one place. The Jewish people were scattered and, consequently, not united. Today, we are still scattered around the globe. We are not one strong unit in one place. Some people take this to mean that we should all be in Israel together, and many Jews make the move there to try to accomplish this mission. However, there are many that don't think this, or aren't able to go, and thus we are still separated.
1. They were under the rulership of the Persian King and they were scared that he would exile them again. While we have sovereignty in Israel, and we have no need to be afraid of being exiled by a ruling country, we are still very much under the control of other nations. For those of us who live in the Diaspora, we LITERALLY live under the control of a ruling power other than ourselves, and even in Israel, many things are influenced by pressures from other countries around the world. ___________
2. They saw that the people who came from Bavel was a small number and the Shomronim were very big and many people. There are many Jews in Israel now, perhaps more than there were when we had sovereignty there the first time around. In comparison, however, to the size of our Jewish population now, the percentage of people who did go back is like it was then: tiny. There are SO many more Jews outside of Israel, and like in the return we read about, that detracts from the return. (I don't know if I manged to articulate that clearly or not...) Israel is also surrounded by large Arab nations who want to wipe it off the map. It's a pretty valid reason to be scared of the nations already there, as the Jews then were of the Shomronim in their time.
1. The people were humiliated and mocked by other nations With the Jews, it was the enemies that were constantly getting them down and causing them to not want to build and they wouldn't. Today, it's not just with the nation, it's also with individuals. When you have enemies putting you down, it makes you feel smaller which makes you want to fight back less. Just like Bnei Yisrael, we are already small and we are surrounded by enemies in Israel taunting us, making things even worse for us and making us feel smaller than we already are.
2. They didn’t have a king I think the main problem with people today is not having a leader telling them what to do. Some people are too afraid to be the leader and if there's no leader, then they don't believe that they will have order and doing big things will be harder in their perspective because there is no one with a title leading them.
They were prey to the surrounding nations: The Jewish people felt vulnerable to the nations around them. They were not in a secure place and felt they could have been overtaken by their neighbors. This still applies today. Israel in 2014 is a strong nation. Israel is a developed nation with innovative technology and advanced security systems. Despite all of this, Israel is still at risk. There are 22 nations in the Arab world, and there is only one Israel. Many of those nations are set on wiping Israel off the map, and will not stop the fighting and the violence until they feel they have met their goal. Even outside of Israel, the Jewish people today face anti-semitism at every turn. This sentiment is very much relevant today, as it has been throughout the entire history of the Jewish people.
The people couldn't feel the Shechina: The Jews at the time of the second temple had a more difficult time connecting and feeling the holiness and glory of the temple. At the time, many of the Jewish people were still living in galut, and only a fraction had returned home to Israel. The Jews who had returned were facing tremendous challenges. Because of these circumstances, the people found it difficult to find the spiritual connection they had felt when everyone was united under the first temple. Similarly, today were find ourselves so distracted by the challenges we face as a people, that it has become very difficult to feel the shechina. The vast majority of the Jews today are secular and do not fully practice Judiasm as our nation once did. We are scattered across the globe, so it is very difficult to create a sense of unity that would help return that sense of shechina to our lives. Hopefully one day, when we are all gathered in Israel once again and have an even greater temple, we will feel the sense of shechina we so desperately need.
"They realized that they were “prey” to the surrounding nations." This is a significant reason for the Jews to feel less secure about the second bais hamikdosh then the first. This defiantly applies to us today. People can say that we should feel a sense of relief and be happy that we have Israel. But at the same time, we are getting terrorized in Israel. All the surrounding counties hate Israel. Lebanon, Syria and Jordan would not mind is Israel was destroyed. It is hard to feel a full sense of ease in having Israel while we are being destroyed at the same time.
ReplyDelete"There was no ruler of the house of David". This pertains to our time period as well. We do not have a set appointed leader that we all follow. We all have our own rabbis who we go ask questions to. This leads us to be divided. We all aren't doing the same thing. If we had a king then we will have a stronger sense of union.
"Not many people had left exile to come to Israel. Jews were outnumbered by the people who lived there and they had not much control over the land."
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect example of the challenge we face today regarding Jews living in Galut. Even though millions of Jews live in Israel and millions have returned to the Land from Galut, there are still millions of Jews outside of Israel. The Jews, including ourselves, who live in diaspora live in places where we are outnumbered by the non-jewish citizens. In America, the Jews make up about 2.6% of the entire population. In the European Union, the Jews make up even less of the overall population. Since we are outnumbered, we do not have much power and we are vulnerable at times. In the time of the Second Beit Hamikdash, many people remained in Bavel like today many of us remain in countries all over the world and have not yet made the move to Israel.
The second reason is "They couldn’t feel the shechina. Things were missing in the second BHMK." Obviously we don't have to worry about things missing from the Beit Hamikdash, but we have to worry about something bigger: We are missing an entire Beit Hamikdash. As I said before, we are living among non-Jews, in secular society. It is hard to find that deep connection with G-d when you are living in the secular world surrounding by non-Jews. If we had a Beit Hamikdash now, I would assume that people would have an easier time feeling G-d's presence and developing a connection with Him.
"There was no one from Beit Dovid"
ReplyDeleteWe don't have any major king or king-like leader- someone we know we can trust- someone we follow because we know that this person was sanctioned by God. Whatever leadership we have is far from centralized, and sometimes we don't know who to trust. All of the Jewish people can't point to a person and say, "This person is the reason why we should return to Israel." Right now the Jews are very split up. Even among one sect of Judaism, there are still many different opinions and different leaders who disagree on some issues. Without a powerful central leadership, or voice, encouraging Jews to do something, fewer Jews will do it.
"They couldn't feel the shechina."
This lack of the shechina was more difficult for the Jews back then because they were so close to the time period of the first BHMK, when the shechina's presence was so vivid. In today's society, we're not recently recovering from the destruction of any BHMK, and it's harder for us to even to define the word shechina. That's the problem. We are so far removed from the notion of the shechina because of these times. There are too many other options now. Before, the shecnina was more easily accessible; now, we have to seek it out. With all distractions of the 21st century, fewer and fewer people are seeking it out. But that doesn't stop them from saying they don't feel it.
1. The Shechina was not present - When the Jews were building the second Beit HaMikdash, one of the many reasons they were reluctant to use it was because they didn't feel Hashem's shechina, that was present in the first Beit HaMikdash. I think that this issue can still be prominent in today's society because we have the land of Israel, but we don't have the Beit HaMikdash which means Hashem's shechina is not there completely. While people do still go to the Kotel to pour their hearts out, there are probably some people in the world who won't because it isn't the actual Beit HaMikdash.
ReplyDelete2. There wasn't a full return from Galut - When they were building the second Beit HaMikdash, they didn't have everyone who shared in the joy of building the first because either they were dead, or just didn't return. I think that this is very true still in today's society. One reason that we can't even build another Beit HaMikdash is that more than half of the Jews in existence are still in galut. It wouldn't feel right just building another Beit Hamikdash without the support of everyone.
1. "The people couldn't feel the שכינה." In my mind, this is one of the biggest issues today. Before the destruction of the first Beit Hamikdash, the people may have been religiously corrupted, but there was no doubt in their minds that G-d was there. Since the Churban, the direct link between the people and G-d was severed. With the building of the second Beit Hamikdash, the people tried to reforge the connection between them and G-d, but it was much harder to make that connection tangible. Today, after the destruction of both Batei Mikdash, we are so far removed that we really can't feel the shechina there. Sophie mentioned that people pour their hearts out at the Kotel because they believe that G-d is there, but many people can't feel that connection. We've all heard the statistics: Judaism will lose more people to assimilation in the coming years than it did during the Holocaust. This startling statistic, in my opinion, is partially caused by the fact that people no longer feel a connection with the G-d of their forefathers.
ReplyDelete1. "There were still Jews living in exile voluntarily." This issue, interestingly, can stem from the previous issue. Only recently has the number of Jews living in Israel exceeded the number of Jews living in the diaspora. Again, how curious is this, seeing as Israel has been a country with a welcoming return policy for any Jew for the past 65 years. As I already said, assimilation is an increasingly large issue. The less of a connection the people have with Judaism, the less they want to return to Israel. On top of that, assimilated or not, the more comfortable people get in "exile," the less they want to return to Israel. This issue is incredibly important. The best hope for solving it is to motivate the our generation to move to Israel. After all, Israel is the Jewish state, not the "55% of Jews" state.
"They were prey to the surrounding nations." This definitely applies to today in that many nations want to wipe us off the map. Any opportunity they have, they try to destroy our nation and our land. Although the Holocaust seems like it's a part of our history, it's pretty recent. Jews are made fun of and tormented all around the world, and although we haven't experienced anything like the Holocaust in our generation, we know that other nations set out to destroy us.
ReplyDelete"The couldn't feel the shchina." During the 2nd BHMK, they couldn't feel the schina because it wasn't as apparent as it was during the days of the first BHMK. They felt removed from it, and nowadays we feel even more removed. It's hard to even grasp the concept of schina, let alone feel it. In this technological, physical driven 21st century world, it's impossible to even come close to feeling what even the people during the 2nd BHMK felt.
The people did not have a king from David- because they were without a king, they felt uncertain and lacking a guide. Today, we are still without a Davidic king,and the implications of this are strongly felt and far-reaching. We as a people are still not united under one leader, and still feel disjointed. There is also no one Jewish leader that all Jews are comfortable turning to.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't have general settlement- All the people were not gathered together in one place. The Jewish people were scattered and, consequently, not united. Today, we are still scattered around the globe. We are not one strong unit in one place. Some people take this to mean that we should all be in Israel together, and many Jews make the move there to try to accomplish this mission. However, there are many that don't think this, or aren't able to go, and thus we are still separated.
1. They were under the rulership of the Persian King and they were scared that he would exile them again.
ReplyDeleteWhile we have sovereignty in Israel, and we have no need to be afraid of being exiled by a ruling country, we are still very much under the control of other nations. For those of us who live in the Diaspora, we LITERALLY live under the control of a ruling power other than ourselves, and even in Israel, many things are influenced by pressures from other countries around the world.
___________
2. They saw that the people who came from Bavel was a small number and the Shomronim were very big and many people.
There are many Jews in Israel now, perhaps more than there were when we had sovereignty there the first time around. In comparison, however, to the size of our Jewish population now, the percentage of people who did go back is like it was then: tiny. There are SO many more Jews outside of Israel, and like in the return we read about, that detracts from the return. (I don't know if I manged to articulate that clearly or not...) Israel is also surrounded by large Arab nations who want to wipe it off the map. It's a pretty valid reason to be scared of the nations already there, as the Jews then were of the Shomronim in their time.
1. The people were humiliated and mocked by other nations
ReplyDeleteWith the Jews, it was the enemies that were constantly getting them down and causing them to not want to build and they wouldn't. Today, it's not just with the nation, it's also with individuals. When you have enemies putting you down, it makes you feel smaller which makes you want to fight back less. Just like Bnei Yisrael, we are already small and we are surrounded by enemies in Israel taunting us, making things even worse for us and making us feel smaller than we already are.
2. They didn’t have a king
I think the main problem with people today is not having a leader telling them what to do. Some people are too afraid to be the leader and if there's no leader, then they don't believe that they will have order and doing big things will be harder in their perspective because there is no one with a title leading them.
They were prey to the surrounding nations:
ReplyDeleteThe Jewish people felt vulnerable to the nations around them. They were not in a secure place and felt they could have been overtaken by their neighbors. This still applies today. Israel in 2014 is a strong nation. Israel is a developed nation with innovative technology and advanced security systems. Despite all of this, Israel is still at risk. There are 22 nations in the Arab world, and there is only one Israel. Many of those nations are set on wiping Israel off the map, and will not stop the fighting and the violence until they feel they have met their goal. Even outside of Israel, the Jewish people today face anti-semitism at every turn. This sentiment is very much relevant today, as it has been throughout the entire history of the Jewish people.
The people couldn't feel the Shechina:
The Jews at the time of the second temple had a more difficult time connecting and feeling the holiness and glory of the temple. At the time, many of the Jewish people were still living in galut, and only a fraction had returned home to Israel. The Jews who had returned were facing tremendous challenges. Because of these circumstances, the people found it difficult to find the spiritual connection they had felt when everyone was united under the first temple. Similarly, today were find ourselves so distracted by the challenges we face as a people, that it has become very difficult to feel the shechina. The vast majority of the Jews today are secular and do not fully practice Judiasm as our nation once did. We are scattered across the globe, so it is very difficult to create a sense of unity that would help return that sense of shechina to our lives. Hopefully one day, when we are all gathered in Israel once again and have an even greater temple, we will feel the sense of shechina we so desperately need.