Regardless of how well or poorly Jews have integrated into their host societies, in each generation, they have fasted over the two destructions of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE and 70 CE. And have prayed to be able to return. But there remains a division between those Jews who see the return as a miraculous manifestation of Messianism…
Month: July 2023
Jewish Torquemadas
Of all the Roman emperors, I would say that Constantine more than any other, was responsible indirectly for the two thousand years of Christian oppression of the Jews. If you are interested in the facts, I heartily recommend Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, by James Carrol. But I want to focus just on one serendipitous item. Constantine was an…
Fast of Tammuz
We have just had the Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. It commemorates the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the moment at which the Romans destroyed the walls and a prelude to the destruction of the Second Temple. Whereas the Fast of the Ninth of Av (in three weeks) the actual destruction of the two Temples, is the most important fast after Yom Kipur, the Fast of…