intended to increase the knowledge, interest, and anticipation of the reader, thereby hastening the realization of our hopes and prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash.

Paradigmata - or Portents of Doom
Civil war, mass murder and foreign invasion characterized the 27 year period between the death of good Queen Shlomtzion Alexandra to when Herod "the Great" succeeding in ensconcing himself on the throne of Judea. After the Queen's death, her two worthless sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II fought a bloody civil war and then, incredibly, invited the Roman general Pompey to "adjudicate" between them. Pompey, accompanied by his iron legions, did not need much urging. When the partisans of Hyrcanus treasonably opened the gates of Jerusalem to the Romans (63 BCE, over 130 years before the Churban), Aristobulus' stalwarts fortified themselves on Har HaBayit. Once in Jerusalem, Pompey "brought mechanical engines and battering rams from Tyre and …battered the Temple with stones …the priests were not at all hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear during the siege, but did still twice a day …offer sacrifices on the Altar; nor did they omit these sacrifices, if any melancholy incident happened because the stones that were thrown among them. (Upon entering the Mikdash) …the enemy then fell upon them (the Kohanim) and cut the throats of those who were in the Temple. Yet those who offered the sacrifices could not be compelled to run away, neither by the fear they were in for their own lives, nor by the number that were already killed, thinking it better to suffer whatever came upon them …than to omit anything that their laws required of them... But now all was full of slaughter… and no small enormities were committed about the Temple itself… Pompey went into it, and not a few of those who were with him also, and saw all that which it was unlawful for any other men to see but only the High Priests. ...Thus we lost our liberty and became subject to the Romans" (Antiquities XIV:4). And even after the sack of Jerusalem and the Mikdash, thousands more Jews died in subsequent battles and even more in Roman reprisals. But finally to actually "crown" their man "king", the Romans had to storm Jerusalem yet again.

After a five-month siege, the walls were breached, "and upon the pouring in of the (Roman) army, there was slaughter of vast multitudes everywhere by reason of the rage the Romans were in because of the length of the siege… so (the Jews) were cut to pieces in great multitudes, as they were crowded together in narrow streets, and in the houses, or were running away to the Temple; nor was there any mercy showed either to infants, or to the aged, or to the weaker sex… nobody (no Roman) could be persuaded to withhold his right hand from slaughter… they killed people of all ages like madmen" (Wars I:18). But the subjugation of Jerusalem by Pompey, and the subsequent crowning of Herod as King of Judea, was only the first of a series of catastrophes that inexorably led to the final apocalypse of the Churban.

Known in history as a master builder, Herod "was… the most barbarous of tyrants who ever sat on a throne. He had slain men innumerable, and the lot of those which survived made them envy those who were slain. He not only tortured his subjects individually but oppressed entire cities…" (Wars II 6:2). There were so many murders that the venerable Mitzva D'oraita of Egla Arufa (Devarim 21:1-9) 'ceased.' (Sotah 9:9). The Gemara explained "that the rite of Egla Arufa was only performed in a case of doubt; but when murders multiplied openly, the rite of Egla Arufa was discontinued" (Sotah 47b). Ruthless taxation, robbery, disease, crushing poverty, rape, pillage, famines, the countless dead, the widowed and bereaved women and children, the unbridled arrogance of the Roman oppressor and their collaborationist minions made life unbearable. Herod was succeeded by his equally murderous son and then by a train of avaricious Roman Procurators whose only thought was squeezing more money out of their impoverished subjects before their brief term of office ended. (Good King Agrippas I was only a 3- year interlude.)

During this tragic period, the Gemara tells us that even in the Beit HaMikdash itself, there were ominous signs of approaching doom. "During the last 40 years before the Destruction, (unlike during the 'salad days' of Shim'on HaTzadik) the lot (for the Lashem goat on Yom Kippur) never come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson colored wool thread ever turn white (a Heavenly sign that Israel's sins were forgiven)… and the doors of the Heichal would open themselves, until R. Shimon ben Zakkai rebuked them, saying Heichal, Heichal… I know about you… and that you are about to be destroyed for Zecharia ben Ido has already said, 'Open thy doors O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars..'" (Yoma 39b). [The root of the word Lebanon is Lavan, white. The Beit Hamikdash 'whitened' the sins of Israel because of the atonement effectuated by the Korbanot.] Josephus tells a similar story about the Nicanor Gate.

"Moreover the eastern gate (of the Azara) which was of brass and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men… and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor… was seen to be opened of its own accord… This appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if G-d did thereby open them the gate of happi- ness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their Holy House was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies" (Wars VI 5:3). Josephus also notes another portentous sign. "Thus there was a star resembling a sword over the city for a whole year… (ibid.) The Haggada quotes a Midrash, "'And with an outstretched arm'. That means the sword, as it is said, 'And his (an angel's) sword is unsheathed in his hand, outstretched over Jerusalem (I Devrei Hayamim 19:16). The terrified David "knew that the (sword-bearing) angel had come to smite Jerusalem (Rashi). Even Josephus admits that another omen he mentions "would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it. ...before sunset, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds". This celestial paradigma seems to have more than a passing resemblance to similar narrations in Greek and Roman literature. Another presage "reported" by Josephus has even more similarity to Roman portents. One Shavu'ot "as the priests were going to perform their sacred ministrations (in the Mikdash), they said that they felt a quaking …and a great noise and heard the sound as of a great multitude saying, 'Let us remove (ourselves) from here'" (Wars VI 5:3).

Referring to Bayit Rishon (but no doubt also having Bayit Sheini in mind), the Midrash says, "…G-d said to Yermiyahu, "Go to Anatot… But as soon as Yermiyahu left Jerusalem, an angel descended from heaven, put his foot in the walls of Jerusalem and breached them. He (the angel) cried out and said, 'Let the enemies come in and enter the House, for its Master is no longer there... Let them come in and destroy it... But do not congratulate yourselves that you conquered it, for a conquered city have you conquered, a slain people have you slain, and a burnt house have you burnt….'"

Hashiveinu Hashem Eilecha Venashuva, Chadeish Yameinu Kekedem (Eicha 5:21).

Catriel is in the process of writing a book: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrims Prospective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service