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שפה נוכחית
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The Yiddish expression "Oyf Simches" – "let us meet on happy occasions" – first emerged among Jews who longed for a few moments of peace and happiness - a reprieve from the strife and crises that have typified much of Jewish history. Yet it also expresses the ability of Jews and Judaism itself to recover and rise again from the ashes, like a phoenix. The "Oyf Simches" series was created during the current period of crisis, in an attempt to draw strength from the inspirational struggles Jews have endured over the centuries. In each episode, Dr. Jeremy Fogel and a special guest will revisit one of these historical crisis moments that challenged the Jewish People in the past. We will examine what led to the crisis, what were its historical characteristics and how that crisis has shaped Judaism to this very day.
Episode 1: The Destruction of the First Temple
The destruction of the first Jewish Temple and the exile of the Kingdom of Judah to Babylon is one of the most well-known crises in the history of the Jewish People. Yet the burning of the Temple was in fact the culmination of a process of deterioration that began hundreds of years earlier. Was this catastrophe merely the result of a chain of political mistakes, or, as the biblical prophets argued, was there an element of moral decline involved as well? In the first episode of our series, Dr. Jeremy Fogel and Bible scholar Prof. Israel Knohl will discuss what brought about the destruction of the Temple, and how the Babylonian Exile was responsible for creating the image of the Jewish People as "The People of the Book".
Jeremy Fogel - photo by Aviv Naveh; Israel Knohl - Photo by Yoram Blumenkrantz
Episode 2: The Destruction of the Second Temple
In the legends of the destruction, the figures of Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza appear as blatant symbols of the internal strife and partisan bickering that consumed every corner of Jewish society and which led to the destruction of the Second Temple. But did Jerusalem truly fall because of "baseless hatred"?
In the second episode, Dr. Jeremy Fogel and Prof. Michal Bar-Asher Siegal explore the reasons for the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple. They examine descriptions of the events in rabbinic literature, and trace the complex connection between the destruction and the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud, which would become the backbone of Jewish culture throughout the long years of exile.
Jeremy Fogel - photo by Aviv Naveh; Michal Bar-Asher Siegal - Photo by Enso Culture