What Led to the Bar Kochva Revolt? The Untold Build-Up - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

Okay, good morning everyone. So today we begin a very important series in preparation for Shabbas. We discussed in past years a great revelation that there are two great tragedies in the history of the Jewish people. the and the and both of these sins are considered preserved for all generations. Meaning in every generation there is some punishment from which uncovered in every generation there are blood liels because as a punishment from because we we committed the first blood liel we took Yseph's tunic we dipped it in blood and we said you know is this ba is this the tunic of your son? So we created the first blood liel. So in every generation the Jewish people suffer from blood liels. And you say really in every generation? Yeah. All you need to do is every single day in the news when they accuse you know the Israeli army of um being brutal or they they accuse them of indiscriminately killing people. They're the most moral army in the entire world in the history of the world. That's a modern-day blood liel. That's a punishment for and then Rabban also uncovers that in every generation there is some remnant of of the sin of the golden calf and the phenomenon of the golden calf also uh appears in every generation and every generation there is a false messiah. There will always be a person that people hinge their hopes on or an ideology that people hinge their hopes on. One of the first episodes of Msiah Shakar is an episode that very shockingly most learned Jews know absolutely nothing about and it's very important to understand the background of the situation and that is the the the um story and the narrative of Barla. We're going to be spending a lot of time on this. There's a lot of information on this in the garra also in the especially in the USI in the medish. We don't know much about Bara himself because in the end it was a great tragedy. But there is a particular detail that many are not aware of and that is the the time period that Bara took place in. Okay, we're talking about the emperor of Rome when the Romans set out to destroy the second base of Mikdash was originally Nero Khazar and then he fled. So they appointed uh Vastasian Aspacanas Khazar and then he sent Titus to destroy the Bas Mikdash. After him his brother took over Domician. You had a a Roman emperor Traan. You had an Roman Emperor Quietus and followed by Adarion Quesar. Adarion Keshar Hrien. I'm sure you've heard the name Hrien. Hadrien's reign was if I'm not mistaken approximately from the year 118 of the common era to 138 about 50 years after the destruction of the second B of Mikash. Okay. in the con. Now, Hadrien began his reign in a way where he wanted to show understanding and friendship to all nations including the Jewish people. And he issued a stunning proclamation that you could stop a thousand people. I would be surprised if even one would even know about this. Okay, this we're talking now 50 years after the destruction of the second Mikbash. It's not so long ago, you know. It's under 2,000 years ago. Okay. Now, take a look. This is borious rabbi para sakalhu ben in the times of ben. Who's Rabhuan? He's one of the students of Zak was the leader of the Jewish people in the times of his one of his fiveim was. What did we say about? What did I say about? Yeah. The Roman emperor decreed that we should return and rebuild the second B mikdash. Do you know about that? that after the B mikdash was destroyed in the year 70 or so of the common era by Titus about 50 years later in the times the evil government that's always a reference to Rome is always a reference to Rome decreed we should rebuild the B mikdash by the way one thing you see is that you could do it if if we're given license. We don't that's all we need and we could go build a base of mikdash. This happened 50 Now the medish doesn't tell us who the Roman emperor was because it wasn't relevant for but the Roman emperor was Hadrien's okay they decreed to rebuild the B mikdash. So now there are two great sadikim that the imam sim calls harug lud. They ended up they were the martyrs of lud. Their names were papos and lanos. What did they do? They now now what does that mean? That means the Jews have to leave now cedarhurst. They have to leave Lawrence. They have to leave my to leavewood. And they have to come back and rebuild the base of mikdash. Who's going to want to do that? How are you supposed to what are you going to do with your currency? You need you need banks. So they set up money changers from Syria to Ako so that all the Jews could return and exchange their money. But what are you going to eat on the way? They set up um kiosks. They wrote on it, you know, make over here. You could eat over here. They set up stations and they provided all of your needs. The Cuthians went. Now, who are the Cuthians? Cuththeians were the early Christians who were Jews. By the way, there was no difference between the early Christians and Jews. The only difference was whether you believed in and they said as follows. Now the medish is paraphrasing a p in ezra because obviously this is this did not happen. This P was not said in this time because this is 50 years later but it's paraphrasing basically the said the king needs to know that if this rebellious city would ever be rebuilt and the walls established the Jews ain't never paying you any taxes. Bad idea. You think if you rebuild Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, the Jews are not going to pay are going to pay taxes. These are four kinds of taxes. Real estate taxina, a head tax, uh different kinds of taxes. Don't expect to get any tax money from the Jews. So said, "What do you want me to do? I already told them they could return and rebuild the Bikash. I can't resend. What am I supposed to do? I already made the decree. Ami, so these early Christians, they knew the deal. They said, "No problem. You told them they could rebuild the base of Mikdash. Tell them you could rebuild the base of Mikdash. You just need to re you just need to move everything five off." Tell them, "Yeah, they could go return and build the base of Mikdash. They just have to build it five off." As everybody knows, you can't even build a mikdash one millimeter offically. The Kishak doesn't be in this place. because they're supposed to be in this place. So, and they're not they're going to disband on their own. They're going to say, "Forget it on their own." This way, they won't have any tightness on you because they're going to say, "Yeah, you kept your your word and they're just going to forget the whole idea." So the early Christians said send and tell them either move it from the place or add five or detract five amos and on their own they're going to retract. So now the Jews were were distraught. The Jews were distraught here. Can you imagine the hopes that now they had some kind of tradition? And they thought that just like the second base of mdish was rebuilt after 70 years, the third base of mdish would be built shortly after. So they had their hopes high and now they're about to rebuild and they know that Adarion is deliberating whether to make good on his word. Now where did they gather? What's very interesting is at this point in time the massifa throughout history there was always a massifa. There was always a NSI and there was an Abzdan. Now the leader of the Jewish people in this tufa was Rabishu Ben Kan the Rabbak. He was not the NSI. He was the Abzdan. Who was the Nasi? They couldn't make a Nasi cuz the Romans had it out. They put a bounty on any leader from the Davidic dynasty. So they had to abandon the post of Nasi. So technically speaking, the nasi would have been rebl however he had to like remain lowkey and he didn't assume the title ni because he knew that it would be endangering his life was the bestd the ma at this time in history was in us all the gumaras that we learned let's say in kubus about the tako of usa took place in this period of history About 50 years after the bikdash was the leader and at this point in time they had to stay away from all the big cities in Yehuda for example and the massifa was in like the galil in Usha in so to speak away from the the main settlement. So the Jewish people gathered in an area called base remon. Okay. The community gathered in a in a valley called when the news came to them that they would not be granted permission to rebuild the Bikdash. They began to cry. What did they say? They wanted to rebel against the Malus. Now this was already 50 years after the destruction of the second basdash. If you remember in the times of the second B mikdash razai andim told the baronim do not rebel. Traditionally the were always against resistance from from the beginning of time. Resistance was always uh frowned upon. There were times in history that the endorsed it. But going back to the second mikdash, the told the bonyim do not resist. The baronim insist on resisting. So what the baronim did was they burned down all the storehouses. Now again 50 years later, the Jewish army was already so to speak strong enough that they felt confident that they'd be able to rebel against the Roman government. And the needed to do something fast because felt this would be a ill- fated resistance. So what did they do? They wanted to rebel. They said let a smart Jew go up and persuade the to cool it off not to resist. Who do they send? Amish and let go up to who? He's a great sage. He gave the following drasha. He told like a fable. He said once upon a time there was a lion and the lion was eating fish and he got a bone. The lion got a a bone stuck in his throat. So the lion said, "Whoever, whichever animal could come and dislodge the bone from my throat, he'll get a big prize." So the long beaked heron came and said, "I could do this." So he stuck his beak in the mouth of the lion and he dislodged the bone and the lion finally had relief. So the red the long beaked heron said, "No, it's payday." Right? The alliance said, "Whoever gets it at the bone, I'm going to reward them." An Egyptian longbeaked heron came. It beak is long. It took out the bone. So the heron said, the lion said, "Get out of here. The biggest reward is you could go tell your friends. You stuck your head in the mouth of a lion and you emerge unscathed. That's your reward. Your reward is you could boast. Yeah, you know who I am. I'm a bird. I even stuck my head in the the mouth of a lion and nothing happened to me. That's your reward. So too said, you're going to start up with the lion. You better Jews boast go around saying that you survived the Roman Empire. Okay, that is the backdrop of what we call the war at Betar and the rise of so what I'm going to just share with you now is the account of Harava Vdar Miller and his sagula which is actually a translation of the work exalted people. It was originally written in English. R Miller I do not think wrote in Hebrew was translated in Hebrew exalted people and he writes based on the midrashim and the garumaras and also the do harishim of the greatest of all Jewish historians of Isaac Khali Rabinowitz. The backdrop of the story of the war of betar. We know the war of betar began with uh led by Barla. I think I I slipped out in the Russia yesterday that in order to to be a member of Barula's army, you had to prove your courage. How? By being able to chew off your thumb. If you were able to chew off your thumb, that means you had the requisite courage to be a member of the army of you. Say, how many people did he get? A minion. 12. He got 400,000 soldiers at least, probably more at least four. He got 200,000 200,000. The told him, "You're making the Jewish people bal balm." And he said, "How else am I supposed to test whether they're, you know, deserving soldiers?" They said something like, "Well, have them ride on a horse, and if while they're riding, they could uproot a cedar tree in one hand, then that would show their courage." So again, we're talking about a very powerful army. Okay. So, so Rev Miller in the way he organizes the safer, this is chapter 13 and he has them organized by number. In the beginning of Hadrien's reign, he adopted a policy of seeking peace with various nations which also meant the Jews had some respit. At this point in time, the Mifa was in Usha where was for 5 years. The abbezin was kanya papus and lolanos who the previous Roman emperor was quietas he maybe he didn't talk by dabing or something and he sentenced papas and lolanas to death they're now set free by also the al at the at this point in time we're talking about 50 years after the Jewish people had a big settlement in Alexandria in Egypt and the Greeks came along and destroyed the Jewish quarter in Egypt. And now Hadrien hears a court case of the Jewish people against the Greeks. And at this point in time, Rab Yeshua ben Kan was the bestden. He had gone to Syria a number of times. The Gamarra talks about there's a Garra in Kagiga. Did you where went to Syria also also in and alf and you could assume that if went to Syria he was able to win over the favor of uh the various rulers. So as we just learned Hrien went so far as to command the Jews to rebuild the Ba Mikdash. You can imagine the excitement. Papus and Lianas were now freed. They're setting up these uh kiosks and money changing operations so that the Jews could return. Now the nations of the world, especially the Greeks of Sebast and Saul, they were very disappointed because for the last 100 years, the Greeks had tried to undermine the power of the Jewish people. And now they knew if that the Jewish people would return and rebuild the temple. What would happen is the Jews would gain autonomy and independence. So they wrote to Hrien, "Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea." Right? So and Hrien said, "What am I supposed to do? I already gave my word." So they said, "Okay, just move the site five Amos to the north or five Amos to the south." Which was obviously impossible. The Jews gathered where? and basone and they said we need to rebel but Rabishu Ben Khan was able to so to put so to speak put the matter to bay rahishua ben kan is acting as the main spokesperson for the Jewish people why because there's no ni they can't appoint a ni the ni is not mentioned why because there was no ni at the time look in 299 [Music] so therefore the um the the prudent leaders of headed by Rabish Kanya were very far from any warlike ambitions. So even though modern writers make the assertion that Rabishob Kan felt that revolt rebellion it was not ripe yet. No, it was a general um dislike for for uh any type of revolt. So, Rav Miller says that a lot of modern writers write that at the sedar theim that gathered in Benra were secret secretly plotting the bara revolt. Miller says that's influence of uh modern thinking or secular ideas. The says openly they gathered together nothing more and nothing less. Now during this period of time the were able to reestablish the massa which was had been bal for 20 years. At the beginning of traan's reign they forsook the masa at yavna. Okay so 20 years earlier the masa was at yavna. They had to abandon the msa at yavnet. Now it's 20 years later. They didn't want to make the massifa in Yehuda. It would attract too much attention. So they went to the Galil. They went to Usha where it had previously been in Usha. It went from Ya from Usha to Yav to Usha. It wasn't Yavn earlier. I'm sorry. It wasn't Usha earlier under the reign of Ram Gaml. When Domian Domian was the brother of Titus. Domian was the one who built the arch of Titus in honor of Titus. In the last 20 years when the Msa had been abandoned, the Kakim wandered. They were scattered. Meanwhile, Ram Gaml passed away in Lud. Rabzar bin Horines also passed away in Lud. Rav Tarin passed away. Relin Aaria wanted to be Mois to the yeshiva had to retire. You ever hear the expression rebelaria was in Bitnits Bits Bits and then he went to and he passed away. The only people left were Kan and and someone who would ultimately be the accepted leader of the Jewish people 50 years Raba. Okay. So rebuan is the main spokesperson at the time but reba is about to step up and become the leader of the Jewish people. Rabu take a look at number 302. The misa was a necessity for the vitality of the Jewish people. So now 20 years later it was the first time they were able to reestablish it in the beginning of Hadrien's reign. So after Nero, after Vespasian, after um Titus, after Domissionian, after Trajan, after Quias, it's now the reign of Adaranos Khazar. Hadrien Hadrien Rabu Kan is on his deathbed. Take a look. Look at number 302 say who's going to stand up against the evildoers now that you kan are passing away kanani was always the one who argued against the heretics you know the famous garra in khaga schlommo the famous garra in khaga the garra says that rabbi is ben kana went to the caesar By the way, the Caesar at the time was in Syria, Surya, Antia. So in the palace of the king. Now, by the way, R Miller points out the the disputes were always between the and the minim. The minim were gross, ignorami. However, it didn't matter because for the Caesar or the emperor, he wouldn't know any better. So, the kakim more than being aryudite had to be clever and had to be uh shrewd and answer the minim in a way that the Caesar or the emperor would buy their argument. So, it wasn't a matter necessarily of scholarship as much as being clever and shrewd. So there's a famous gumar in kaga on base where the garra says a pantomime motioned to ben he turned his back on him and he said urination that god has turned his face on you. So what motion back he stretched out his arm as if to say his out the ar the outstretched arm of is still outstretched to save us. So the ruler asked the two disputants to interpret each other's pantoime and the min was not able to interpret the back and forth and kan was able to and the min was executed. So when pounted away passed away the says the Mishna says okay so this was the the backdrop now becomes the not the ni who is the nasi the nasi was gaml he was he called himself I'm the son of the nasi but he wouldn't assume the position as the let's read 303 assumes the role of he was the last of the sages who was active in Yavna. Who else? Which other Tanom were around? Rabbi Schmile who came to Usha. So that's why in Bababas and throughout Shas Rab Yeshua is called I'm sorry Rabish is called Hulsha Hulsha. So he went from Yavn to Usha. He was from the last of the who was in Yavn. From Yav he went to Usha. So whenever you say in that's referring to in any in any event who else is active. Now out of fear of the Romans they did not appoint a nasi. Rashim Gamla was protected by utilizing the title Ben Nasi even though the accorded him the honor of the Nasi. So during this second stint at they made the tako in like you can't give away more than a fifth of your money. Maybe they needed to solidify the financial standing of the Jewish people and all the takas of us were the second time the convened and not the first time the first time ram was alive raishua was alive that's not when they were massing the takosa it's when rabbi was at the helm of as the azen of the Jewish people okay so now with this backdrop and understanding thing that the the the Jewish people now 50 years later are a force to be reckoned with. He needs to figure out how to deal with them. And with this backdrop rises a man by the name of the reason why we're talking about it this week also is the source of the is the in this week's para interpreted it's referring to what we call Ben or who is alluded to in that we have a tradition that there was understood as a melamia darakov And here he is. His name is Barla or Bena. This must be the Messiah. And who disagreed with Rabbi Akiva? Raban Benasa said, "You will die and grass will grow over your grave before this man is Messiah." If you remember, we learned from Raami Panoasa was the gilgal of okay, this is the backdrop for the upcoming Shir Wednesday night on the episode and the narrative and the beginning of maybe I don't know if we'll get to it this Wednesday night. Um, ultimately we have to understand how Raba thought he was Messiah and uh, as we know Betar was destroyed on Tishabove itself. Have a good day everyone.