Term
| what were the capitols of the two kingdoms of israel? |
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Definition
Israel: Shomron/Samaria
Judea: Jerusalem |
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Term
| what was the superpower in around 700 BCE? Who led it? What was their approach to conquest, and why did it work especially well on Israel? |
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Definition
Assyria/Ashur
- ruled by Sanheriv
- they would transplant the native population (weaken it so revolt was impossible)
- this worked well on Israel because historically they didn't have a strong religious connection |
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Term
| according to Josephus, why would the Shomronim be referred to as Kutim? |
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Definition
| one of the places Sannheriv took people from (to mix with the Israelites) was Kutha |
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Term
| Assyria was replaced with which new superpower, which brings rise to which new era? |
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Definition
| Babylon - ruled by Nevuchadnezzar, who destroyes the Temple and introduces the era of Galut Bavel |
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Term
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Definition
| the remnant of the Jews left in Judea - the impovrished and uneducated (everyone else was exiled during Galut Bavel) |
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Term
| the primary community during Galut Bavel was in Babylon; name two others. |
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Definition
1. Syria
2. Egypt (the giant synagogue) |
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Term
| who were the two leaders of the Aliya to build the 2nd Temple? |
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Definition
Zerubavel (descendant of the Davidic line)
Yehoshua (descendant of the high priesthood) |
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Term
| what are two possibilities (apocryphal and probable) for what happened to Zerubavel? (mentions of him stop) |
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Definition
apocrypha: he went back to Bavel and died peacefully
possibility: there was a power struggle between the kingship and the priesthood (lo b'koach lo b'chayil ela b'ruach) |
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Term
| what are two major differences between the 1st and 2nd Temple periods? |
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Definition
1. kingship vs. prieshood (in the 1st Temple the king dominated; in the 2nd, the high priest)
2. during the 1st Temple, most of the Jewish community lived in Israel; during the 2nd there was a huge diaspora |
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Term
| what does Gemara Megillah say about Ezra and Nechemia? |
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Definition
| Nechemia (who was close to the King) heard Torah wasn't being properly observed in Israel. Was afraid to appear before the king because he got sick and weak from the revelation. Finally was granted permission by the king to go to Israel to fix it - given a writ of authority. He fixes everything up in Israel and is therefore credited with bringing to the Torah to that generation just as Moshe brought it to the generation in the desert. |
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Term
| constrast Hellenism with the policies of Sanherev |
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Definition
| Sanherev seperated and scattered the people to decentralize and demoralize them; hellenism tried to UNITE the conqured people. |
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Term
| who were the two generals of Alexander the Great? |
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Definition
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Term
| what triggered the Hasmonean Rebellion? |
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Definition
| the rule of Antiochus IV Epiphianes, who claimed divinity |
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Term
| when was the 2nd Temple destroyed? |
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Definition
| after Rome takes over (2nd Judean revolt) |
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Term
| what stomped out Jewish revolts? |
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Definition
| defeat of the Bar Kochba revolt; after this the rabbis decreed revolt against the ruling power to be illegal under Jewish law - doesn't show up again until the British Mandate |
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Term
| according to Josephus, what are the two main differences between Pharisees and Sadducees? |
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Definition
- Pharisees accept the authority of unwritten tradition; Sadducees do not
- eschatology (the otherworldly - like the messiah, reward and punishment, etc.) - Sadducees do not believe in any sort of determinism (everything is within human control) |
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Term
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Definition
| Stoicism is the view that the soul lives on beyond the body; Epicurinism is the more Sadducean idea that there is no soul, afterlife, etc. |
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Term
| what are two possible origins for the name "Tzuki" (Sadducee)? |
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Definition
1. Tzadok HaKohen, a priest in the first Temple who replaced Evyatar as the high priest; Solomon ruled that his dynasty should always lead the priesthood.
2. a pirkei avot-esque book found in Cairo (Avot d'Rabi Natan) mentions the zug Tzadok and Baisus, who broke away from thier teachers; their students named themselves after them. dated to before the Hasmonian era. |
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Term
| what are two possible interpretations of the word "Prushi" (Pharisee)? |
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Definition
1. comes from "peirush" because they accepted interpretations of the Torah
2. comes from "parush", meaning seperate - because they separated themselves (either from ignorant farmers or from the Tzdukim) |
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Term
| Louie Finkelstein on why the Pharisees at the time of Hasmonean rebellion rebelled also against the Sadducees |
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Definition
this was the beginning of the urbanization of Israel - up until then it had been mostly agrarian. this led to a rift between wealthy landowners and the urbanized workers; the city environment bred egalitarianism.
- also, the city bred intellectualism (interpretation of the Torah) and a more democratic, less elitist outlook on things. the Hasmoneans supported this movement (although the sentiment was much older.) |
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Term
| George Foot Moore on the origin of the Pharisees |
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Definition
| a group during the Hasmonean rebellion known as the Chassidim who refused to fight on Shabbat, even in self-defense. When the Hasmoneans won, they left the army because they objected to wars of conquest (had won their religious freedom) |
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Term
| Solomon Zeitlin on the era when the question of accepting Torah sh'baal peh was under debate |
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Definition
| Ezra and Nechemia, when they were deciding which books to canonize (Shir Hashirim and Mishlei were under debate). In this era people had to decide whether traditions NOT in these books were obligatory. |
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Term
| what were two criteria for a book to be canonized according to Anshei Knesset Hagedolah? |
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Definition
1. had to be written during a time when there were neviim
2. has to be a divine teaching that will be relevant forever |
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Term
| Jacob Lauterbach on how the Sadducees observed the mitzvot without any oral law |
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Definition
| they had oral law / intepretations, but they were their OWN interpretations, which were very different from Pharisaic ones. Megillat Taanit has a list of minor festival days; one of these is the day when Sefer Getzirta was burned - this was the Sadducean interprative literature |
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Term
| according to the Tosefta in Sukka, what is the controversy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees re: the aravot? |
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Definition
| Saducees say you don't do aravot when sukkot falls on shabbat, because shabbat is more important. Pharisees say you don't stop for shabbat. |
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Term
| what are two instances where the terms "prushim" or "tzukim" don't refer to actual prushim or tzukim? |
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Definition
- the gemara mentions Prushim who mourned for the 2nd Temple by not eating meat and wine
- and a ruling that one should not save "sifrei tzukim" from a fire on shabbat (it refers to Christian evangelicals) |
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Term
| controversy between Prushim and Tzdukim re: counting the Omer |
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Definition
| Prushim say "mimacharat hashabbat" (the day from which you count the Omer) means the yom tov - start counting the 2nd night of Pesach. Tzukim say it literally means shabbat and count from sunday. This is an oral law/ no oral law debate. |
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Term
| controversy between prushim and tzukim in Masekhet Menakhot |
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Definition
tzdukim: korban tamid (2x daily) is personal because it uses the singular form "taaseh"
prushim: it's communal (they use a different source, from Bamidbar)
- here we see that the tzdukim wanted it to be personal because they were rich (not an interpretation issue) - and the prushim were of a more democratic mindset. |
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Term
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Definition
| high priest (tzduki) who refused to do water libations on sukkot because it's not in the Torah; everyone was so annoyed they threw their etrogim at him; he had people executed because he was so embarassed. this is why Mishna Sukka says that there is a prompter telling the priest what to do during the water libations (the story is from josephus) |
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Term
| sadducee vs. pharisee on tvul yom |
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Definition
sadducee: the Torah says you have to wait until sundown to immerse, or you aren't pure.
pharisee: you can be a tvul yom for most things - you only have to wait until sundown for special specific ones, like eating truma. |
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Term
| what are two examples of the prushim dominating/intimidating the tzdukim? |
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Definition
1. they were metameh the kohen gadol, then sent him to the mikva during the same day, then had him slaughter the red cow (tzdukim say he would still be tamei)
2. a young kohen gadol insisted on combining the ktoret and the coals before going into the Holy of Holies; he died not long after this and his nose was eaten by worms. |
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Term
| what is an example of a tzduki/prushi disagreement that is NOT based on oral law? |
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Definition
1. daily korban (private vs. public) - pasuk vs. pasuk
2. the ketoret on Yom Kippur - mixed before vs. after going into the Kodesh Hakodashim - pasuk vs. pasuk |
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Term
| what is the first name the Sanhedrin is known by? |
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Definition
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Term
| what were the three Jewish courts? |
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Definition
- court of three for money matters only
- regional beit din of 24 (capital crimes)
- beit din hagadol in Jerusalem ("Sanhedrin Hagedola") - 70-71 people |
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Term
| what are the areas of jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin? |
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Definition
- trying people who held high-office; tribes; false prophets
- declaring war
- adding territory to the Jerusalem city limits
- idolatrous city
- rebellious judge (zaken mamre)
- issues dealing with the calendar |
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Term
| how do we figure out the time period of the 2nd Zug? |
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Definition
| 3rd Zug was contemporary to Shlomtzion haMalka because Shimon ben Shetach (the Av Beit Din) was her brother; therefore, the 2nd one must have been contemporary to the previous Hasmonean leader (John Herkenus) |
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Term
| according to the secular historians, was the Sanhedrin a bipartisan entity? (tzdukim and prushim) |
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Definition
yes
- proof from the smicha controversy: it was about accepting rabbinic authority; one half of the zug would accept it and one would reject it. the era in question determined which was the nasi and which was the av beit din. |
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Term
| what is the problem with the secular view of sanhedrin bipartisanship? how do we interpret the smicha controversy? |
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Definition
- the claim that half the rabbinic figures in the gemara were tzdukim can't be true - we see their prushi opinions all the time!
- the smicha controversy was actually about doing smicha of an ANIMAL that you are bringing to sacrifice - should you do it on yom tov?
- in other words, the Sanhedrin was just about only prushi (although a few tzdukim did manage to penetrate.) |
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Term
| Solomon Zeitlin on the Sanhedrin sources that suggest it was a secular leadership centered around the high priest / was involved in the trial of Jesus |
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Definition
| the Sanhedrin couldn't have tried Jesus at the times when the NT says it did (at night/on yom tov) because it had no authority to convene at those times. Also, we have no records of the Sanhedrin ever being tzduki and rejecting the oral law. instead, the council which tried Jesus/was centered around the High Priest was a Sinedrion, a gathering of the ruling executive in a Roman province's friends and advisors. |
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Term
| in 200 CE, the 2nd Temple Tannaitic literature was written down by: |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| a calendar listing minor festival days on which it is impermissible to fast |
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Term
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Definition
| the last of the Talmudic teachers; lived in the times of Zoroastrian rule; "s'vara" means "reasoning" - they didn't write thier own laws, just spent time understanding what had been written before them |
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Term
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Definition
| propaganda book written by Josephus (comissioned by Vespatian) to show what happend to those who rebelled against Rome |
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