The Land I Will Show You, sec. 4, chapter 4

The Babylonian Community in the Second Temple Era

Sep 12, 2023

4: The Babylonian Community in the Second Temple Era

(For the previous chapter of “The Land I Will Show You, click here. For the ToC, click here.)

Throughout the generations, the great ones of Israel didn’t ascend to Eretz Yisrael. We explained in chapter 2 that Eretz Yisrael in its desolation wasn’t a complete land of residence. That is the case for the period after the decline of Babylonia as the center of Judaism. The period of Babylonia itself requires its own study, and, as we shall demonstrate, there was a complete and sophisticated stance that the Jews should specifically remain in the Babylonian exile and not return to Eretz Yisrael, and this even at the time that Eretz Yisrael was built and settled.

Complete generations and their sages refrained from ascending to Eretz Yisrael during the Second Temple Era. Throughout the whole era when the community of returnees to Zion grew and flourished in Eretz Yisrael, there remained also a large and prominent Jewish community in the Babylonian exile that didn’t join those who returned to their land and possessed it. Not the lower strata of the people remained in exile. The opposite: the elite remained in exile, while the lower strata of the people were the ones who joined the ascent. Here are some of the sources:

Had you made yourselves like a wall and ascended all together in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver that doesn’t rot; now that you ascended like doors, you are compared to cedar that rots.[1]
Had Israel ascended like a wall from exile, the holy temple would not have been destroyed for a second time.[2]
The Holy, Blessed is He, did a kindness with Israel by exiling the exile of Yechaniah before the exile of Zedekiah so that the Oral Law shouldn’t be forgotten by them, and they remained with their Torah in Babylonia from that time until today.[3]
When Ezra came up from Babylonia only a few went up with him, and the great ones of Israel and the sages and noblemen among them – all remained in Babylonia… since all the great ones and those who knew Torah remained there…[4]
Divine Providence was ready to return it as it used to be, had they all responded with willingness to leave. But only a portion responded. Most of them and their respected ones remained in Babylonia, accepting of the subjugation and servitude, so as not to abandon their houses and properties.[5]

Most of Israel, the respected and noblemen among them, those who were masters of Torah,[6] remained in Babylonia. This approach earned the Babylonians wide condemnation from both the sages of Israel and the common folk. As is recounted:

Resh Lakish was swimming in the Jordan River. Rabbah bar bar Channah came along and extended his hand to him. He said to him, “God, we hate you! For it is written, ‘If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar’ (Song of Songs 8:9) – had you made yourselves like a wall and ascended all together in the days of Ezra, you would have been compared to silver that doesn’t rot; now that you ascended like doors, you are compared to cedar that rots.” … When he came before Rabbi Yochanan, he said to him: “That isn’t the reason. Even had they all ascended in the days of Ezra, the Shechinah would not have dwelt in the Second Temple…”[7]
When Resh Lakish would see them congregating in the market, he would say to them: “Scatter yourselves!” He said to them: “In your ascent, you didn’t make yourselves as a wall, and here you come to make yourselves as a wall?!” When Rabbi Yochanan would see them, he would harass them, saying: “If the prophet harasses them, as it says ‘Let my God reject them, for they didn’t listen to Him’ (Hosea 9:17), shouldn’t I harass them?!”[8]
Rabbi Zeira went out to the market to purchase… He said to the one weighing: “Weigh it well.” He responded: “Won’t you get out of here, you Babylonian whose ancestors destroyed!” At that time, Rabbi Zeira said: “Aren’t my ancestors like this person’s ancestors?!” He went into the meeting place and heard the voice of Rabbi Sheila who was sitting and expounding: “’If she is a wall’ – had Israel ascended as a wall from exile, the Temple would not have been destroyed for a second time.” He said: “That simple person has taught me well!”[9]

It got to the point that the epithet “Babylonian” turned into a derogatory nickname applied to contemptible people who were not of Babylonian descent. We learned: “They would make a ramp because of the Babylonians who would pull his hair”;[10] “The Babylonians would eat it raw because they are vulgar.”[11] On these 2 mishnahs, we learned: “They weren’t Babylonians but Alexandrians, but because they hated the Babylonians, they named them after the Babylonians.”[12] This tribal hatred toward the Babylonians that is mentioned and eternalized in the Mishnah is rooted, of course, in a Torah stance – the hatred was justified because the Babylonians didn’t ascend along with their brethren in the days of Ezra, and even caused that the Shechinah wouldn’t dwell in the Second Temple and that it would be destroyed, according to one version.[13]

The Babylonians’ guilt is well known. There is another, corresponding opinion: the opinion of the Babylonian sages themselves, those who didn’t ascend throughout the generations, those who “remained with their Torah in Babylonia from that time until today.” They weren’t the lower strata of the nation, but their sages and greats, and their actions are Torah which requires study and understanding. This is a debate between sages of Israel, like any other halachic debate, and it is obligatory for us to understand the 2 opinions, to explain also the opinion of the Babylonian sages and to extract from it whatever we can learn from it in practice.

Not only the early sages of Babylonia held that they are doing the right thing by remaining in Babylonia. It can be shown that the debate raged even in the days of Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish. They bore a grudge toward the Babylonians – Resh Lakish refused to take the outstretched hand of the Babylonian, Rabbah bar bar Channah, and Rabbi Yochanan would harass them – as he held that the Babylonians deserved this. If, then, we were to find one who acted toward the Babylonians in a friendly and warm way, that would be a proof that he held a different opinion that doesn’t blame the Babylonians. Indeed, we found such a sage: Abba son of Aivu – i.e., Rav, who descended to Babylonia and founded a yeshivah there. “In the days of Rebbe, Rav descended to Babylonia, in the year 430 to the Greek empire that we count with.”[14] From then, the position of Babylonia became stronger, and it was considered a center of Torah and Judaism of no lesser caliber than Eretz Yisrael, as they said: “We have made ourselves in Babylonia like Eretz Yisrael… from when Rav came to Babylonia,” and Rashi added: “The people dwelling there increased, due to his Yeshivah.”[15] Rav didn’t act toward the Babylonians with negativity; which means he didn’t see them as shirker from returning to Zion who were responsible for the destruction of the Second Temple. Is it possible that Rav hated the Babylonians as Resh Lakish did or harassed them as Rabbi Yochanan did? Certainly not!

Now that we have established that we are dealing with a Torah dispute, we must explain what the root of the debate is. What is the opinion that justifies remaining in Babylonia instead of returning and taking part in the rebuilding of the Temple and residing in Eretz Yisrael?

Unapologetics

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