Wednesday, December 18, 2013

10 Martyrs contd

Arzei Levanon & Eileh Ezkerah

An elegy in the Tishah B’Av liturgy commemorates ten rabbinic martyrs, great in stature as the cedars of Lebanon, who continued teaching the Torah in defiance of the Roman edicts. The Yom Kippur service has a more elaborate elegy and there are several other versions deriving from midrashic sources.
The story of the Asarah Harugei Malchut, “The Ten Slain by the Government”, was a widespread concern of medieval Jewish authors, in tribute to the martyrs themselves and as an encouragement to Jews to stand by their tradition despite the Crusaders and the missionaries.
All versions of the poem have their difficulties. This note addresses only the Tishah B’Av and Yom Kippur renderings because they are the best known.
The Tishah B’Av Version – Arzei Levanon
Only eight of the ten rabbis are listed:
1. Rabban Shim’on (ben Gamli’el II)
2. A kohen (Rabbi Yishma’el the High Priest)
3. Rabbi Akiva
4. Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava
5. Rabbi Chanina (Chananyah) ben Teradyon
6. Rabbi Yeshevav the Scribe
7. Rabbi Chutzpit
8. Rabbi Elazar ben Shammu’a
Where are the other two? It is possible, since the alphabetical acrostic of the poem goes only up to resh, that there were originally two more lines beginning respectively shin and tav, and these named the ninth and tenth martyrs.
The author may be Me’ir ben Yechi’el of the 12th century CE, though Zunz disputes this. The poet has bound his story together with intricate skill, but though all his eight rabbis were certainly martyred by the Romans, they did not all live, or die, at the same period.

 

 

 

 

MARTYRS, THE TEN:

Table of Contents
Among the numerous victims of the persecutions of Hadrian, tradition names ten great teachers who suffered martyrdom for having, in defiance of an edict of the Roman emperor, instructed their pupils in the Law. They are referred to in haggadic literature as the 'Asarah Haruge Malkut. Popular imagination seized upon this episode in Jewish history and embellished it with various legends relating the virtues of the martyrs and the fortitude shown by them during their execution. These legends became in the geonic period the subject of a special midrash—the Midrash 'Asarah Haruge Malkut, or Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, of which there exist four versions, each differing from the others in various points of detail (see Jellinek, "B. H." i. 64, vi, 19). Contrary to the accounts given in the Talmud and in Midrash Rab bah ('Ab. Zarah 17b, 18a; Ber. 61b; Sanh. 14a; Lam. R. ii. 2; Prov. R. i. 13), which clearly state that there were intervals between the executionsof the ten teachers, the Midrash 'Asarah Haruge Malkut, probably in order to produce a greater effect upon the mind of the reader, describes their martyrdom as occurring on the same day.
Their Names. This midrash differs from the older sources in regard also to the accusation upon which they were condemned. It says that when a certain Roman emperor who had been instructed in the Law came to the Biblical passage, "And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death" (Ex. xxi. 16), he conceived the following mischievous device: He summoned Ishmael ben Elisha (perhaps the propounder of the "Thirteen Rules"; see Ab. R. N., ed. Schechter, p. 54b; comp. Ned. ix. 10), Simeon (certainly not Simeon ben Gamaliel II; see Ta'an. 29b), Ishmael, Akiba ben Joseph, Hananiah ben Teradion, Ḥuẓpit (the interpreter ["meturgeman"] of the Sanhedrin of Jamnia), Yeshebab (the secretary of the Sanhedrin), Eliezer ben Shammua' (in Midr. R. l.c. "R. Eliezer Ḥersanah," or "R. Tryphon"), Hananiah ben Ḥakinai (in Midr. R. l.c. "Judah ha-Neḥetam"),and Judah ben Baba, and demanded of them what was the punishment prescribed by the Law for stealing a man. They answered, "Death"; whereupon the emperor said, "Then prepare to die, for your ancestors [alluding to the history of Joseph and his brethren] committed such a crime, and you, as the representatives of the Jewish nation, must answer for it." The rabbis asked for a delay of three days that they might ascertain, by invoking the Ineffable Name, whether the punishment pronounced against them was ordained by Heaven. Ishmael ben Elisha, in his capacity as high priest, or as the son of a high priest, was chosen to make the inquiry, and after having ascertained that it was decreed by Heaven, the rabbis submitted to their fate.
Ishmael and Simeon were the first to be taken to the place of execution, where a dispute arose between them as to which should be executed first, each desiring to precede the other in order that he should be spared the sight of the martyrdom of his colleague. Thereupon the emperor ordered lots to be cast, and the lot fell on Simeon, whose head was stricken from his body with a sword. Ishmael was flayed; he suffered with great fortitude, and began to weep only when his executioners reached the place of the phylacteries. The third victim was Akiba, whose flesh was torn off with a carding-implement. While undergoing the torture he recited the Shema' with a peaceful smile on his face. Astonished at his extraordinary courage, his executioner asked him if he was a sorcerer that he could so easily overcome the pain he was suffering, to which Akiba replied, "I am no sorcerer, but I rejoice that I am permitted to love God with my life." He died at the last words of the Shema'—"God is One." The fourth martyr was Hananiah ben Teradion, who was wrapped in a scroll of the Law and placed on a pyre of green brushwood; to prolong his agony wet wool was placed on his chest. "Wo is me," cried his daughter, "that I should see thee under such terrible circumstances!" "I should indeed despair," replied the martyr, "were I alone burned; but since the scroll of the Torah is burning with me the Power that will avenge the offense against the Law will avenge me also." His disciples then asked: "Master, what seest thou?" He answered: "I see the parchment burning while the letters of the Law soar upward." His disciples then advised him to open his mouth that the fire might enter and the sooner put an end to his sufferings; but he refused to do so, saying, "It is best that He who hath given the soul should also take it away: no man may hasten his death." Thereupon the executioner removed the wool, fanned the flame, thus accelerating the end, and then himself plunged into the fire.
 Ishmael and Simeon were the first to be taken to the place of execution, where a dispute arose between them as to which should be executed first, each desiring to precede the other in order that he should be spared the sight of the martyrdom of his colleague. Thereupon the emperor ordered lots to be cast, and the lot fell on Simeon, whose head was stricken from his body with a sword. Ishmael was flayed; he suffered with great fortitude, and began to weep only when his executioners reached the place of the phylacteries. The third victim was Akiba, whose flesh was torn off with a carding-implement. While undergoing the torture he recited the Shema' with a peaceful smile on his face. Astonished at his extraordinary courage, his executioner asked him if he was a sorcerer that he could so easily overcome the pain he was suffering, to which Akiba replied, "I am no sorcerer, but I rejoice that I am permitted to love God with my life." He died at the last words of the Shema'—"God is One." The fourth martyr was Hananiah ben Teradion, who was wrapped in a scroll of the Law and placed on a pyre of green brushwood; to prolong his agony wet wool was placed on his chest. "Wo is me," cried his daughter, "that I should see thee under such terrible circumstances!" "I should indeed despair," replied the martyr, "were I alone burned; but since the scroll of the Torah is burning with me the Power that will avenge the offense against the Law will avenge me also." His disciples then asked: "Master, what seest thou?" He answered: "I see the parchment burning while the letters of the Law soar upward." His disciples then advised him to open his mouth that the fire might enter and the sooner put an end to his sufferings; but he refused to do so, saying, "It is best that He who hath given the soul should also take it away: no man may hasten his death." Thereupon the executioner removed the wool, fanned the flame, thus accelerating the end, and then himself plunged into the fire.
The martyrdom of the remaining rabbis is noted without details, with the exception of Judah ben Baba, who is said to have been pierced by lances. He was the last of the martyrs; according to the Talmud (Sanh. 14a), he was surprised by the Romans in the valley between Usha and Shefar'am, where he was secretly investing the seven remaining pupils of Akiba with the authority to continue the teaching of the Law. The martyrdom of the "Ten Teachers" is commemorated in a seliḥah recited in the Musaf service of the Day of Atonement. It is entitled "Eleh Ezkerah," and is based upon the account given in the Midrash 'Asarah Haruge Malkut. With some difference in names it is treated also in the dirge for the Ninth of Ab entitled "Arze ha-Lebanon."

Kitos War



Kitos War
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Kitos War
Part of the Jewish–Roman wars
Roman Empire Map.png
Roman Empire after 120
Date
115–117
Location
Cyprus, Libya, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Judea, Syria
Result
Revolt defeated
Belligerents
Jews of Cyprus, Cyrenaica, Aegipta, Mesopotamia and Iudaea
Commanders and leaders
Lukuas (Andreas);
Artemio;
Julian and Pappus
Casualties and losses
Roman & Greek deaths: 200,000 in Cyrene, 240,000 in Cyprus (per Cassius Dio). Unknown deaths in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Judea, and Syria.
Jewish communities of Cyprus and Cyrene completely depopulated, massive losses also in Aegipta and Iudaea.

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Preceding events

Major wars
The Kitos War (115–117) (Hebrew: מרד הגלויות‎: mered ha'galuyot or mered ha'tfutzot (מרד התפוצות); translation: rebellion of the exile) is the name given to the second of the Jewish–Roman wars. Major revolts by diasporic Jews in Cyrene (Cyrenaica), Cyprus, Mesopotamia and Aegyptus spiraled out of control, resulting in a widespread slaughter of Roman citizens and others (200,000 in Cyrene, 240,000 in Cyprus according to Cassius Dio, but see below) by the Jewish rebels. The rebellions were finally crushed by Roman legionary forces, chiefly by the Roman general Lusius Quietus, whose nomen later gave the conflict its title, as "Kitos" is a later corruption of Quietus.
Contents
Background
Main article: First Jewish-Roman War
The tensions between the Jewish population of the Roman Empire and the Greek and Roman populations mounted over the course of the 1st century CE, gradually escalating with various violent events, mainly throughout Judea (Iudaea), where parts of the Judean population occasionally erupted into violent insurrections against the Roman Empire. Several incidents also occurred in other parts of the Roman Empire, most notable the Alexandria pogroms, targeting the large Jewish community of Alexandria in the Aegipta province.
The escalation of tensions finally erupted as the Great Revolt of Judea, which began in the year 66 CE. It erupted initially due to Greek and Jewish religious tensions, but later escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens.[1] The Roman military garrison of Judaea was quickly overrun by rebels and the pro-Roman king Agrippa II fled Jerusalem, together with Roman officials to Galilee. Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by auxiliary troops, to restore order and quell the revolt. The legion, however, was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, a result that shocked the Roman leadership.
The Roman command of the revolt's suppression was then handed to general Vespasian and his son Titus, who assembled four legions and began cleansing the country, starting with Galilee, in the year 67 CE. The revolt ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed the center of rebel resistance in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE, and defeated the remaining Jewish strongholds later on.
Revolt and warfare
In 115, the emperor Trajan was in command of the eastern campaign against the Parthian Empire. The Roman invasion had been prompted by the imposition of a pro-Parthian king on the throne of Armenia after a Parthian invasion of that land. This encroachment on the traditional sphere of influence of the Roman Empire — the two empires had shared hegemony over Armenia since the time of Nero some 50 years earlier — could only lead to war.
As Trajan's army advanced victoriously through Mesopotamia, Jewish rebels in its rear began attacking the small garrisons left behind. A revolt in far off Cyrenaica soon spread to Egypt and then Cyprus, inciting revolt in Judaea. A widespread uprising centered at Lydda threatened grain supplies from Egypt to the front. The Jewish insurrection swiftly spread to the recently conquered provinces. Cities with substantial Jewish populations – Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia, Arbela – joined the rebellion and slaughtered their small Roman garrisons.
Cyrenaica
In Cyrenaica, the rebels were led by one Lukuas or Andreas, who called himself "king" (according to Eusebius of Caesarea). His group destroyed many temples, including those to Hecate, Jupiter, Apollo, Artemis, and Isis, as well as the civil structures that were symbols of Rome, including the Caesareum, the basilica, and the public baths.
The 4th century Christian historian Paulus Orosius records that the violence so depopulated the province of Cyrenaica that new colonies had to be established by Hadrian:
"The Jews ... waged war on the inhabitants throughout Libya in the most savage fashion, and to such an extent was the country wasted that, its cultivators having been slain, its land would have remained utterly depopulated, had not the Emperor Hadrian gathered settlers from other places and sent them thither, for the inhabitants had been wiped out."[2]
Dio Cassius states of Jewish insurrectionaries:
"'Meanwhile the Jews in the region of Cyrene had put one Andreas at their head and were destroying both the Romans and the Greeks. They would cook their flesh, make belts for themselves of their entrails, anoint themselves with their blood, and wear their skins for clothing. Many they sawed in two, from the head downwards. Others they would give to wild beasts and force still others to fight as gladiators. In all, consequently, two hundred and twenty thousand perished. In Egypt, also, they performed many similar deeds, and in Cyprus under the leadership of Artemio. There, likewise, two hundred and forty thousand perished. For this reason no Jew may set foot in that land, but even if one of them is driven upon the island by force of the wind, he is put to death. Various persons took part in subduing these Jews, one being Lusius, who was sent by Trajan."[3]
The Jewish Encyclopedia says this about the Cyrene massacres:
"By this outbreak Libya was depopulated to such an extent that a few years later new colonies had to be established there (Eusebius, "Chronicle" from the Armenian, fourteenth year of Hadrian). Bishop Synesius, a native of Cyrene in the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of the devastations wrought by the Jews ("Do Regno," p. 2)."[4]
The Jewish Encyclopedia acknowledges Dio Cassius's importance as a source, though believes his accounts of the actions at Cyrene and on Cyprus may have been embellished:
"For an account of the Jewish war under Trajan and Hadrian Dion is the most important source (lxviii. 32, lxix. 12–14), though his descriptions of the cruelties perpetrated by the Jews at Cyrene and on the island of Cyprus are probably exaggerated."[5]

Egypt

Then Lukuas, leader of rebel Jews, moved towards Alexandria, entered the city, which had been abandoned by the Roman troops in Egypt under the leadership of governor Marcus Rutilius Lupus, and set fire to the city. The Egyptian temples and the tomb of Pompey were destroyed. Trajan sent new troops under the praefectus praetorio Quintus Marcius Turbo, but Egypt and Cyrenaica were pacified only in autumn 117.

Cyprus

In Cyprus a Jewish band under a leader named Artemion took control of the island, killing thousands of civilians. The Cypriot Jews participated in the great uprising against the Romans under Trajan (117), and are reported to have massacred 240,000 Greeks.[3][6] A small Roman army was dispatched to the island, soon reconquering the capital. After the revolt had been fully defeated, laws were created forbidding any Jews to live on the island.

Mesopotamia

A new revolt sprang up in Mesopotamia, while Trajan was in the Persian Gulf. Trajan reconquered Nisibis (Nusaybin in Turkey), the capital of Osroene Edessa, and Seleucia on the Tigris (Iraq), each of which housed large Jewish communities.
A pro-Roman son of the Parthian king Osroes I, named Parthamaspatas, had been brought on the expedition as part of the emperor's entourage. Trajan had him crowned in Ctesiphon as king of the Parthians. "Trajan, fearing that the Parthians, too, might begin a revolt, desired to give them a king of their own. Accordingly, when he came to Ctesiphon, he called together in a great plain all the Romans and likewise all the Parthians that were there at the time; then he mounted a lofty platform, and after describing in grandiloquent language what he had accomplished, he appointed Parthamaspates king over the Parthians and set the diadem upon his head." (Dio Cassius). With this done, Trajan moved north to take personal command of the ongoing siege of Hatra.
The siege continued throughout the summer of 117, but the years of constant campaigning in the baking eastern heat had taken their toll on Trajan, who suffered a heatstroke. He decided to begin the long journey back to Rome in order to recover. Sailing from Seleucia, the emperor's health deteriorated rapidly. He was taken ashore at Selinus in Cilicia, where he died, and his successor, Hadrian, assumed the reins of government in 118.

Judaea

Jewish leader Lukuas fled to Judea.[7] Marcius Turbo pursued him and sentenced to death the brothers Julian and Pappus, who had been key leaders in the rebellion. Lusius Quietus, the conqueror of the Jews of Mesopotamia, was now in command of the Roman army in Judaea, and laid siege to Lydda, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappus. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterwards, permitted fasting even on anukkah. Other rabbis condemned this measure.[8] Lydda was next taken and many of the rebellious Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.[9] Rebel leaders Pappus and Julian were among those executed by the Romans in the same year.[10]
Lusius Quietus, whom the Emperor Trajan had held in high regard and who had served Rome so well, was quietly stripped of his command once Hadrian had secured the Imperial title. He was murdered in unknown circumstances in the summer of 118, possibly by the orders of Hadrian.
Hadrian took the unpopular, but far-sighted, decision to end the war, abandoning much of Trajan's eastern conquests and stabilising the eastern borders. Although he abandoned the erstwhile province of Mesopotamia, he installed Parthamaspates – who had been ejected from Ctesiphon by the returning Osroes – as king of a restored Osroene. For a century Osroene would retain a precarious independence as a buffer state, sandwiched between the two empires.
The situation in Judaea remained tense for the Romans, who were obliged under Hadrian to permanently move the Legio VI Ferrata into Caesarea Maritima in Judaea.
Aftermath
Main article: Bar Kokhba revolt
Further developments occurred in Judaea Province in the year 130, when Emperor Hadrian visited the Eastern Mediterranean and, according to Cassius Dio, made the decision to rebuild the city of Jerusalem as the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina, derived from his own name. The decision, together with Hadrian's other sanctions against the Jews, was allegedly one of the reasons for the eruption of the 132 Bar Kokhba revolt — an extremely violent uprising, which resulted in massive loss of Roman and especially Jewish lives. The rebellion ended with the deaths of a large part the Judaean population and a ban upon the Jewish faith across the Roman Empire, which was lifted in 137, upon Hadrian's death.
See also
References
1.                              Jump up ^ Josephus, War of the Jews II.8.11, II.13.7, II.14.4, II.14.5
2.                              Jump up ^ Orosius, Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, 7.12.6.
3.                              ^ Jump up to: a b "Dio's Rome, Volume V., Book 68, paragraph 32".
4.                              Jump up ^ "Cyrene". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
5.                              Jump up ^ "Dion Cassius". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
6.                              Jump up ^ "Cyprus". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
7.                              Jump up ^ Abulfaraj, in Münter, "Der Jüdische Krieg," p. 18, Altona and Leipsic, 1821
8.                              Jump up ^ Ta'anit ii. 10; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 66a; Yer. Meg. i. 70d; R. H. 18b
9.                              Jump up ^ Pes. 50a; B. B. 10b; Eccl. R. ix. 10
10.                          Jump up ^ Ta'anit 18b; Yer. Ta'anit 66b
Further reading and external links

Judea

Judea (Roman province)

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  (Redirected from Iudaea province)
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Provincia Iudaea
Province of Roman Empire
6 CE–135
Location of Judea
Capital Caesarea Maritima
32°30′N 34°54′ECoordinates: 32°30′N 34°54′E
Prefects before 41, Procurators after 44
 -  6–9 Coponius
 -  26–36 Pontius Pilate
 -  64-66 Gessius Florus
 -  117 Lusius Quietus
 -  130-132 Tineius Rufus
King of the Jews
 -  41–44 Agrippa I
 -  48–93/100 Agrippa II
Legislature Synedrion/Sanhedrin
Historical era Roman Principate
 -  Census of Quirinius 6 CE
 -  Crisis under Caligula 37–41
 -  Destruction of the Second Temple August 4, 70
 -  Bar Kokhba revolt 132–135
Today part of  Israel
 Jordan
 Palestine
Before August 4, 70 is referred to as Second Temple Judaism, from which the Tannaim and Early Christianity emerged.
Judea (Hebrew: יהודה, Standard Yehuda Tiberian Yehûḏāh; Arabic: يهودا‎; Greek: Ἰουδαία; Latin: IVDAEA), sometimes spelled in its original Latin forms of Judæa, Judaea or Iudaea to distinguish it from Judea proper, is a term used by historians to refer to the Roman province that incorporated the geographical regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, and which extended over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel. It was named after Herod Archelaus's Tetrarchy of Judea, of which it was an expansion, the latter name deriving from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE.
Rome's involvement in the area dated from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome made Syria a province. In that year, after the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, the proconsul Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) sacked Jerusalem and entered the Jerusalem Temple. Subsequently, during the 1st century BCE, the Herodian Kingdom was established as a Roman client kingdom and then in 6 CE parts became a province of the Roman Empire.[1]
Judea province was the scene of unrest at its founding during the Census of Quirinius and several wars were fought in its history, known as the Jewish-Roman wars. The Temple was destroyed in 70 as part of the Great Jewish Revolt resulting in the institution of the Fiscus Judaicus, and after Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135 CE), the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the province to Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina, which certain scholars conclude was done in an attempt to remove the relationship of the Jewish people to the region.[2][3]

Relations with Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties

Pompey in the Temple of Jerusalem, by Jean Fouquet
The first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome made a province of Syria. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Pompey (Pompey the Great) remained there to secure the area.
The region at the time was not a peaceful place. The Queen of Judaea Salome Alexandra had recently died and her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, divided against each other in a civil war.
In 63 BCE, Aristobulus was besieged in Jerusalem by his brother's armies. He sent an envoy to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Pompey's representative in the area. Aristobulus offered a massive bribe to be rescued, which Pompey promptly accepted. Afterwards, Aristobulus accused Scaurus of extortion. Since Scaurus was Pompey's brother in law and protégée, the general retaliated by putting Hyrcanus in charge of the kingdom as Ethnarch and High Priest, but he was denied the title of King.
When Pompey was defeated by Julius Caesar, Hyrcanus was succeeded by his courtier Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. In 57–55 BCE, Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, split the former Hasmonean Kingdom of Israel into five districts of the Sanhedrin.[4]
Both Caesar and Antipater were killed in 44 BCE, and the Idumean Herod the Great, Antipater's son, was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE.[5] He didn't gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last representatives of the Maccabees were eliminated, and the great port of Caesarea Maritima was built. He died in 4 BCE, and his kingdom was divided among his sons, who became tetrarchs ("rulers of a quarter part"). One of these quarters was Judea corresponding to the region of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. Herod's son Herod Archelaus, ruled Judea so badly that he was dismissed in 6 CE by the Roman emperor Augustus, after an appeal from his own population. Another, Herod Antipas, ruled as tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 BCE to 39 CE, being then dismissed by Caligula.