The Jerusalem Post - Israel News

Second Temple

'Letters from Home': Exploring tension among Jews in in the Second Temple era - review

The relationship between the Jewish communities of Egypt and Israel created an underlying tension, not unlike the modern-day relationship between world Jewry and the Jews of the State of Israel.

|ByALAN ROSENBAUM
A RECONSTRUCTION of the blue-tiled Ishtar Gate, the northern entrance to Babylon, on display at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.
Israelis are seen in costume for the holiday of Purim, in Jerusalem.

The essence of Purim was never the Diaspora. It was always Jerusalem - opinion

The events in Shushan were never merely about the Jews of Persia. Just a few years before Esther’s miraculous rise, we had begun our return to Jerusalem, laying the foundations of the Second Temple. 

|ByMOSHE TARAGIN
Herod's Pillar, or the Finger of Og, lies openly in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem.

The Finger of Og or Herod's Pillar? A Jerusalem archaeological mystery

The 12.15-meter-long and approximately 1.75-m -wide column is thought to have been quarried in order to decorate the Second Temple.

|ByMARION FISCHEL
Ancient Jewish quarter of Phanagoria uncovered in Russia's Taman peninsula

Ancient Jewish quarter of Phanagoria discovered in Black Sea area of Russia

Phanagoria's 1st century BCE synagogue was discovered last year, following excavations on the ancient Greek city.

|ByMATHILDA HELLER

Jerusalem in its glory: Reconstructing the Sukkot pilgrimage to the Second Temple

What was the pilgrims’ visit to Jerusalem on Sukkot during the Second Temple like?

OCTOBER 16, 2024
ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES Authority workers walk down the Herodian Street dig at the City of David National Park, in 2019. Also named The Pilgrim’s Way, the street lies beneath Wadi Hilweh street in the Palestinian village of Silwan, and leads from the Siloam Pool to the Temple Mount.

A letter to Lebanon: Could Northern Arrows free Lebanon from Hezbollah? - opinion

Center Field: A breakthrough in Beirut could lead to a regional turnaround with Tehran, something in everyone's best interest.

OCTOBER 16, 2024
AN ISRAELI soldier drives through southern Lebanon this week. This conflict should be named ‘The Second Hezbollah War,’ or more accurately, ‘The First Iranian War,’ the writer maintains.

Our future is at risk if level of hatred among us is not reduced - opinion

We believe that the most important lesson of Jewish history is that an independent Jewish state is not something that can be taken for granted.

AUGUST 18, 2024
ByDR. NETANEL FISHER , DR. ADAR COHEN
THE MASSES gather at the Western Wall, toward the conclusion of Tisha B’Av, on Tuesday. We face the risk of another destruction today if we fail to pull back from the brink, the writers warn.

Hopefully this will be the first and last 'real' Tisha B'Av after October 7 - opinion

For the first time, I truly understood what it means to mourn for the destruction of the Temple, for the loss of our homeland, and for the countless lives that have been taken in the name of hatred.

AUGUST 16, 2024
ByJONATHAN LIEBERMAN
THE BOOK of Lamentations is read in a Tel Aviv synagogue at the beginning of Tisha B’Av on Monday night, with worshipers sitting on the floor as a sign of mourning. ‘This year, Tisha B’Av was unlike any other I have experienced,’ the writer laments.

Ancient lamps that may have been used by Jewish rebels unearthed in Jerusalem

Within the soil, researchers unearthed pottery lamps which can be dated to the end of the Second Temple era, with soot residue indicating the fire that burned in them.

AUGUST 14, 2024
A preserved glass vial which was used for perfume or expensive oils.

My son died on Oct. 7. This Tisha B'Av, I think how our greatest threat comes from within - opinion

We dare not go back to the zero-sum game of Oct 6. Significant issues roil the Jewish people today, as they always have.

AUGUST 12, 2024
ByRABBI DORON PEREZ/JTA
A woman walks with her dog next to posters in support of hostages kidnapped during the deadly October 7 attack, in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 11, 2024

Tisha B'Av 2024: What the Jewish summer fast day is all about - explainer

On Tisha B'av, the Jewish people mourn the two destructions of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem. Here is everything you need to know.

AUGUST 12, 2024
An ultra-Orthodox jew prays at the Westen Wall July 17, 2002 on Tisha B'Av

For Jerusalem, Armageddon is part of life - opinion

Persia ruled over Jerusalem twice, resulting in starkly contrasting periods. In light of of a pending attack and Tisha b'Av, which one are we in today?

AUGUST 9, 2024
ISRAELIS GATHER to hear the annual reading of ‘Lamentations’ on the eve of Tisha B’Av outside of Independence Hall in Tel Aviv, last year.

A film about the destruction of the Second Temple premiered in 2021, Oct. 7 gives it new resonance

The movie employs an innovative medium, telling the story by switching between and panning across 1,500 still paintings composed on Photoshop.

AUGUST 8, 2024
ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
Ben Batich, a 1st-century leader of the Jewish Zealots, is a character in "Legend of Destruction," which depicts the Roman siege of Jerusalem.

What lessons can we learn from historical mourning? - opinion

Each year around this time, more than ever, we must pray that future historians will not be called upon to analyze the obtuseness, zealousness, vanity, and corruption of the present.

AUGUST 6, 2024
ByTOVA HERZL
Jews attend a prayer for the return of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site in the Old City of Jerusalem, March 21, 2024.

Largest ever Second Temple era quarry discovered in Har Hotzvim Hi-Tech Park, Jerusalem

Archaeologists excavated 3,500 square meters of earth in one section of the massive quarry.

AUGUST 2, 2024
The main street that led to the Temple Mount approximately 2,000 years ago. It is being uncovered in the excavations of the Israel Antiquities Authority at the City of David, August 1, 2024.