The Loss of Center: Changing Attitudes towards the Temple in Aggadic Literature

Extract

The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E., and the concurrent loss of formal independence, was arguably the single most fundamental event affecting the future of the Jewish people during the subsequent centuries. The immediate reaction to the destruction of the Temple among the populace was one of despair and a feeling of a “loss of center,” as is evidenced in some of the post-destruction literature. This response was tempered and moderated to a certain degree by the subsequent rabbinic leadership, through moderation of the mourning practices, institution of formal commemoration rituals, and the substitution of other forms of worship and religious behavior in the wake of the loss of the Temple rituals. Nevertheless, the memory of the Temple as a defining element in the Jewish worldview retained a place of importance in post-destruction Jewish literature, in both legal corpora such as the Mishnah, and non-legal traditions, as exemplified by aggadic tales composed during the first centuries of the Common Era.