Bar Kochba was a man of tremendous strength, leadership qualities and also of great scholarship. In fact, if it were not for the fact of his scholarship, Rabbi Akiva would not have thrown his support behind him.
Bar Kochba fielded an army of 100,000 men, which actually succeeded in ejecting the Romans from the land of Israel, an unprecedented feat at that point in Roman history. The Jewish people declared independence and started preparing the building materials for the Third Temple.
This the Romans could not allow. Hadrian sent Julius Severus--who had conquered England--to crush the revolt. At first they were unsuccessful--to the extent that the entire 22nd Roman legion was destroyed in an ambush. By the end of the Bar Kochba revolt, the Romans had almost half their entire army--12 of 28 legions and 120,000 soldiers--in Israel trying put down the Jewish revolt.
Beitar was the site of Bar Kochba's last stand. The Romans killed everyone in the city--though they sustained punishing losses themselves. As many as 500,000 Jews lost their lives and some 1,000 towns and cities were wiped out before the revolt was put down.
(By way of comparison, in 1948 the British had some 100,000 soldiers in Israel, trying to control 600,000 Jews; at the same time, the British also had about 100,000 in India, trying to control a half billion people. It is one sign that when the Jewish people are united, their power is most formidable indeed.)
After the revolt, Hadrian set out to make an example of the Jewish people. While at times the Romans could be remarkably tolerant, if they chose not to be, they were cruel nearly beyond human description. During the years 135-138, Rome embarked on a policy of massive spiritual and physical destruction of the land of Israel. The Romans executed many of the generation's leading Sages, including Rabbi Akiva. The Temple Mount was ploughed under, an event that was forseen in the prophesy of Micha (3:12), and Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city. (The Cardo is a remnant of that undertaking.)
Finally, as a result of the Roman oppression, Jews became a minority in the land of Israel for the first time in 1000 years. It would remain that way for nearly 2000 years.
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However, within a short time, Ezra sparked a tremendous resurgence of Jewish life and learning in the Land of Israel--including the rebuilding of the Temple. Such was his stature as a Jewish leader that he is considered to be as great as Moshe in certain ways.
Ezra found a strong ally in Nehemia, who arrived several years later, armed with a Royal Persian edict to continue the efforts to fortify Jewish life in Israel. Nehemia helped to complete Ezra's work and is credited with rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem.
Both men were prophets and members of the Great Assembly, a parliament of sages who led the Jewish people during the century after the destruction of the First Temple until the Greek conquest of Israel.
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Hirkanus, the weaker of the two, had an advisor known as Antipater. A descendent of the Edomites, who had come under Jewish control and were forced to convert to Judaism, Antipater was a shrewd political manipulator and power player. He convinced Rome to "mediate" the conflict between the two warring brothers, and in doing so eventually paved the way for his son, Herod Agrippas, to be placed on the Jewish throne.
The son of Herod Agrippas was also known as Herod, whose tyrannical reign stretched from 37-4 BCE. In an effort to gain credibility with the masses, he married the last female descendant of the Maccabees--only to eventually kill her in a fit of rage. He also executed nearly all of the great Sages of his time.
Later he would try to make amends by renovating and expanding the Temple, and, in fact,the structure that he built was one of the most beautiful buildings of all time. He also embarked on an ambitious construction campaign. Cesaria, Masada and Herodia, were all built in his time.
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- MAMELUKES
- This tribe of slave warriors rebelled against their Egyptian masters in 1250 and took control of Egypt. From the 1300s until the 1500s they controlled the land of Israel and were responsible for numerous building projects.
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- MICHA 3:12
- "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the house like the high places of the forest."
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