Who Destroyed The Temple? A Talmudic Tale

The Romans, then rulers of the known world with unprecedented military might, destroyed the ancient Jerusalem Temple and, with it, Jewish autonomy and self-rule. The catastrophe is rarely discussed directly in the 2,711 pages of the Talmud. Together with My Jewish Learning’s editor Rachel Scheinerman, we’ll read the primary exception, a complicated and compelling story that can help us figure out what this tragedy meant to the rabbis — and what it means for us this Tisha B’Av, nearly 2,000 years later.