As the three weeks before Tisha B’Av approach, I often find myself reimagining what the ancient Israelites’ lives must have been like all those centuries ago as they anticipated the sadness, confusion, and dire consequences of the Temple’s impending destruction.  I often ask, “Did the Jews of Jerusalem know how their lives would change?” This year, I find myself asking other questions, such as, “Did the Diaspora Jews, those who lived in Babylonia or Egypt, know how tumultuous their lives were about to become?” This question is a poignant one for our time, and the potential answers to it drag up some frightening realizations for 5772 and into the future.

The Churban Bayis Sheini (destruction of the Second Temple) by the Romans in 70 CE spelled the end of sacrifices, High priests, and much of ritualized Judaism. From the Churban Bayis Rishon (destruction of the First Temple) in 586 BCE, Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem had begun building synagogues and replacing korbanot (sacrifices) with tefilot (prayers); ancient Judaism was moving from a centralized power structure focused on kings and kohanim (priests) to localized, community-based leadership. The destruction of the Second Temple solidified this transition from ancient, Biblical Judaism to more modern, communal Judaism. Trying to imagine the mindsets of those first few generations of Jerusalem-based Jews after the Churban is truly challenging. How did they reset their entire religious paradigms? How did they navigate the transition from the physical slaughter of sacrificial animals to the more-cerebral meditative prayer? Were they able to adapt, or did their spirituality and faith suffer because of what they witnessed? In short, did they understand the implications? Furthermore, did the community in galus (the Diaspora communities) understand the “nail in the coffin” finality of the Churban Sheini?