Second Temple

Israel uncovers Second Temple-period mikveh beneath Western Wall

The ritual bath was found sealed beneath a layer of destruction dated to 70 CE, in which researchers found burned ash and numerous artifacts that offer a snapshot of life just before the city fell.

|ByJOANIE MARGULIES
THE RITUAL purification bath (mikveh) from the Second Temple period.
The Maccabees receive their father's blessing, 1873.

Hanukkah: The Maccabees weren’t symbols; they were fighters - opinion

The Maccabees prevailed because they refused erasure – militarily, culturally, and spiritually. Contemporary Jewish survival requires the same multi-front refusal.

|ByTODD L. PITTINSKY
A bronze coin from the Asia Minor city of Side found at Horbat Bet Zecharia south of Jerusalem, where the Maccabees fought the Greek Seleucid army.

Hanukkah miracle: Israel discovers evidence of Judah Maccabee’s battlefield near Jerusalem

The site is widely identified with the ancient village of Bet Zecharia, where the Seleucid army and the forces of Judah Maccabee clashed in what is known as the fifth Maccabean battle.

|ByTPS
Wild boars cross a road in a residential area after the government ordered residents to stay home to fight the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Haifa, northern Israel April 16, 2020.

'A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig': A Hebrew, Talmud, rabbinic expert goes ‘whole hog’

At the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the Persian era of the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, pigs did not have a unique status; other animals were viewed as equally non-kosher.

|ByARI ZIVOTOFSKY

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, 2024ByGIL TROY
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, 2024ByDR. 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, 2024ByJONATHAN 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, 2024ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
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, 2024ByRABBI 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, 2024ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
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, 2024ByAMOTZ ASA-EL
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, 2024ByJACKIE 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, 2024ByTOVA 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, 2024ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
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.