Today is Tisha B'Av by the Jewish calendar, the ninth of Av. The saddest day in the Jewish year. It commemorates the destruction of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Numerous other tragedies are also attributed to this date in Jewish history. Traditionally we read the book of Lamentations on Tisha b'Av which began last night as all Jewish holidays do, at sundown the night before. The photo below shows the Arch of Titus commemorating the destruction of the Temple. It came from History of Art by Janson. It shows the Roman army carrying off the ritual objects used at the Temple of Solomon such as the Menorah and incense burners.
My friend Debora spent a year working in Rome with her family and she told me that Italian Jews (who have a very long history in Rome dating back to Temple times) did not walk under the arch until the state of Israel was created in 1948.I am still working on my 'Synagogue Project' which I started a long time ago about the connection between the Temple of Solomon and synagogue architecture. To see some drawings of the Temple and the Tabernacle in the Desert, click here. Scroll down past the photographs to the Writings section. You can also see some of my photographs of Boston before getting to the Writing section.
2 comments:
that's great...
was it hard to get the link to work?
works fine...
but wasn't the Temple of Herod destroyed in 70 ad?
I thought Solomon's temple was destroyed earlier by the Babylonians or something.
What a great question/comment! Thanks Michael. The Temple of Solomon is an all-encompassing term in Judaism covering the First Temple built by King Solomon and described in the Book of Kings. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.e. The returning Babylonian exiles rebuilt the Temple and later it became a renovation and restoration project under Herod during the Roman period. Biblical scholars refer to the Second Temple period because it has the most archaeological evidence to support its existence. It was destroyed c.70 a.c.e.
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