The Destruction of the Second Temple
On the ninth of Av the legions of Titus burn the Temple—on the same date as the first; the age of sacrifice ends and a two-thousand-year exile begins.
Titus reached Jerusalem in the spring, before Passover, when the city was crowded with pilgrims. The siege moved wall by wall. Hunger inside reached the point the Talmud describes with the words of Lamentations: 'The hands of compassionate women cooked their own children.' On the seventeenth of Tammuz the daily offering ceased—there were no lambs left. That same day the Romans breached the wall.
Three weeks of street fighting followed. On the ninth of Av the Temple was set alight. The Mishnah lists five calamities that fell on the ninth of Av, among them the destruction of both Temples and the fall of Betar. The same date, twice.
Tradition tells that the priests climbed to the roof with the Temple keys and said: 'Master of the world, since we did not merit to be faithful custodians, let the keys be handed back to You'—and threw them upward; a hand appeared and took them. The city was burned, its people killed or sold into slavery. The Temple's treasures—the Menorah, the table, the trumpets—were paraded through Rome, and are carved on the Arch of Titus to this day.
Yet that same year the Sanhedrin was sitting at Yavneh. A people deprived of its centre moved that centre into study and prayer.
How we know
On the chronology
Tradition places the destruction of the Second Temple in 68 CE, academic history in 70, following Josephus and the Roman sources: Titus took Jerusalem in the year the Roman chronicles call the second year of Vespasian's reign. The two-year divergence is one of the best known and one of the smallest in the whole chronology.
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Eichah Rabbah — the midrash’s lament over the ruined city
- Mishnah Taanit 4:6 — the five calamities of the Ninth of Av, including both destructions
- Gittin 55b–58a — the siege, the famine, the zealots and the fall of the city — the Talmud’s account
- Taanit 29a — the young priests throw the Temple keys up to heaven
- Makkot 24b — the fox on the site of the Holy of Holies and Rabbi Akiva’s laughter
- Yoma 9b — why the Second Temple was destroyed: baseless hatred
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.
People and places
Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai · Rabban Gamliel of Yavne · Jerusalem · Temple Mount · Yavne · Masada · Rome · Lamentations · Yom Kippur · Tisha B'Av · The Temple · Korbanot (offerings) · Kohanim and Leviim · Exile and redemption · Tannaim · Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa · Rabbi Tzadok · Rabbi Chanina Sgan haKohanim · Nakdimon ben Gurion · Ben Kalba Savua · Ben Tzitzit haKeset · Yosef ben Mattityahu (Josephus) · Marta bat Boethus · Av · Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel the Elder · Titus · Gittin · Makkot · Rabbi Zecharya ben Avkulas · The Pharisees · The Sadducees · Agrippa II · Rabbi Yehoshua ben Gamla · Kinot · Family purity · Crimea and the Krymchaks