What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?



The Romans Carry off the treasures of the Temple
Relief fromTitus Arch, Rome

The “Three Weeks”, a period of mourning for the loss of the Temple observed by the Jewish people, began this Monday night on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz.  During that period we recall the awful climax of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans in the year 70 CE in which the Temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed.  Tradition holds that on 17th of Tammuz the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans.

Amongst Jews there has always been a tension between admiration for the great achievements of the Romans and anger and resentment for the way in which they abused their power.  A story in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 33 b) illustrates this well.



Roman Bathhouse - Hypercaust

Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Jose, and Rabbi Shimon were sitting together and Yehuda, the son of proselytes, sat before them.  Rabbi Yehuda opened the conversation, saying:  "How beautiful are the works of this nation (the Romans).  They have established markets.  They have built bridges.  They have opened bathing-houses." 

Rabbi Jose said nothing, but Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: "All these things they have instituted for their own sake. Their markets are gathering-places for harlots.  They have built baths for the purpose of indulging themselves in their comforts.  They have built bridges to collect tolls from those who cross them." 

This month two discoveries in Jerusalem were announced that illustrate both the technical achievements and the brutality of the Romans.

Roman Road Beit Hanina: Assaf Peretz
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority 

The Romans are famous for their roads.  A good transport system was vital for the military, financial and administrative maintenance of their empire.  Major roads were built to a high technical standard with inns and forts along the way.  The routes and sometimes the surfaces of major Roman roads have survived for thousands of years.  In the Beit Hanina neighbourhood of Jerusalem an archaeological excavation preceded the laying of a new drainage pipe.  The work revealed a beautifully preserved section of a major road from the Roman period linking the port of Jaffa to Jerusalem.  The surface is made of large flat stones that would have been comfortable to walk on.   It is well worn – a testament to the volume of traffic it carried. 

In Roman times, like today, there were two main routes from Jaffa to Jerusalem.  They followed a common path from the coast as far as Lod.  From there one road led through Sha’ar HaGai following today’s Route 1.  A second headed further north via Modi’in and Beit Horon along the line of our Route 443.  It is a section of this road that was discovered in Beit Hanina.  In some places a modern road had been laid only a few centimetres above the Roman road.  The Roman surface must have been visible until just a few decades ago.

In the year 70 CE the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem.  A terrible famine resulted that was made worse by the rebels who hunted for food in the homes of their fellow Jews.  The historian Josephus wrote: 

As the famine grew worse, the frenzy of the partisans increased with it….For, as corn was nowhere to be seen, men broke into the houses and ransacked them.  If they found any, they maltreated the occupants for saying there was none.  If they did not, they suspected them of having hidden it more carefully and tortured them. ...

Many secretly exchanged their possessions for one measure of corn - wheat if they happened to be rich, barley if they were poor.  Then they shut themselves up in the darkest corners of their houses where some through extreme hunger ate their grain as it was.  Others made bread, necessity and fear being their only guides.  Nowhere was a table laid… (Jewish War, V, 428).

The Finds: Photo Vladimir Naykhin
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Three whole cooking pots and an oil lamp were discovered in the cistern of a house that had stood near the Western Wall in the area of Robinson’s Arch.   The residents of the house had gone down into the cistern to eat their remaining food in secret.  The archaeologist directing the excavation, Eli Shukron, said that these are the first finds that connects us directly with the famine during the siege of Jerusalem.



And finally here is a clip from the Monty Python film The Life of Brian on the same theme.  John Cleese who plays Reg tries to arouse his fellow members of the “People’s Front of Judea” to rebel against the Romans but encounters some difficulty.



Hug a Tree

“It’s Tu B’Shvat.” announced our 3 year old grandson on Wednesday.  “It’s the birthday of the trees” he went on “and it’s Daddy’s birthday too because my Daddy’s like a tree.”  Now it is true that our son-in-law is tall and strong and straight like a tree but what was most important to my grandson at that moment, I think, was that his Daddy’s name is Alon – and Alon is the Hebrew word for an oak tree.

Tu B’Shvat, the Mishna tells us, is the New Year for trees.  It marks the time when most of the winter rain has fallen and the sap is rising in the trees.  It’s a sign that Spring is on its way - a time to celebrate the amazing variety of climates, habitats and species that are found in this small country.

The Land of Israel, says the Bible, is a land of plenty, “a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey”.  Even though 60% of Israel is desert we have here over 2,800 different species of plants and among them many beautiful trees.

The Lone Oak Gush Etzion
Photo Refa'el Danziger

The oak tree is mentioned many times in the Bible.  By the oak trees of Mamre, just north of Hebron, Abraham is visited by G-d and runs to greet three men who turn out to be angels.  Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse is buried under an oak tree near Bethel.  The prophet Isaiah describes the oak as a tree whose stump will regenerate even when it has been cut down.

When the kibbutzim of the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem were overrun and destroyed in 1948 the Jordanians uprooted most of the trees that had been planted there.  An ancient oak tree survived and came to symbolise the yearning to re-establish the kibbutzim and to resettle the Land of Israel.  The tree came to be known as the Lone Oak.  For 19 years people would come to the Israeli-Jordanian border to gaze at it.  It stands now by Alon Shvut.

Coin of Vespasian
Judea Capta

The honey that the Bible mentions as produce of the Land is date honey.  Dates have been domesticated for over 6,000 years.  A source of food, shelter and shade the date palm came to symbolise the kingdom of Judea.  When the Romans destroyed the Temple and put down the Great Revolt in the year 70 AD the emperor Vespasian minted coins inscribed with the words Judea Capta showing a woman sitting forlornly under a palm tree.  The lulav that we wave on Succot is the bud of a date palm leaf that has not yet opened.

Date palm grove, Kalia, Dead Sea
Photo: Sharon Shlomo

During excavations in the 1960’s at the Masada fortress by the Dead Sea date palm seeds were discovered in a jar in one of Herod’s palaces.  Carbon dating showed them to be some 2,000 years old.  In 2005 three of them were treated with fertiliser and hormones and later planted at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava.  One of them germinated and by the summer of 2010 the sapling had grown to about 2 metres. It is thought to be the oldest seed ever germinated. 

Acacia tree in the Negev
Photo: Mark A Wilson

“They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.”  The Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Showbread and the walls of the Tabernacle itself were all made of acacia wood.  In Israel the acacia can be found on the side of wadis, dry river beds.

Olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane
Photo: Chad Rosenthal

When a dove brought back an olive leaf to the Ark Noah knew that the waters of the Great Flood were receding.  Olive oil was used to anoint the kings of Israel.  It was used in sacrifices and to light the Menorah, the candelabrum in the Temple.  It is still used today to light Shabbat and Chanukah lights.  For centuries it has been a major ingredient of the economy and of the diet of people all around the Mediterranean. Olive leaves have a special beauty.  The trees are very hardy and can live to a great age.  It is claimed that some olive trees are as much as 2,000 years old.  Among these are the olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem.

The Psalmist says: “How great are Your works O Lord.  You have made them all with wisdom; the earth is full of your creations.” 

The writer of the Tanya, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi wrote:
“All that we see –
The heaven, the Earth, and all that fills it –
All these things
Are the external garments of G-d.”

Like my grandson we should learn to celebrate the birthday of the trees and to understand what a wonderful gift they are.