#JewishHistory #SecondTemple #Judea

This Jewish History lecture examines the Second Temple Period (Bayit Sheini), which spans from approximately the year -500 (or 500 BCE) to the theoretical year 0 (3260 to 3760 in the traditional Hebraic calendar).

The period is divisible into four distinct phases, named after whichever political power was in control of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem. These entities were:

- The Persian (Achaemenid) Empire
- The Hellenistic (Greek-based) dominions
- The Hasmonean dynasty
- The Rome Empire

Each of these phases includes several significant historical events or people that provide the keys to understanding the era as a whole. They were:

PERSIAN
- Zerubavel ben Sh'alti'el, Yehoshua ben Yehotzdak, and last of the prophets
- Ezra and Nehemiah 
- The temple at Elephantine

GREEK
- Alexander the Great 
- The Ptolemaic and Seleucid dynasties
- The translation of the Torah into Greek
- Antiochus III and Antiochus IV 

HASMONEAN
- Yehudah, Yonatan, Shimon, Yochanan Hyrkanus, Yehudah Aristobulous, Alexander Yannai, Shlomtziyon, Yochanan Hyrkanus II and Aristobulous II
- The conversion of the Idumeans
- The conflict between ‘Scribes’ and ‘Sadducees’ (Tzeduqim)

ROME      
- Herod and Roman subservience
- The reconstruction of the temple
- Hillel 
- The rise of rabbinic leadership and the tradition of interpretation
- The beginnings of political rebellion against Rome.

This is an edited lecture of the live talk given in 2020 for Chabad South Africa and Daminyan Shule in Melbourne. It is the first part of a six-part overview series of Jewish History that starts with the Second Temple Period and ends (at the beginning) with the Biblical Period.

Find the original (unedited) live talk here    • Jewish History in Six Parts [PART 1 -...  

Watch other videos from this series:

Part 2 -    • Jewish History in Six Chapters #2 (1-...  
Part 3 -    • Jewish History in Six Chapters #3 (50...  

Explore more of David's Jewish History series here:

Jewish History in Six Parts:    • JEWISH HISTORY IN SIX PARTS [PART 6 -...  
Women in Jewish History:    • Women in Jewish History  
The Talmudic Period: Chazal in the Age of Empires    • The Talmudic Period: Chazal in the Ag...  
The Geonic Period: Jewish History of 6th -10th Centuries    • The Geonic Period: Jewish History of ...  
From the Rambam to the Zohar: Jewish History of 12th & 13th Centuries    • Rambam to Zohar: Jewish History of 12...  
Hope in Darkness: Jewish History of 14th & 15th Centuries    • Jewish History of 14th & 15th Centuri...  
Worlds in Transition: Jewish History of 16th Century    • Worlds in Transition: Jewish History ...  
Communities in Search of Meaning: Jewish History of 17th Century    • Communities in Search of Meaning: Jew...  
Revelation & Revolution: Jewish History of the 18th Century    • Jewish History of the 18th Century- R...  

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Images used in this video

Youtube cover – comprising images below and a picture of David by Stephan Rohl under CC licensing http://www.stephan-roehl.de​

Image in cover art: James Tissot, Reconstruction of Jerusalem and the Temple of Herod. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.