Tag Archives: Titus

Secrets of Reincarnation (Video)

Exploring some incredible reincarnations of great figures from the Torah, Talmud, and world history, including Noah and Moses, David and Batsheva, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Meir, the Roman emperors Titus and Marcus Aurelius, and the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Plus, how many people are destined to ever live, and how might the Resurrection of the Dead at the End of Days come about? And who might Queen Isabella of Spain have been a reincarnation of?

For the previous three-part series on ‘Reincarnation in Judaism’, see here.

The Jews Who Destroyed the Temple

‘Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem’ by Francesco Hayez (1867)

On Tisha b’Av we commemorate numerous tragedies in Jewish history, most notably the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. The Tanakh outlines quite clearly the events that led to the destruction of the First Temple. When it comes to the Second Temple, however, little is generally spoken of even though we have a lot more historical information about what was going on at the time. We tend to greatly simplify things by reducing it to the same old adage that “the Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam”, baseless hatred. How did the destruction of the Temple really come about? What were the events that led to the Great Revolt and the first Jewish-Roman War? And who, exactly, were those Jews that harboured such immense hatred for each other?

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Onkelos and the Issue of Translating the Torah

This week we begin reading the fifth and final book of the Torah, Devarim, relayed by Moses over the final 37 days of his life. During this time, Moses “undertook to explain this Torah” (Deuteronomy 1:5) that he left for his people. Rashi comments here by citing the Midrash that Moses translated the Torah into all seventy ancient languages. Why did he do this? Continue reading →