Rabbinic period
Pivotal in shaping Judaism into its classical form, it is regarded as the second most important era in Jewish history after the Biblical period.
Judaism endured through the establishment of new centers of scholarship and leadership, initially at Yavne under Yohanan ben Zakkai, who promoted a focus on Torah study and synagogue worship.
[4][5] The suppression of these revolts by the Romans led to the devastation of Judea proper as well as diaspora communities, the death and enslavement of many Jews, further displacement, and economic hardship.
Jews started facing discriminatory laws and religious persecution,[7] and many emigrated from the country, eventually establishing flourishing Diaspora communities.
[9] This period of economic prosperity and political freedom allowed the Babylonian Jewish community, led by the Exilarch, to thrive and foster significant theological and literary developments.
[5] During the Rabbinic period, Jewish communities were also present in various regions of the Mediterranean, including Egypt,[10] North Africa,[10] Asia Minor,[10] Italy,[11] and Spain.
[5] Jews maintained their cultural and religious identity by continuing to speak and write in Hebrew and Aramaic, and developed liturgy, including piyyutim (liturgical poetry).
The Temple, as a national and administrative center of Jewish life and worship was demolished, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the autonomous positions of the Sanhedrin and the High-priesthood were rendered null and void.
On the other hand, the status of the Jews as a people recognized as a nation in the Roman Empire remained, as did their freedom to follow their faith and religious law.
[4] Around the period of the destruction of the Temple, Yohanan ben Zakkai moved from Jerusalem to Yavneh, a small town on the coast, where he established a new center of leadership.
The rabbinic leaders understood that such a revolt had no chance of surviving without unity within the Jewish community, and they put much effort into unifying the people behind Bar Kokhba.
[6] Following the Bar Kokhba revolt around 140 CE, when the Sanhedrin was located in Usha, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II took its leadership in the form of the Patriarch, and this title was passed down from father to son from then on.
[6]) The Patriarchs managed to stabilize the economy; in light of the many fields that were left empty following the revolt, they made decrees allowing the owners to reclaim them.
"[19] Towards the middle of the third century CE, the Christian scholar Origen wrote that the Jewish patriarchs (or ethnarches) held power comparable to kings and had the authority to condemn individuals to death:[20]Now, for instance, that the Romans rule, and the Jews pay the two drachmas to them, we who have had experience of it know how much power the ethnarches has among them and that differs in little from a king of the nation.
[22] The decline and eventual disappearance of the patriarchate, which several scholars suggest occurred around 425 CE,[23] led to the loss of central Jewish leadership, while their spiritual academies (yeshivot) also diminished.
In 553, Byzantine emperor Justinian issued a decree banning the study of the Mishnah and mandating the use of the Septuagint or Aquila's translation for biblical readings, part of his campaign to convert Jews to Christianity.
[3] These inspired later discussions and codifications of Jewish law such as Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah and Rabbi Yosef Karo in his Shulchan Aruch.
