Roman/Talmudic Period: Corrections and Fun Facts

[@elmajraz6019]

I'm a Muslim, UsefulCharts sent me. Great video there bruh, keep it up. Salaam ✌🏻

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

I watched the UsefulCharts video and now am watching this one. I was already subscribed to both channels, but I like watching these ones that seem to relate to each other. Good luck with the new apartment! 😃

[@SamAronow]

About that new apartment...we're going into a second lockdown, so I don't think I'll be going anywhere soon.

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

@@SamAronow Well, hopefully, it won't last too long and you don't get the virus! I was tested a week or so ago with the nose test and don't have it.

[@Artur_M.]

This channel is going to get big now, with all these collaborations! ;D Seriously, it deserves to. Speaking about the names of countries at 2:40, I've heard that _Polin_ has a double meaning in Hebrew (when broken into two words), that allegedly was considered a good omen. But let's not get ahead of ourself, I suspect that we might get to that story in due time.

[@mechanicleyse]

UsefulCharts sent me! Keep up the amazing work! I've been on the hunt for exactly this sort of content.

[@a.maskil9073]

Hey Sam, if you're planning on using the "native names" I'd recommend using the Tiberian/Mishnaic Hebrew pronunciation (if you can) rather than the Modern Israeli. Of course, Modern pronunciation is not "incorrect" or "inauthentic" or anything to that effect, but Mishnaic is certainly much more faithful historically speaking.

[@zacharycurrie3708]

Excited for the inevitable video on Rashi and the Jewish community of northeastern France!

[@MagpieMelon]

Found you after your collaboration with Useful Charts! I have just binged all of the Jewish History videos and I'm so excited to see your other content! You're doing such a great job with this and I've learned so much!!

[@OhavYisrail]

B"H. Thank you for putting out so much great content. I learned a lot of this in Hebrew school and yeshiva but I always learn something new from your videos. 1. I caught the zohar omission but guessed from earlier videos that you would be treating it in the time it was discovered. 2. It always amazes me how few people outside the tribe have heard of bar Kochba. Even in Gallus it's very well remembered. 3. Not only can a new menorah be built, but The Temple Institute has done so.

[@benjaminromm8184]

Love this channel! I keep recommending it to my friends and teachers. Incidentally, I am taking a class in the history of the Jewish family, and these videos in Jewish political and social history are very useful.

[@raphaellagnado2082]

Your channel is a treasure house. I am still in the beginning of the Middle Ages and loving everything. Just became a new patreon :-) happy 2022!

[@enysuntra1347]

With your listing of Ashkenaz as French defunct Alsace-Lorraine (today Gand-Est) and Rhineland-Palatinate, you have excluded one of the key Jewish communities through the ages (and, yes, even today again), Cologne in North-Rhine-Westfalia (NRW). Greetings from Ashkenaz, from ANOTHER federal state you omitted: The Saar Region.

[@DUDEINBLACK111]

Love the series, keep it up

[@mistermakeralquds]

Thanks for another great video!

[@kobiiboksireficul]

thank you for the change will make things alot easier to tell who ur talking about

[@tommy-er6hh]

Well, you have covered much well, but there is so much more Roman times I question: 1. Adiabene - how much did the Hebrews exiled into that area by the Assyrians cause that client state to be Jewish 65-115 AD? 2. Nothing about the Babylon semi independence "revolt" and the Jewish theocratic state there, or of Palmyra and the learning center of Nehardea. 3. Missed the Himarite/Yemen Jewish kingdom in Arabia 380-524 AD. 4. And what about the other Jewish sects: the Hermerobaptists, the gnostic Mandaeans, the Hanif, the Noahide, the Ebionites and the mysterious Sabians of Roman times? 5. Anything about the Jewish tribes in Arabia at the time? What about the "Black" Jews of South India? The Chinese Jews/Bene Israel? The Ethiopian Jews/Beta Israel? The Karaites? 6. Anything about the Radanite Jewish trade network, or was that after the Romans?

[@MrChannel19]

Love your videos! Take a break! Your groups are doing a great job! Thank you!

[@Pb-ij4ip]

I enjoy your videos, but I’m fairly sure you were recommended because I’ve been following a channel named “Pax Romana”. He’s silly for the most part, but that’s why I like him. Scratch the surface a bit and he’s got some good historical commentary too.

[@ליאורשטוירמן]

I am excited

[@EnricoDandolo1204]

It's worth noting that calendar reform did not proceed at all easily even in the supposedly "unified" Latin Church. No less a figure than Beda Venerabilis was aware of the problems of the Julian calendar, and the problem of Easter drifting ever further into late spring and summer was a source of great distress to the medieval church for centuries. Perhaps understandably given what previous controversies over the date of Easter had done to the Church, it was only in the wake of the counterreformation and the Council of Trent that the pope managed to assemble the political support for calendar reform. And of course by that point, much of Christendom was far less inclined to adopt a calendar computed by the bishop of Rome than it might have been a thousand years prior.

[@menachemsalomon]

The astronomical term for _molad_ would be *conjunction,* when the Sun and the Moon cross each others' paths (or close enough) in the sky. The full moon takes place at opposition, when the two bodies are opposite each other in the sky. I say "close enough", because the paths don't always cross exactly. When they do, the moon eclipses the sun (a solar eclipse). BTW, Rambam, in explaining the calendar, does refer to Jerusalem as the point of reference. I've seen the calendar disagreement described as the cut-off point for Rosh Hashana being exactly at noon, or ~36 minutes (642 chalakim) later.

[@SandyRiverBlue]

She is also very light skinned. My understanding is that 2nd temple Jews were particularly darker skinned.

[@CraigerAce]

Firstly, I watched a few of your videos and just now subscribed. Thank you for producing your channel. I find it interesting. I’m a gentile and so I’m wondering about the answer to this question: The earliest books of the Bible that were first written in Hebrew seem to all trace family lineage through the father. Perhaps there might be a few occurrences that this isn’t the case, but it seems that it was the practice. When and why did that change so that now family lineage is traced through the mother? If anyone has the answer I’d surely enjoy hearing it.

[@SamAronow]

Welcome! *Family* lineage is still traced through the father, with certain exceptions like a family with no sons (and even then not for Levites or Kohanim). *Jewishness* is traced through the mother, and that began during the administration of Hillel the Elder, toward the end of Herod's reign.

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

Fun Facts, like how many people died in a war?

[@SamAronow]

I will rename this Corrections and Questions.

[@CivilWarWeekByWeek]

Sam Aronow Fun facts still work. I’m just a cynical bastard

[@J-Bahn]

I had to read gibbon for political science class in college. Shall we say your videos are…decidedly more engaging.

[@Mitologos]

18:20 And it were actualy made by מכון המקדש, and the person who made it is actually a very close friend of my grandfather.

[@abrahamvinod9804]

HEY SAM

[@charlesabraham-ramirez-verdugo]

What happened to the descendants of Gamaliel VI go after the Sanhedrin stopped meeting? Did they go east to Babylon/Iraq or did they go west to Europe/Ashkenaz?

[@PureMaddnessOne]

Magog is either part of the Magog and Gog thing from the Bible, Tanakh and quran. They r seen as 2 ppl, but either land, tribes. I wonder if the descendant of Japheth is connected with the 2

[@angelao1133]

I'm looking for the video in which you say that there were 50K Jews remaining out of a population of around 200K. I can't remember if it was at the end of the Roman period or later. If anyone knows the bit I'm talking about I'd be very grateful if you could let me know where to find it.

[@LightSourceTemple]

What would it practically take to rebuild the 3rd temple? Did the 2nd temple even have the arc? I guess they'd have to establish where the holy of holy is Red heffer, alter, and a high priest heir

[@jamesfaubel4403]

There were a lot of Jews in the Roman Army, including the one led by Titus against Jerusalem. Titus's second in command was a Jew, the nephew of Philo. Is that perhaps why the Rabbis almost never quote Philo?

[@stephenfisher3721]

The Greek speaking Jews of Alexandria were important and produced significant writings but were culturally and linguistically separate from the Rabbis of the Talmud. Indeed, after centuries of persecution and migration, Alexandrian Greek writings were lost to the Jews and chiefly maintained by the Christians.

[@sfogbobi387]

17:16 aw man, I really did think it survived somehow. But I have another question: is it possible that the story of the Menorah being brought to Constantinople and later to Jerusalem was faction? I mean, could it have been made up by Jewish political figures/rabbis/leaders in order to further 'legitimize' the construction of the 3rd temple? If so, is there a small chance that the Menorah still lies in the Vatican? A part of me still wishes that, honestly...

[@sfogbobi387]

Also, congrats on getting monetized! With the wave of new viewers coming your way, you should be able to survive the upcoming lockdown!

[@SamAronow]

I highly doubt the story of the menorah returning was invented by rabbis, as the person who documented it was Justinian’s own court historian. The Avot of Rabbi Nathan the Babylonian says it’s still in Rome, but that was written long after all of this, and the titular Rabbi Nathan whose information is being commented on was a Tanna who died centuries before.

[@LivingTreeCarpentry]

There was more than one menorah. During the second temple they had 7 and the first temple also has more than one. That is too enable the Priests to switch it out in the case of ritual impurity. They would display the menorah and other items used in the temple's restricted sections to the public at least once a year!

[@sfogbobi387]

@@LivingTreeCarpentry Interesting. Where can I read more about this?

[@LivingTreeCarpentry]

@@sfogbobi387 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_menorah

[@michaelfisher7170]

I think the most likely fate of the menorah was that it was melted down for its gold and probably made into coinage. Its a sad fate but...there you have it. Those who sent it on were scared of it..those who recieved it didn't know what to do with it...but..."c'mon, that's got a lot of gold in it..." And so another precious bit of history likely passed into legend.

[@patrickpoer4643]

This is going to sound stupid but I get where your friend was coming from. I do appreciate your correction you made about Jewish women slaves. I constantly have to defend my heritage not only to anti-Semitism but Christians who imply or make the claim that we are no really Jews but a medieval Freud or your friend suggested Askenazi were the result of rape.

[@trevor1667]

What fun facts!

[@junefranklin458]

more samantha aranow please

[@mrmr446]

How widespread was conversion to Judaism? I know it is mentioned in the Bible and the wife of at least one Emperor was a convert, along with the Kingdom of Himyar as well as some tribes in the Arabian peninsula.

[@SamAronow]

There were a handful of notable examples in West Asia during late antiquity and the early medieval period, but the extent of it was limited even then. As I note in my latest video, the religion of a state or tribe more accurately referred to its ruler rather than the general public. Being what anthropologists call a "local religion," Jewish authorities did not make an effort to convert outside groups, and the rise of Christianity and Islam made Judaism seem less and less politically useful by comparison.

[@mrmr446]

@@SamAronow Thanks for the reply, I don't know how many that equates to but I guess sources are somewhat limited.

[@SamAronow]

Yeah, this is exactly the period wherein we have the least evidence with which to draw statistical analysis.

[@mrmr446]

@@SamAronow I found the Kingdom of Himyar fascinating as I had studied the region at university and don't recall it being mentioned. At the time the area would have been more fertile than today with the Ma'arib Dam and the planet being cooler then. Some conversion must have happened when the Ashkenazi established a community with the gender disparity you mentioned. My guess is that it was less of an issue then than later when Christianity was promoted by rulers.

[@maxi4182]

Ben geirim didn't snitch on bar yochai he told someone else that told someone else and on and on and then it reached to the Romans

[@Exjewatlarge]

What was the passing comment here about Hitchens being antisemitic or anti-Judaism? Didn’t quite understand. Either way, Hitchens was probably Jewish by traditional i.e. halachic standards and spoke and wrote quite effectively against antisemitism (see his Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture at UCLA). I’m not sure I agree with your characterization of Judaism as “non-dogmatic.” The 13 Principles of Faith are dogma almost by definition.

[@MethaneHorizon]

With regards to Hadrian, citing the Senate's displeasure over him merely indicates he was a legally Effective emperor. The senate was the most useless body in bosy Julian Rome, and was just a building where rich fat men delivered polemics, and just ranted while the Principate ran the state. You'd be more accurate to include how the Provincial governors and Legions viewed him, as thats a better lens than the senate who by Hadrians time were just a social club. They also gave him shit all the time for being at the very least, bisexual, so you cant blame him for then ignoring and angering the senators......

[@jacobloke204]

Regarding your statement on how "he was disliked by the roman people of his time", the senate wrote bad about anyone who didn't acknowledge their power. You see this in emperors like domitian, who was a very skilled and capable emperor, and yet was seen as one of romes worst emperors up until recently, when modern historians repaired his negative reputation. The reason for this was because much of the histories regarding the roman emperors were written by senators. Hadrian and Domitian didn't care much for the senate, seeing them as lazy and useless, giving them little respect or power, believing that centralizing power around the emperor was a better idea. As such, there was definetely some personal bias, so I don't think the senate should be used to represent the opinions of the majority of the roman people, because the majority of romans saw the 5 good emperors in a positive light. Just throwing in my 2 cents

[@spitflamez]

Ashkenaz is part of the Y DNA R1b people

[@JoseMendoza-lz4ym]

If I recall correctly, the Hebrews believed the earth was flat. When thier descendants came into contact with the Greeks, it would be known that the Greeks knew the earth was a sphere. At this point, when did the Jews accept the Greek view of the earth and how much of the Jewish population accepted the earth is spherical?

[@dittbub]

Did you just call Hitchens an antisemite and bigot?

[@jooseppielleese7156]

His mother and grandmother were both Jewish too lol, guess its stance on zionism and judadism that makes him antisemtic in Sams eyes.