Lesson video

Hi everyone.

My name is Rabbi London, and today we are going to learn a lot.

We're going to learn all about King David, King Solomon, the building of the temples, the destruction of the temples and the start of Rabbinic Judaism.

But before we get into what we're going to do and how we're going to get there, we should get prepared.

So first, try to turn off any apps or notifications that you have running if you're able.

And try to end any conversations you might be in the middle of.

Try to find a place that has the least amount of distractions.

That way it'll be a little bit easier to concentrate.

And today you're going to need to have a pen or pencil and paper or something to write on and something to write with.

If you don't already have these things with you, press pause and resume the video when you are ready to begin.

So we're going to go through a very large chunk of Jewish history today.

And kind of move quite quickly through it.

We're going to learn about the important bits or some of the important bits.

There's always much more than we can learn.

So the first person we're going to talk about today, his named David.

Later known as King David.

King David was known according to Jewish tradition to be a shepherd, a musician, a warrior and the writer of the Book of Psalms. If you notice it's interesting to see that King David, just like Moses, is a Shepherd.

According to many commentaries, the idea of many of the Jewish leaders being shepherds meant that they were able to be a good leader.

Because to be a leader of sheep, you need to make sure that no one gets lost, to make sure that every one has food and water when they need.

To pay attention to the small details.

So, Moses and King David and others in the Bible, in Tanakh, were shepherds.

King David, ruled as king over Judea and eventually Jerusalem for 40 years.

According to Jewish tradition, during this 40 year time period, he united the people of Israel, he led them to victor in battle and actually many many battles.

He conquered the land of Israel.

Then he paved the way for his son Solomon, to build the temple.

If we go back to when David was a kid.

Before he became king and before he was really famous.

The biggest story or the first story that got him to be famous was of David and Goliath.

David showed strength and bravery when he went to battle against Goliath.

Goliath was said to be this tall, basically giant.

He was scaring and terrorising the people of Israel.

David as we said was a shepherd.

Was definitely not a giant and somehow decided to take a slingshot, put a little stone in it, call God's name, said "God's going to be with me." Swung the rock and hit the giant right in the forehead and he kills the giant and saved the Jewish people from this evil person.

King Saul was the king at that time.

And King Saul made David the commander of his troops.

This was the beginnings of David and winning the battles and making his name to later become the King.

So according to Jewish tradition which book did David write? The Song of Songs, the Book of Love, the Book of Psalms, or Kings I? Psalms. According to Jewish tradition, David wrote the Book of Psalms. Before David was a warrior and King, he worked as, a shepherd, a chef, a full-time student, or a carpenter? A shepherd.

Before David was a warrior and king, he worked as a shepherd.

What was the outcome of David winning the battle with Goliath? Did he start selling specialty made slingshots? Did he continue to be a shepherd? Did he flee the land? Or did he become the commander in King Saul's army? He became the commander in King Saul's army.

After David won the battle with Goliath, King Saul made him the commander.

So we just learned that David won a number of battles.

Starting with killing Goliath, and then he was made the commander in chief for King Saul.

When David became a king himself, the first action was to capture what is now known as the City of David in Jerusalem.

And to build himself a palace.

Once David established safety he brought the Holy Ark, the Ark that was started out in the Tabernacle when the Jews were in the desert for 40 years.

He brought the Holy Ark to Jerusalem and made sure that it went safely from where it started in Shiloh to its new home.

David really wanted to build a house for God.

His thinking was, "Who am I? "A human who has this beautiful palace that I just made.

"How can it be that God does not have a home or a palace?" Or what will later be known as the Temple.

But God said, through the prophet Nathan, that David wasn't allowed to build the Temple, to build God's home.

Because according to God, David had bloody hands.

Meaning that David was in too many battles.

He couldn't build this home.

But, God promised to David, that his son, Solomon, would build the Temple, and that the continuation of Kings will be from him and his bloodline.

And it says in Samuel II, "When your days are done, "and you lie with your fathers, "I will raise up your offspring after you.

"I will establish his kingdom.

"He shall build a house for My name, "and I will establish his royal throne forever." So although David was not allowed to build the Temple, David was promised by God, that his son, Solomon, would build it.

And that the reign of kingdom will continue through his bloodline, with his son being the next king.

I'd like you to pause the video, and please write in complete sentences.

In your own words, please write why God did not allow King David to build the Temple.

And then write what was God's promise to him.

So press pause, complete your task, and when you're ready to continue, press play.

So, as we said, King David was not allowed to build the Temple.

Because he was in too many wars.

But God promised David, that his son, Solomon, would be able to be king, and his son, Solomon, would build the Temple.

Solomon does become king.

Solomon was known for a number of things.

But the main thing that he was known for was being wise, for being very rich or wealthy, and for the immense amount of writing that he did.

Out of these he's most known for and his biggest achievement was to build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

According to Jewish traditions, Solomon is the author of the Book of Proverbs, the Book of Song of Songs, and the Book of Ecclesiastes.

These three books, can be found in the writings, the Tanakh.

The section with the K, the Ketuvim.

Here's the picture of what the first Temple might have looked like.

It took seven years for King Solomon to build the Temple.

And it was made out of stone and gold.

And we also have to remember that this entire structure was built by hand.

They didn't have machines like we have today.

And it was definitely not rendered on a computer.

So as I said, it took Solomon 7 years.

And it is built out of stone and cedar, it is a very strong type of wood, and gold.

Once the Temple was built and finished, this was where ritual worship used to take place.

And the way you worship God during the time of the Temple, was similar to the time of the Tabernacle when the Jews were in the desert, was in forms of sacrificing.

Giving animals or grains to God on an altar.

The way in which one should sacrifice and what is one giving for what, are all described in the Torah.

So now, press pause and complete the following task.

I'd like you to answer the following questions in complete sentences.

What was something that King Solomon was allowed to do that King David was not? How many years did it take to build the first Temple? How did the Jewish people worship God when the Temple stood? So pause the video to complete this task.

And then press play to continue when you're finished.

Hope you're already done.

So one task that King Solomon was allowed to do that King David was not, was to build the Temple.

And it took Solomon seven years to build the Temple.

And when the Jewish people were worshipping God during the time of the Temple, they would offer sacrifices.

And the sacrifices and what was given and how, are described in the Torah, and through some of the oral law as well.

The First Temple stood for about 400 years.

And then the Temple was destroyed.

And the Temple was actually destroyed twice.

The first time that the Temple was destroyed was in 586 BCE, before the common era.

And the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians.

Now with the Temple's destruction, it started to change the way that Jewish practise looked.

The Jewish people were no longer able to worship by sacrificing in the Temple.

And their homeland, the centre of Jerusalem was no longer somewhere that they were able to access.

For many, they were exiled.

That means they were sent out and kicked out of the land.

Many landed in Babylonia or Syria.

Others were dispersed into other places.

Eventually, many years later, they were allowed back into Jerusalem.

And they rebuilt the Temple.

In 515 BCE, before the common era, they rebuilt the Second Temple.

At first it was a little bit smaller and not as beautiful as the First Temple.

But they still had some of the main pieces that travelled from the Jewish people in the desert all the way to the Temple and left within the exile, and was put back in the Temple.

Much later, when King Herod was king in Israel, he renovated the Temple to make it actually as bigger and more beautiful.

Today if you go to Jerusalem and you see the Western Wall, that's actually the western wall of what Herod built.

Unfortunately, in 70 CE, 70 in the common era, the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.

The marking of the destruction of the Temple, is a day of mourning that many Jewish people take.

Every year, in the Jewish month of Av, on the 9th day, many people will have a fast day.

A day that they are not eating or drinking.

And it is a day of sitting and mourning.

So some people have the custom of sitting on the floor, or wearing things that are not so comfortable.

And if you read about the destruction of the Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem.

In the Book Eikha, which is in the Book of Writings.

In English, that book's name is Lamentations.

And through tradition, there's also some really sad poems that have been written through the ages.

With the destruction of the Second Temple and the exiles, this totally changed the way that Jewish practise was.

It was clear now that worshipping in the Temple by giving sacrifices was no longer going to be the way that Jews were able to worship God and to practise the way that they are used to.

So this starts the period known as Rabbinic Judaism.

It's where we can see the closest relationship to how Jews in today's day and age practise.

But before we get there, let's get back to the story.

Yavneh, which is a city in the north of Israel, shows the birth of Rabbinic Judaism.

What does this mean? It means that Judaism moved to a religion focusing on the Torah and Jewish law, rather than focusing on temple worship.

Everything that was happening in the First and Second Temple and having political power.

Because the Jewish people were no longer in charge of Jerusalem.

One major thing that changed was that instead of worshipping in the Temple, three times a day with sacrifices, worship took on the form of prayer.

And in many communities it is seen as an obligation to pray three times a day.

In morning, noon, and at night.

This according to many opinions replaces the sacrifices that were once given.

What are some changes that happened to Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple? Judaism moved to a focus on Torah and Jewish law, the Jewish people travelled through the desert, nothing changed, or Jewish practise did not change, the Jewish people only moved out of Jerusalem.

Judaism moved to a focus on Torah and Jewish law.

So some of the changes that happened to Judaism after the destruction of the Second Temple was that Judaism focused on Torah and Jewish law.

So the destruction of the Second Temple.

The Talmud, which we're going to talk about what that is very soon.

Retells a story of a Rabbi during this time.

His name was Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.

And he escaped the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE.

The siege means that the Romans didn't let any one in or out of Jerusalem.

And that caused a lot of pain and fear.

Rabbai Johanan ben Zakkai foresaw, could think into the future of the destruction of Jerusalem and ran away to a city called Yavneh.

It was in Yavneh, that he and other Rabbis decided to start up new places of study and to think of ways in which Judaism will now be able to be practised and what would that look like.

It was a continuation of what was going on, of the conversations that were happening in Jerusalem were just taking place in a new space due to not being able to be there any more.

Traditionally, how many time a day does a Jewish person pray? Five times, three times, one time, or never.

Three.

According to Jewish tradition, a person prays three times a day.

And you'll find that there are some Jewish people who pray three times a day.

There are some Jewish people who pray once a day.

And there are some Jewish people who don't pray at all or may would only go to pray once a week.

So now we go to the oral and written Torah.

So as we learned, the Torah, according to Jewish tradition was given at Sinai And in most opinions the Torah is everlasting.

Meaning it's going to exist forever.

And according to many, the Torah is also known as the written law.

Because it was the laws written down and passed on from God to Moses.

There's also the oral law.

The oral law means that there were things that weren't written down but helped explain the laws.

This was what was passed down.

And in some opinions, this oral law was also given to Moses at Sinai.

And the same time that Moses was given the Torah he was also given the oral law to explain the mitzvot.

The Talmud, is a collection of teachings and discussions from early Rabbis about the Torah and Jewish life.

What the Talmud does, is that it takes the oral law and wrote it down.

Now it was written down to two parts.

One part is called the Mishna, and one part is called the Gemara.

So the Mishna was the first part that was written down.

It was compiled.

He didn't come up with the ideas.

He was part of the learning that was going on and wrote down the ideas.

So it was compiled by Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi in 200 CE.

So it was actually quite some time after the destruction of the Temple.

But he wrote it down so that the oral law wouldn't be forgotten over time.

He was worried that now the Jewish people were in exile and now that the Temple wasn't standing, and the Jewish people weren't primarily in Jerusalem, the laws that were being passed down, in his opinion, from Moses all the way to his day, were going to get forgotten.

So he needed to write them down.

And he wrote them in what we now know as the Mishna.

The Mishna explains how to apply and how to follow Mitzvot.

Eventually about 200 years later, two more Rabbis, Rav Ashi and Ravina, compiled what's known as the Gemara.

The Gemara is a collection of discussion and comments relating to the Mishnah and Jewish life at the time.

The Gemara is written in a way where actually you can see the Rabbis having a conversation.

So you might read that Rabbia A said this and Rabbi B said this.

And you're just going to read the whole conversation.

Many times the conversations are about Jewish law.

And bring in quotes from the Torah to prove their points.

Sometimes, your going to have stories about foods that Rabbis were eating, or customs that were taking place in different areas that the Rabbis were living in.

And sometimes there are stories that had gotten passed down from generation to generation, to better understand or to learn new things from some of the stories in the Torah.

As on the side, the Gemara is really fun to learn.

And much later, many many year later, they became an idea to study one page of Talmud a day.

And if you do that, it's going to take you seven and a half years to learn every single page.

All right.

Please pause the video to complete the following task.

Answering the questions in complete sentences, what are the Mishnah and Gemara? Why did Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi compile the Mishna? Number three.

If you were Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi, would you do the same? Why or why not? Pause the video to complete your task and press play to resume when you're finished.

So how was that for you today? We went through thousands of years of Jewish history together.

We learned about King David, and how the kingdoms are going to continue to go through him.

We learned about King Solomon.

And Solomon building the Temple.

We learned about the destructions of the Temple and what that did for Judaism and how that changed the way Jewish practise looked like.

And then we learned about the compilation and putting together the Mishna and the Gemara to make up the Talmud.

Before we finish, I'd like you to take a moment and write down three things that you learned today.

And if you want, feel free to share those with a parent or carer or friend and let them know what you've been learning.

I'm sure they want to know.

Don't forget to now take the end of the lesson quiz.

Also, if you want to share your work with us, ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

We would love to see what you've been doing.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

And happy learning.