Jerusalem in its glory: Reconstructing the Sukkot pilgrimage to the Second Temple

“One who did not see Jerusalem in its glory,” says the Talmud, “never saw a truly beautiful city.” The glory of Jerusalem was undoubtedly at its height during Sukkot, when thousands of Jews throughout Israel and the Diaspora went to Jerusalem to visit the Temple and bring festive sacrifices during their visit.

Two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple, it is difficult – even for those familiar with the Mishnaic and Talmudic texts that describe the holiday – to truly comprehend what life was like at that time. The vast technological and scientific advancements, the political and social changes that have taken place in the past 2,000 years, the pace of life, modes of travel, and the entire religious experience of visiting the Temple and bringing animal sacrifices are vastly different from our contemporary understanding.

While the model of the Temple at the Israel Museum and the 3D Virtual Tour of the Temple offered at the Western Wall provide us with an idea of what Jerusalem looked like 2,000 years ago, let’s try to abandon the hi-tech look and use our powers of imagination to understand what the process of aliyah la’regel – the ascent to Jerusalem for the holiday –  might have been like.

Short of reviving Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s 2,000-Year-Old Man, the works of Josephus, the Roman-Jewish historian and military leader, author of The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews, is the best source about life in Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. 

In addition, this writer consulted with several prominent historians of the period, including professors Isaiah Gafni and Daniel Schwartz of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Dr. Malka Z. Simkovich, director and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society; Steven Fine, professor of Jewish history at Yeshiva University and director of the YU Center for Israel Studies; and Dr. Orit Peleg-Barkat, head of the Classical Archaeology Department at Hebrew University.

The journey of the pilgrims to Jerusalem 

Travelers from the Galilee coming to Jerusalem for Sukkot and the pilgrimage holidays, according to recent research (Biblical Archaeological Review, 2021), took one of three routes. The shortest route, which took three days, passed through Tzipori, Nazareth, Tirza, Nablus, Shiloh, and Beit El. This route was avoided by many, according to historians, because of attacks by the Samaritans on the Jews as they traveled to Jerusalem.

An eastern route, preferred by some, avoided Samaria and took five to seven days. Pilgrims would cross the Jordan River, pass through the Roman district of Perea, east of the Jordan River, and then cross back, passing through Beit She’an, Sukkot, and Jericho on their way to Jerusalem. The third route was closer to the Mediterranean Sea and followed the coastal plain. This route went through Megiddo, Lod, and Beit Horon.

Archaeological evidence

Finding archaeological evidence of aliyah laregel can be elusive, says archaeologist Peleg-Barkat. “Since pilgrimage is an action that takes place in a certain time, it’s a movement of people. It’s very hard to record it in the archaeological evidence. So we have circumstantial evidence for the existence of pilgrims in Jerusalem, and this evidence extends over several types of both small finds and architectural settings.”

One interesting source, she explains, was a discovery made in 2016 by the father-son archaeologist team of Yigal and Yotam Tepper, who studied the roads that the pilgrims took on their way from Judea to Jerusalem. Along the roads, remnants of ritual baths were discovered. These ritual baths were not connected with any settlement and were apparently used by the pilgrims. 

The Tepper team found that some of these roads had steps cut into the bedrock near places such as Horvat Hanut in the hills west of Jerusalem and the Valley of Elah in the lowlands. In previous decades, archaeologists had identified these cut steps with the Imperial Roman system of roads. However, steps cut into bedrock are not usually part of Roman roads.

Moreover, all of the roads that had steps cut into the bedrock led to Jerusalem. The Teppers suggested that these roads with the cut steps were made by the pilgrims who were headed for Jerusalem. In an article from the Biblical Archaeological Society Library, they write: “In the Second Temple period, stone vessels were valued because they were not subject to ritual impurity under Jewish law. In our opinion, the stone steps in these pilgrimage roads should be seen in this context: In many cases, the steps were cut as part of the preparation of ‘pure roads’ so that the priests and the people could avoid impurity on their way to the Temple in Jerusalem.”

Additional archaeological evidence of the arrival of pilgrims for the festivals is the Theodotus Inscription, which was found south of the Temple Mount, in the city of David, on the wall of a synagogue dating from the reign of King Herod, who ruled from 37 BCE to 4 CE. 

The Greek inscription reads, “Theodotus Vettanos [or, son of Vettanos], priest and synagogue leader [archisynagogos], son of a synagogue leader [archisynagogos], built [or ‘restored’] this synagogue for the purpose of the reading of the law and for the instruction of the commandments of the law, the hostel, and guest rooms, and the baths for foreigners who need them. This synagogue was established by his forefathers, the elders, and Simonides.’

“This suggests,” says Simkovich, “that the synagogue that was built was not just a place for prayer, for public gatherings, but it was a place for people to stay when they came to Jerusalem regularly.”

Visitors from the Diaspora

What about the Diaspora Jews? Did they also make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the holidays? Schwartz and Gafni speculate that most of those who came were from lands closer to Israel, such as Egypt and Syria, and smaller numbers from Transjordan. 

Simkovich says that the vast majority of pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the holidays were from Judea and the Galilee. “I don’t know that north of the Galilee or north of say, Antioch, most Jews were making the trip, and I don’t know that significant numbers of Jews were crossing the Sinai desert to make the trip regularly,” she says.

“I think that pilgrimage was a really powerful idea in the Jewish imagination in the Hellenistic world,” she continues. “Even though we don’t have compelling evidence that the majority of Jews outside Judea and the Galilee made the pilgrimage, those Jews too valued the commandment and expressed their commitment to the Temple by sending money and by writing about the Temple and by writing about pilgrimage. That literature and later liturgy became a substitute for pilgrimage in communities where pilgrimage was difficult to do.”

Here, too, archaeological evidence indicates that Jews from the Diaspora did come to Jerusalem and retained their connection to the city. Archaeologist Benjamin Mazar (1906-1995) discovered stones located south of the Temple Mount that contained an inscription mentioning the donation of a certain Paris, son of Akeson, who came from Rhodes, who donated funds for paving the Temple stones. 

Arriving in Jerusalem

When the pilgrims reached Jerusalem, they were looking forward to participating in the sacrificial rites as well as the specific Sukkot rituals of the waving of the four species; the Temple willow (aravah) ceremony; the water libations; and Simchat Beit Hashoeva, the water drawing festival at the Temple, which was especially joyous. Moreover, the visitors were caught up in the excitement of entering Israel’s capital along with thousands of other visitors from Israel and the Diaspora, not only to participate in these rituals but to experience Jerusalem.

Fine compares Jerusalem during the three pilgrimage festivals to modern-day cities during conventions, when the population temporarily swells due to visitors. “It was a convention city. It was a temple city,” he says. 

Gedalyahu Alon, in Jews, Judaism and the Classical World – Studies in Jewish History in the Times of the Second Temple and Talmud, points out that the Temple not only served as the focal point of Jewish ritual during that time, but as a source of teaching and inspiration, where the leading rabbis and scholars of the time taught their students.

Visitors coming to the Temple during Sukkot and the other festivals were dazzled by the visual beauty of the Herodian Temple. “One who has not seen Herod’s building has never seen a beautiful building in his life,” records the Talmud.  

Our 21st-century world is filled with external noise from cars, buses, cell phones, radios, and other devices. Visitors to the Western Wall today are taking photos, chatting on their phones, or writing messages. The throngs that came to the Temple for the festivals did not have the competing sounds of such devices.

Two thousand years ago, there were very few sources of light, so when torches were lit in Jerusalem at the Simchat Beit Hashoeva, the illumination was stark. And, when, according to Talmudic legend, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel juggled eight flaming torches, there were no smartphones to compete with the light of his torches.

The Temple and conflict with the Romans

In his article on the observance of Sukkot in the time of the Second Temple, Alon writes that the masses of people who came to Jerusalem resented the Roman presence in the city, which occasionally led to conflict with the Roman authorities on the Temple Mount. 

Schwartz explains that the existence of the Temple and its significance as a national symbol were a source of conflict with the Romans. “The Temple stood for divine sovereignty. This is the house of God ­– this is his palace. That is a political idea, which means that there is a holy land and the land has a king. That’s the kind of thing that the Romans would not be happy about. 

“The Romans would be satisfied if the Jews looked at the Temple just as a religious place, where they would get together to worship their God in heaven. But if God is on earth, then there are competing sovereignties in the same piece of land, which makes for war.”

He adds that the nationalistic feelings surrounding the Temple existed, especially for the Diaspora Jews, who were used to living under foreign rule. “If they get to Jerusalem, it arouses memories of ‘Once upon a time we had a monarchy of our own, and the Good Books promised there would be a monarchy of our own again.’

“People start getting excited. Philo [the Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, 20 BCE-50 CE] talks about national feelings being aroused when people meet each other who hadn’t known each other before, and when they see the size of the nation, they get the feeling that we are a massive nation.”

The numbers game

How many people lived in Jerusalem during the late Second Temple period, and what were the numbers of pilgrims who visited Jerusalem on Sukkot? 

Fine cautions that one cannot rely on the numbers listed in sources such as Josephus’ writings. “You can never trust numbers in this period,” he says, “because modern people love numbers and ancient people didn’t. It’s a modernist question.” 

For example, when discussing the number of Jews who journeyed to Jerusalem for Passover, Josephus claims that over two million Jews came to participate in the Passover sacrifice, an unlikely number.  Schwartz adds, “Very frequently, numbers in antiquity are exaggerated. They had no way of knowing, and people didn’t expect you to have exact figures.” 

Gafni points out that the inaccurate, exaggerated numbers might have been provided by people who came on the pilgrimage, in which case the numbers would be enhanced and not necessarily accurate. 

While no one can provide exact estimates, Schwartz says that the population of Jerusalem during the late Second Temple period was between 40,000 and 60,000. This figure is based on the supply of food and water available, the population density, and the available rooms in the houses of the period. During the pilgrimage holidays of Passover, Sukkot, and Shavuot, he says, the population may have doubled to between 80,000 and 120,000.

During Sukkot, was Jerusalem noisy, crowded, and sometimes uncomfortable? The answer is undoubtedly yes. Yet, the Mishnah (Avot 5:5), in listing 10 miracles that took place in Temple times, states: “No man said to his fellow: The place is too congested for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.” According to some, this statement refers to the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the festivals, with everyone finding proper accommodation. Others explain that, in fact, Jerusalem was crowded.

Despite the crowds, according to this interpretation of the Mishnah, the miracle was that no one felt pressed because of their love of Jerusalem and the Temple and the feeling of affection and brotherly love prevailed among the people.

In the context of life in Jerusalem today, such behavior would indeed be considered a miracle.