The story of Passover: Jewish-Roman wars and the power of friendship

The reference to Jews as “the people of the book”is so common as to have become cliché, so I am surprised that it is not true when it comes to Jewish history. In fact, with a few exceptions, such as Shevet Yehudah, an account of the trials experienced by the Jews of Spain and Portugal written by Solomon Ibn Verga (1520), there is an 1,800-year gap between Flavius Josephus’s War of the Jews and the modern Jewish histories of Heinrich Graetz and Simon Dubnow of the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively. An enigma involving the Passover Haggadah typifies this gap.

The origins of the Haggadah are not clear, but much of the version we now use existed by the 6th or 7th century CE. The first complete siddur (prayer book) compiled by Amram bar Sheshna in the 8th century CE included a Haggadah. 

The primary focus of the Passover Seder is the retelling of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; based on the biblical verse (Exodus 13:8) “And you shall explain to your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.’” But the vehicle for doing so includes a strange night-long meeting of five sages – rabbis Eliezer (ben Hurcanus), Yehoshua (ben Hanania), Elazar ben Azariya, Akiva, and Tarfon – in the coastal town of Bnei Brak (Beneberak) to discuss the Exodus, an event that took place well over a millennium earlier.

The Jewish-Roman wars and the Haggadah

What would have been the purpose of the meeting? Neither family members nor students were present, so it was not a Seder in the usual context. Aharon E. Wexler suggests it was a meeting of anti-Roman activists discussing the Exodus as a source of inspiration. He writes that it took place during the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE) at the home of Rabbi Akiva, its spiritual head. It would have been too dangerous for family members to be present, and the students stood guard outside to warn of danger. 

However, Mordechai Beck points out that some of the rabbis were no longer alive at the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt, so the dateline is incorrect. Beck suggests that the lesson the rabbis teach us in the Haggadah is one of eternal friendship, a friendship that has the power to take us, the readers, annually out of Egypt. Daniel B. Schwartz takes this approach a step further by delving into lingering Hillel/Shammai rivalries, and pointing out that the rabbis who met in Bnei Brak were both friends and political allies in the activities of the post-Temple Sanhedrin. 

In addition to the five rabbis mentioned, the Haggadah refers to four additional sages, including Rabban Gamliel, who is credited with saying that whoever does not explain the three symbols of the Seder – the Passover offering, matzah, and bitter herbs – has not fulfilled his duty 

This Gamliel, Gamliel II (also known as Gamliel of Yavne), is the second of six Gamliels who were prominent Jewish leaders in Judea/Palestine from the 1st to the 5th century CE. The honorific “Rabban” refers to those who served as head (nasi) of the Sanhedrin. We know that this is Gamliel II, and not his grandfather, Gamliel I, who lived during Temple times, because the Haggadah quotes Gamliel as referring to the “Passover offering which our fathers ate in Temple days…” 

The sages named in the Haggadah were contemporaries. They were nine of the 120 Tannaim whose views appear extensively in the Talmudic (Mishnaic) writings of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. However, scholars such as Jacob Neusner have pointed out that despite its central position in Jewish life, the Talmud is not a historical document. It does not “spell out events that happened at a particular place or time.” 

Because of Josephus, we know about the first Jewish revolt against the Romans (67-73 CE). Yet, until the discovery in the early 1960s of letters between Bar Kochba and his subordinates, the primary source of information about the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-136 CE) was Roman historian Cassius Dio, who noted that the Romans paid a heavy price in casualties for their victory. Archaeologist Yigal Yadin noted in Bar-Kokhba, 1971, that other than occasional references to coins minted in this period, references to this revolt in the Talmud and the Midrash are scanty and vague. 

In fact, another Jewish revolt against Roman authority occurred during the years 115-117, before the Bar Kochba Revolt. This was the Kitos War, a name derived from the name of the Roman commander, Quietus, who subdued it. Jewish references to this uprising are even more fragmentary than in the case of the revolt led by Bar Kochba. Christian writers are the primary sources. 

The Kitos War involved uprisings in the Jewish Diaspora, primarily in Cyrenaica (eastern Libya), Egypt, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia (Babylon). These were not small limited insurrections. Edward Gibbons (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) cites Cassius Dio as saying that hundreds of thousands were brutally massacred on each side. Moreover, some of the fighting took place in Judea itself, in the town of Lydda (Lod). Here, rebel leaders, such as Lukuas (whose name does not appear in Jewish writings), were besieged by the Roman army. Gamliel II, trapped in Lydda, died there in 118 CE.

Three multi-year rebellions, each of which was a serious threat to the Roman Empire, took place within the space of only 65 years. If the meeting of five Jewish leaders in Bnei Brak really happened, it may have occurred during the lead up to the Kitos War or during it. It would also have taken place a short distance from Lydda, so the need for secrecy and vigilance, as suggested by Wexler, is reasonable and might explain the odd nature of the meeting recounted in the Haggadah.

It is common to ascribe the dispersion of the Jews and the subsequent 2,000 years of wandering to the first revolt, the one that ended at Masada. Yet, a significant number of Jews, a majority of the population of the Holy Land, remained and prospered in the land for at least 600 years after the fall of Masada. The remains of 80 synagogues built during this period are evident. (Prominent examples include Bar’am, Korazim, and Beit Alpha.) The Sanhedrin continued to function until the 4th century, and a Jewish patriarchate continued to exist until at least 425 CE, when the last incumbent, Gamliel VI, died. 

There were two additional uprisings by Jews in Palestine against Roman rule. In both, the rebels tried to take advantage of Roman preoccupation with disturbances elsewhere. Both failed. The details are from non-Jewish sources. 

The Gallus Revolt, directed against Constantine Gallus, ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), took place from 351 to 352 CE. The focal points were at Tzippori and Tiberias, but there is evidence that it extended as far south as Lydda. The senior Roman commander, Ursicinus, put down the revolt, killing thousands of rebels. 

The last Jewish effort to gain autonomy in Palestine before modern times, the revolt against Heraclius, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, broke out in 614 CE in the midst of a broader conflict between Heraclius and the Sasanians (Persians). Twenty thousand to 26,000 Jewish men, recruited from a Jewish population estimated to range from 150,000 to 400,000, fought in this campaign. There were heavy losses on both sides. Initial Jewish successes, including a Jewish takeover of Jerusalem, came to naught in 617 CE when the Sasanians reneged on their support for the Jews.

Yes, I know, only the victors write history. However, that is not a good enough reason for ignoring 600 years of Jewish life in the Land of Israel, especially now during a time of growing antisemitism and denial of a Jewish connection to the land.■

Jacob Sivak, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor who taught at the University of Waterloo, Ontario.