[Avodah] When was the last korban?

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, July 19, 2007 10:41 pm, Richard Wolpoe wrote:
: I think the tragedy is self-explanatory.  At one time - for a period
: of 65 years - the ruins of the Temple still stood. It was STILL a
: common focal point for all Jews -  and  one could view the dimensions
: etc [a limited masechss Middos of sort.]  Plus it functioned asa
: matzeiva or a Tziyyun for the former Mikdsah that stood there

And the loss of that is on the same scale as the churbanos? Or of the
loss of the messianic dream 5 years later?

The har was only plowed over for 2 years before Bar Kochva came to
power, and if the theory is right, it was less than 5 years before the
ground was prepared for his attempt to build a bayis. So, the gemara
put on the list of 9 beAv tragedies that the har habayis was cleared
off for a few years?

I took it for granted that this doesn't on the face of it measure up
to the other elements on the list.

Besides, we today have a "tziyun" for the BHMQ, and as RRW points out,
the har is currently worse than plowed over. And since archeologists
found stones from the BHMQ even after the Byzantines, Moslems and
Crusaders built there, even plowed over didn't mean all signs beyond
the kotel were gone.

I therefore think that the idea that the plowing marked the inability
to know or have access to maqom hamizbeiach and ended the last
attempts at qorbanos to have merit. It explains why the gemara takes
it for granted that the loss was as big as the loss of the BHMQ
structure.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
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