Book Club meets on
December 5, 2004 at
1 PM
In the first century of the Common
Era, as the Roman Empire reigned over Judea, the tiny nation rose in
revolt.
For several years, Jewish
revolutionaries drove mighty Rome into retreat, seating their own regime
in defiance. Yet at the very time that the empire's counterattack demanded
the utmost unity from the insurrectionists, they fell into a virtual civil
war.
The Jewish resistance fragmented between upper and lower classes,
the priestly caste and the masses, fundamentalists and progressives.
As
the Romans advanced through Judea, the Jewish forces turned their swords
against each other. Thus divided (the Jews) could not agree on how
to defend Jerusalem. Titus and his troops re conquered the city and burnt
the Second Temple to the ground. The Jews came to believe that the Second
Temple was lost, less to the Romans than to their own pure and groundless
hatred.
In his book Jew Vs Jew, Samuel Freedman presents perhaps the present
day equivalent of the destruction of the Second Temple, describing battles
between current day Jewish factions. Will these battles have the
same impact as those that led to the destruction of the second Temple?
On
Sunday, December 5 at 1:00pm, the BSKI Book Club will hold its first session,
discussing Samuel Freedman's book, discussions that can relate to the time
of the Second Temple, current day Judaism and our endeavors at BSKI.
For
those who do not have access to the book, a limited number of copies are
available at the BSKI office.
For more information and/or to RSVP, please
contact Ralph Graff at ffmdrj@slu.edu