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Jerusalem and the Rabbis, A.D. 70-500

Before the disaster of A.D. 70, much of the direct political and religious power over Jewish life was vested in a council of the most important Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, the Great Sanhedrin of Israel. Their Greek and Roman overlords granted this body considerable self-government, up to but just short of capital punishment. As the highest native court in both civil and ecclesiastical matters, and operating under the authority of the high priest, the Great Sanhedrin created and enforced the laws governing the Jewish people.

For many decades, the Pharisees exercised the dominant influence in the Sanhedrin, though there were Sadducean elements. 1 For a time the governing body was led by pairs of Pharisaic teachers called zuggoth (Hebrew, "pairs"), one of whom was the nasi (Hebrew, "president") and the other the ab beth din (Hebrew, "chief of the court"). 2 The Pharisees also predominated among the scribes and rabbis. (Before A.D. 70 the term rabbi—Hebrew, literally "my great one" or "my master"—was a title of respect given to the great teachers and leaders of Judaism by their disciples.)

Far more important than the influence and power they wielded before A.D. 70 is the fate of the twenty-four parties and sects of Judaism 3 at the time. The only group to survive the national cataclysm was the Pharisees. When the Temple was destroyed and the last vestiges of Jewish autonomy disappeared from Jerusalem, so did all the splinter groups of the religion except the Pharisees. In practical terms, this means that every form of Judaism today ultimately derives from the Pharisees. In The Earthly Jerusalem, Norman Kotker offered this analysis:

The temple priests had lost their function; they and their descendants, many named Aaronson or Cohen, which means priest, became merely a caste with minor ritual obligations undistinguished otherwise from the mass of Jews. Their aristocratic allies, the Sadducees, had lost the basis of their power. There was no longer any Jewish political administration for them to control. Whatever national life remained now centered on the Pharisees, who devoted themselves to preserving the only precious thing the Jews had left, the law which they endlessly studied, memorized, and interpreted. By keeping them a people apart, the law in turn was to preserve the Jews. 4

From Jerusalem to Jabneh

In the wake of the great devastation, a reorganization of Jewish life and government developed gradually at Jabneh, or Jamnia, between Jerusalem and the coast, near Rehovot in modern Israel. Jabneh thus became the new center of religious learning. A leader in the work of reconstruction was the preeminent Pharisaic scholar, Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai. Seeing that the city was doomed to destruction before the end of the First Jewish Revolt, he had left Jerusalem and gone to Jabneh to establish a cultural center for the Jewish people. 5

The story of his escape from Jerusalem is recounted in rabbinic literature. He was carried out of the city in a coffin by his disciples, and once outside the gates, went to the camp of the Roman general (and future emperor) Vespasian to request that the Jewish sages of Jochanan's generation be saved—which was to say, the town of Jabneh with its teachers and masters of the Torah. He was given permission to go, though probably not to reestablish a supreme institution for the nation. Jabneh had been the site of a small bet din (law court), as well as the seat of the sages of the family of Bene Bathyra. "Thus," the modern Jewish scholar Isidore Epstein notes, "for the first time was Jerusalem and its Temple given up by men representing those elements in the Jewish people who, with all their patriotism and attachment to the Holy Land, did not want spiritual progress to be subjected to geographical limitations." 6

Though ben Zakkai had foreseen the destruction of Jerusalem, when word reached him that the Temple had been destroyed, he reacted with profound grief: "Rabban Johanan sat and watched in the direction of the wall of Jerusalem to learn what was happening there, even as Eli sat upon his seat by the wayside watching [1 Sam. 4:13]. When R. Johanan b. Zakkai saw that the Temple was destroyed and the heikal [the Sanctuary] burnt, he stood and rent his garments, took off his tefillin [phylacteries], and sat weeping, as did his pupils with him." 7

Jochanan spent much time consoling the righteous among his followers, who lamented the ruin of the Temple. 8 But more than that, he worked tirelessly to reconstruct the leadership of the Jewish nation by building up the bet din at Jabneh. The Jews still had the Torah, and that became the center of Jewish life, their anchor and basis for decision making in place of the Temple and priestly rule.

Ben Zakkai was succeeded as president of the bet din and patriarch of Judaea by Gamaliel II, the grandson of Paul's teacher (see Acts 5:34; 22:3) and the great-great-grandson of Hillel, the most famous and profound of the rabbinic authorities. (Hillel was one of the zuggoth in charge of the Sanhedrin.) During Gamaliel II's lifetime at Jabneh, the bet din was reconstructed as the Great Sanhedrin and entrusted with the functions of education, legislation, adjudication, and government. 9 It was at once both an academy and a legislative body. This reconstituted Sanhedrin lost no time in propounding a wide range of religious, civil, and criminal laws—as far as Roman rulers allowed. Measures were adopted to deal with rules that had centered on the Temple and priesthood but were now thrown into chaos. The liturgy was recast and adapted to include petitions for the swift restoration of the Temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

The Sanhedrin soon established itself as the central religious authority in Judaism, with jurisdiction over Jewish life recognized by Jews as far distant as Persia and Media. One of the most important ways the Jabneh Sanhedrin exercised authority over world Jewry was by taking over the prerogative, hitherto reserved for the Jerusalem Sanhedrin, of deciding the liturgical calendar, communicating to distant Jewish communities the day of the new moon (new month) and, thus, the times for celebrating ensuing feasts and fasts. This Sanhedrin also became the Jewish nation's accredited representative to the Roman authorities.

Educationally, the most important task in which the Sanhedrin and its sages were engaged was the teaching and transmission of the oral Torah. The rabbis believed that God had revealed two Torahs to Moses on Mount Sinai. The first, or written, Torah became known as the five books of Moses in the Old Testament, also called the Pentateuch or the Law. The second was the oral Torah, which was handed down orally from one rabbinic master to another. 10 Preserving and teaching the oral Torah was carried out through two methods that had been practiced in academies and schools in Palestine and Babylonia long before the destruction of the Temple. One method was called Midrash, and the other was called Mishnah.

Midrash is derived from the Hebrew root darash, meaning "to teach, to inquire," and involved the explication and interpretation of the biblical text by discussion—that is, by asking questions about a specific biblical verse or set of verses. When this method of exposition yielded a point of law or a legal teaching, it was categorized as Halakhah, from the Hebrew verb halakh, "to walk." It showed the way a person should walk, what path one ought to follow to please God, by making clear how the law could be obeyed in every detail. D. S. Russell has said that halakhic Midrash "was an exegesis of biblical laws out of which could be formed authoritative regulations for the life of the people. It is this Halakah which forms the oral tradition or unwritten Torah of Judaism." 11

When the midrashic method yielded anything that was not Halakhah, or Jewish law, the exposition was categorized as Aggadah, from the Hebrew root nagad, "to tell, to recount, to narrate." This narrative part of rabbinic literature developed and expounded biblical stories rather than biblical law. Aggadah is composed, then, of illustrations, legend, folklore, and exhortation as well as true stories. Though it was and is highly valued in Judaism, it did not have the binding authority of Halakhah.

Though Jesus was sometimes critical of oral tradition or the "tradition of the elders" (see, for example, Matt. 15:2-3), he also recognized the value of the Midrash and the midrashic method. He said that scribes—they were the practitioners of the midrashic method in his day—who became disciples of the true master, or "great one," were like a householder who brought forth out of his treasure things both old and new (see Matt. 13:52). Jesus himself used midrash to teach the truths of the gospel. For example, much of the Gospel of John is halakhah, or explication of the old laws He had given: the meaning of the serpent raised up in the wilderness (John 3); the bread of life (John 6); and the woman taken in adultery (John 8). The danger, of course, was that without the Spirit, midrashic expositors could and did look beyond the mark (see Jacob 4:14) and set aside the very laws they were embellishing.

In addition to the midrashic method of perpetuating the oral law, after the fall of the Temple another method of teaching the oral Torah became prominent. Instead of elaborating one verse of scripture at a time, the Jabneh sages, under the direction of Jochanan ben Zakkai, began to arrange the Halakhot (plural of Halakhah), or individual laws, of Judaism in order according to subject rather than according to the biblical text. This method was known as Mishnah, from the Hebrew root shanah, "repetition," and the sum of the repetition was thus known as the Mishnah. The Mishnah has been described, again by D. S. Russell, as the "systematic (topical) classification of the discussions and decisions of Rabbis . . . as to the right interpretation and expansion of the Torah." 12 The Mishnah, like the Midrash, also contains Halakhah and Aggadah, but Halakhah predominates overwhelmingly in the Mishnah.

Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai led out in practicing the mishnaic method, and a later teacher named Rabbi Akiva (d. 135) clarified and elaborated the arrangement of the Halakhot, or laws, as they continued to be passed down orally. Akiva's pupil, Rabbi Meir, further refined, organized, and expanded the body of mishnaic exposition. This process of organization and refinement reached its peak in the work of Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi ("Judah the Prince"), the greatest of the mishnaic sages. Rabbi Judah made a final critical review of mishnaic exposition, and sometime between 217 and 230 the edited body of mishnaic oral law was codified in writing as the Mishnah of Judah the Prince. This quickly became the standard version of the Mishnah. Next to the Bible itself, the Mishnah remains the foundation of Jewish life and literature.

Between A.D. 200 and 500, the rabbis and sages continued to discuss the Mishnah, providing valuable commentary on it, as they studied at the rabbinic academies in Palestine and Babylonia, another center of Jewish civilization. Both sets of commentary, Palestinian and Babylonian, became known as Gemarah (Hebrew, "completion"), and when each was put with the Mishnah of Rabbi Judah, the two collections were known as the Jerusalem Talmud and the Babylonian Talmud. The latter became the standard text of the Talmud because of its greater detail and thoroughness; however, the Jerusalem Talmud, though considered inferior, is a valuable historical resource because it preserves facts and cultural details that otherwise would have been lost.

Both Talmuds contain much information about Jerusalem and rabbinic attitudes toward it because the Jabneh sages, as well as later rabbis and commentators at academies elsewhere, had to deal with both the adaptation of old Temple and priesthood laws to a new way of life without the Temple, as well as hopes and plans for rebuilding a third Temple in a reconstructed Jerusalem. "The obsession of the Jewish sages with being prepared for a rebuilt Temple meant the preservation of a wealth of information about the last of the Jerusalem Temples as well as about the general way of life in Jerusalem before it fell to Rome." 13 Thus, the importance of the great Jewish sages and rabbis exiled from Jerusalem after its destruction lies in their spending so much time talking about the nature of the city as it existed before its destruction. They recreated a new Jerusalem in their minds and passed it down from generation to generation. That idealized concept of Jerusalem perpetuated by the rabbis became such a powerful image that the idea took on a life of its own. Some of the characteristics they ascribed to Jerusalem before A.D. 70 may have been nothing more than idealized notions of the city which they projected back into history.

Jerusalem in Rabbinic Literature

The halakhic statements of the rabbis after A.D. 70 declare that Jerusalem was treated differently in Jewish law from all other cities because of its special holiness. No one tribe of Israel was allowed to claim ownership of the city because it was the city of the patriarchs as well as the home of the heavenly king, a place set apart for all the covenant people. 14 Thus, the rabbis said it had been forbidden by Halakhah to rent houses to pilgrims in Jerusalem before its destruction, so visitors were to be given lodgings free of charge. According to Rabbi Eleazar ben Simon, it had been forbidden even to rent beds. It was said that at festival times, residents of the city sometimes vacated their homes to accommodate travelers. As the Mishnah said: "No one ever said 'The place is too confined for me to lodge in Jerusalem.'" 15 During the Second Temple period no foreigner was allowed to live within Jerusalem's walls. 16

Because of Jerusalem's special sanctity, the rabbis said that a series of halakhot had been observed before A.D. 70 to remove from the Holy City anything that would increase ritual impurity. The rabbis declared, for example, that no trash heaps were allowed inside the city walls, because they produced insects. Burials were allowed only outside the city walls; the prohibition against leaving a corpse in Jerusalem overnight was strictly enforced. 17

Even after its destruction, or perhaps especially after, Jerusalem retained its holiness, and special halakhot to perpetuate this sanctity continued to be promulgated. When praying, one was obligated to face Jerusalem; if one stood in Jerusalem, he should turn his heart toward the Temple. Entrance to the Temple Mount itself was forbidden because of the perpetual state of ritual impurity engulfing all people since the Temple's destruction. In other words, the Temple Mount itself encompassed sacred space. The obligation of making pilgrimage to Jerusalem remained in force, but the obligation of mourning for Jerusalem's destruction was added. Besides the national fast days and the established days of mourning, one was forbidden to eat meat or drink wine on any day when one viewed firsthand the ruins of the destroyed city and Temple. 18 Abstaining from such luxuries and pleasures engendered a greater awareness of and sense of sorrow over the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.

In fact, the rabbis went further and reasoned that it was impossible to mourn such an event too much; one should mourn the destruction of Jerusalem every day of one's life and in every place. Accordingly, Halakhah prescribed remembrances of Jerusalem's sorrows to be kept by Jews even in the seemingly simple or mundane activities of life that might be associated in any way with renewal or pleasure. A man might whitewash his house, but he should leave a small area unfinished in remembrance of Jerusalem. A man might prepare a full-course meal, but he should leave out an item of the menu in remembrance of Jerusalem. A woman might put on all her jewelry except one or two pieces in remembrance of Jerusalem. 19

Under the influence of these types of halakhot, certain customs have developed in Judaism that dictate that even in moments of supreme joy, one should remember the destruction of the Temple and the calamities that have befallen the Jewish people ever since. One such custom, carried out by most Jews as though it possessed the same weight as Halakhah, is the breaking of a glass at the end of the wedding ceremony. 20

Rabbinic statements about Jerusalem found in Aggadah are plentiful and may be categorized as those dealing with the historic city, those discussing the extrahistorical city, and those describing millennial Jerusalem. According to the rabbis, there has never been nor will be any place like Jerusalem either in time or in eternity, and there is no beauty like Jerusalem's. Of the ten measures of beauty that came into the world at creation, Jerusalem took nine. 21 The rabbis said that a man who had not seen Jerusalem in all its splendor had never seen a beautiful city. 22

According to an aggadic midrash on Psalms, the history of Jerusalem began at the time of creation. "At the beginning of the creation of the world the Holy One, blessed be He, made as it were a tabernacle in Jerusalem in which He prayed: May My children do My will that I shall not destroy My house and My sanctuary." 23 But God's wish was not to be, as the sages taught. In fact, the rabbis after A.D. 70 spent so much time discussing why Jerusalem and the Temple had fallen because they hoped to speed the Temple's reconstruction by correcting whatever problems had brought it about. They wanted to enjoy God's approbation once more.

Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai ascribed the Temple's destruction to Israel's general failure to do the will of God. We have seen the increase of the social evils that plagued Jewish society before the destruction of A.D. 70. Ben Zakkai himself refers to the increase in the number of murderers as well as in the number of adulterers living in Jerusalem. 24 But even though ben Zakkai recognized that the chief responsibility for Jerusalem's destruction lay with the city's citizens themselves, those who performed the destruction were not absolved of responsibility. According to Rabbi Jochanan, with the Temple's passing, the atonement for sins (a concept integrally tied to the performances carried out in the Holy Sanctuary) was denied not to Israel but rather to those Gentiles who had destroyed the Temple. 25 Thus, Gentile accountability could not and should not be dismissed.

Some rabbis, who also believed in Israel's culpability, were quite specific in their analysis of Jerusalem's calamity. They blamed the city's fall on the desecration of the Sabbath or on the neglect of study and the contempt demonstrated by Jerusalem's society for men of learning. One rabbi, who supported this idea, said that Jerusalem was destroyed because schoolboys played truant. Others said it had fallen because the Jews of the city obeyed the letter of the law rather than its spirit; their dealings with their fellow human beings were not merciful enough. 26 Jochanan ben Torta maintained that "in the Second Temple period we know that they studied the Torah, were strictly observant of the mitzvot (Hebrew, "commandments") and of the tithes, and every kind of good manners was found among them, but they loved money and hated one another without cause." 27

Whatever the many explanations offered, Latter-day Saints cannot help but feel that the rabbis did not get to the root cause of Jerusalem's devastation and the Temple's destruction. A modern apostle has written: "Why . . . did the Great Jehovah permit his holy house to be desecrated by the Gentiles and made by them into a dung hill? Why were the chosen people scourged and slain and scattered and made a hiss and a byword in all nations? The answer is clear and certain. It was because they crucified their King. It was because they rejected the God of their fathers." 28

Jerusalem fell because its inhabitants rejected the greatest rabbi or master of them all—Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, one is not unsympathetic to the anguish felt by the sages. It is a sympathy born of deep appreciation for the Jewish people—for the righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem in every age—and a profound feeling that Jerusalem is indeed holy and was at one time filled with magnificence and splendor, a circumstance yet again to be realized.

Of particular interest to Latter-day Saints are the many hopeful and forward-looking statements by the sages about the Jerusalem of the future, the ideal Jerusalem to be rebuilt by God himself, with the masses of exiled Israel gathered safely home. Samuel ben Nahmani said that "Jerusalem will not be rebuilt until the exiles are gathered in, and if anyone tells you that the exiles have gathered together but Jerusalem is not rebuilt, do not believe it." 29 The rabbis insisted that in the coming age not only would God rebuild Jerusalem with fire (an interesting irony considering how it was destroyed) but he would extend its boundaries. Rabbi Jochanan taught that Jerusalem would be extended on all sides, even to the extent that the city "will reach to the gates of Damascus" 30 (an idea unattractive to modern Syrians, one would think).

According to the rabbis, the millennial Jerusalem will be an idyllic place to live. Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish said: "The Holy One blessed be He will in days to come add to Jerusalem more than a thousand gardens and a thousand towers." 31 A midrashic aggadah on Exodus teaches that the Holy One will bring forth living waters from Jerusalem and with those waters will heal everyone who is sick. The borders of Jerusalem in time to come will be full of precious stones and pearls, and Israel will take their jewels from those borders. At that time the Holy One will build Jerusalem out of sapphires, "and these stones will shine like the sun, and the nations will come and look upon the glory of Israel." 32

In rabbinic literature, the earthly Jerusalem of the future is connected with a heavenly city of Jerusalem. The sages constantly referred to the earthly Jerusalem as the center of the world and the tabbur ha-aretz ("the navel of the earth"). A midrashic statement on Ezekiel says that just as the navel of a human is set in the middle of the body, so Eretz Israel is the navel of the world, Jerusalem the center of Eretz Israel, the Temple the center of Jerusalem, and the heikal the center of the Temple—even the foundation from which the world was started. The umbilical cord that stretches from the heavenly Jerusalem connects with the earth at the city of Jerusalem, specifically at the Temple. Thus, the heavenly Jerusalem is located directly opposite the earthly Jerusalem, and each is intimately connected with the other. 33

The sages of the Talmud naturally stressed the affinity between the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem and that future time when the earthly Jerusalem would be restored to splendor to match its counterpart, the heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem would then be a place as hospitable to God as its heavenly counterpart. Said Rabbi Jochanan: "The Holy One blessed be He declared, 'I shall not enter the heavenly Jerusalem until I can enter the earthly Jerusalem.'" 34

Unlike medieval Christians, who repudiated belief in a restoration of the earthly Jerusalem and emphasized instead the descent of a heavenly Jerusalem and a heavenly Temple coming down to the earth at the end of the world, 35 Latter-day Saints are in accord with the image promulgated by the Talmudic sages of a gathered portion of Israel established in and around a restored earthly Jerusalem. Thousands of years ago a prophet in the western hemisphere spoke of a restored earthly Jerusalem, separate and apart from a heavenly Jerusalem descending to the earth:

And that it [the American continent] was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. . . .

And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel. (Ether 13:3-5)

Latter-day Saints have an abiding interest in the restoration of Old Jerusalem for at least two reasons. First, they are part of the house of Israel and will reverence two Jerusalems during the coming millennial reign of God. The restored Old Jerusalem in the Holy Land will become an abode of the Lord, along with the New Jerusalem on the American continent. Second, according to modern prophetic utterance, the restoration of Old Jerusalem must precede the Second Coming of Christ. Joseph Smith said: "Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple, and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, etc.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance." 36

So important was the idea of a restored Jerusalem to the rabbis, beginning with those at Jabneh, that their yearnings for a fulfillment of all the positive prophetic promises concerning Jerusalem became part of their liturgy. The mention of Jerusalem became obligatory in all the statutory prayers of the Jewish people. The most important of these is the Amidah, or eighteen benedictions, which formed a central part of the synagogue worship service and which are still recited daily by pious Jews as they stand facing Jerusalem. Some of the specific petitions of the Amidah originated during the Temple service and were probably incorporated into the structure of the eighteen benedictions sometime soon after 70. Others were created anew by the rabbis. 37 The most powerful is the fourteenth benediction, which is devoted entirely to Jerusalem. It petitions God: "Return in mercy to thy city Jerusalem and dwell in it as thou hast promised; rebuild it soon, in our days, as an everlasting structure, and speedily establish in it the throne of David. Blessed art thou, O Lord, Builder of Jerusalem." 38

Latter-day Saints, like the rabbis, wait for the day when such things are completely realized. More like Christians of the early Middle Ages and less like the rabbinic sages of the Talmudic period, however, Latter-day Saints also believe in and look forward to the descent of the heavenly Jerusalem, along with its Temple. This heavenly Jerusalem is the prototype for the earthly city, rather than, as the rabbis believed, the earthly Jerusalem being the pattern for the heavenly Jerusalem. 39 An American prophet said: "It [the American continent] was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land. . . . And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type" (Ether 13:3-6).

When the petitions of the sages and all the words of the prophets are fulfilled, it will be a glorious day indeed for Jerusalem and her admirers.

Notes

^1. When John Hyrcanus, at first a supporter of the Pharisees, reconstituted the Sanhedrin, he packed it with Pharisaic members and ruled the country by means of the great council. But when the Pharisees objected to his combining the high priesthood with temporal power, Hyrcanus became irritated and went over to the Sadducees.

^2. Epstein, Judaism, 89.

^3. Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 10:5, gives the number of sects and parties as twenty-four.

^4. Kotker, Earthly Jerusalem, 120.

^5. Kotker, Earthly Jerusalem, 112.

^6. Cited in Kotker, Earthly Jerusalem, 112-13.

^7. Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (2d ed.), 7.21, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 10:152, s.v. "Johanan Ben Zakkai." The terms heikal and tefillin are Hebrew for, respectively, "inner sanctuary of the Temple," and "phylacteries," small leather boxes containing verses of scripture worn on the forehead and left arm during Jewish worship services.

^8. Encyclopedia Judaica, 10:153, s.v. "Johanan Ben Zakkai."

^9. Eban, Heritage, 100.

^10. See the explanation in one of the most famous rabbinic works entitled Ethics of the Fathers (Pirke Avot) 1:1. A good source for this work is Birnbaum, Daily Prayer Book, 477-78.

^11. Russell, Between the Testaments, 67.

^12. Russell, Between the Testaments, 68.

^13. Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6:367.

^14. Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 82b, Arakhin 32b. See also Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1553-55, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^15. Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 21a; Pirke Avot 5:5.

^16. Tosefta Nega'im 6:2.

^17. Bava Kamma 82b.

^18. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 30a; Tosefta Nedarim 1:4. See Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1553, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^19. Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 60b, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1555-56, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^20. Jacobs, Book of Jewish Practice, 43.

^21. Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 49b.

^22. Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 51b.

^23. Midrash Tehillin (Psalms) 76:3, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1557, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^24. Encyclopedia Judaica, 10:152, s.v. "Johanan Ben Zakkai."

^25. Encyclopedia Judaica, 10:152, s.v. "Johanan Ben Zakkai."

^26. See the excellent, brief summary of many rabbinic passages in Kotker, Earthly Jerusalem, 119-20.

^27. Jerusalem Talmud, Yoma 1:1; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1557, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^28. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 298.

^29. Tanhuma No'ah 11, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1559, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^30. Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1559, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^31. Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 75b.

^32. See the midrashic collection entitled Exodus Rabba 15:21.

^33. Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1558-59, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^34. Babylonian Talmud, Ta'anit 5a, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1560, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^35. Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1560, s.v. "Jerusalem."

^36. Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 286.

^37. Kotker, Earthly Jerusalem, 120.

^38. Birnbaum, Daily Prayer Book, 90.

^39. That the rabbis believed the heavenly Jerusalem to be modeled or fashioned after the earthly Jerusalem seems to be in little doubt. "The heavenly Jerusalem 'was fashioned out of great love for the earthly Jerusalem.'" See the rabbinic collection Tanhuma, Pekudei, 1, in Encyclopedia Judaica, 9:1560, s.v. "Jerusalem."