כֹּה אָמַר ה ’צִיּוֹן שָׂדֶה תֵחָרֵשׁ, וִירוּשָׁלַיִם עִיִּים תִּהְיֶה
Yesterday we began to explain one of the five tragic events that we remember on the 9th of Ab, the day of national mourning for the Jewish people. This terrible event, perhaps the least known, is called in Hebrew: “the plowing of the city” of Jerusalem (חרישת העיר).
After the Roman emperor Hadrian retraced his steps and regretted his decision to authorize the Jews to rebuild the Bet haMiqdash, relations between the Jews and the Roman empire began to worsen.
One of the most tense moments was when the emperor traveled to the Middle East and (129-130 of the common era) and was horrified by one of the most common practices carried out by Gentiles in that region: castration, especially of slaves to make them eunuchs, and “taming” them. Let us clarify that castration is strictly prohibited by the Tora. Not only human castration but animal castration as well, something that was (and still is) fully accepted in the non-Jewish world. Adriano, then, prohibited human castration and penalized it with the death penalty.
However, an inexplicably, Hadrian extended the crime of castration to the jewish practice of Berit Mila or circumcision….
The Jewish Sages exhausted all venues to try to explain the nature of Jewish circumcision to the emperor’s representatives, and that it had nothing to do with castration. But nothing worked. Adriano banned circumcision and sentenced the transgressors to death. Some historians speculate that Hadrian was influenced by the early Christians, who for different reasons opposed the practice of circumcision and stated that it had been replaced by baptism. Abolishing circumcision was a great victory for their cause.
This decree, which took place around the year 129, further affected the spirits of the Jews, who were willing to sacrifice everything before failing to fulfill the first precept that corresponds to a Jewish child. It also led to collective despair. They had already given up hope of seeing the Bet haMiqdash rebuilt, and now they were seeing their people was in imminent danger of extinction. In despair, Ribbi Yishmael ben Elisha went on to say: “Perhaps the time has come for us to stop marrying and bringing children into the world (Baba Batrá 60 b)”.
The annulment of the Berit Mila was not the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
While Hadrian’s was visiting Judea he made another terrible determination: in order to prevent for good the rebuilding of the Temple he decided to remove even the ruins of the Holy City, which reminded the Jews of its destruction. Hadrian ordered to “erase all Jewish memory of the city, and to change its name, thus the Jews would finally forget “Yerushalayim”. Hadrian’s plan included the construction of a new Roman temple for Jupiter (a pagan god), in the same place where the Bet haMiqdash used to be….
This (provocative?) actions sparked a state of maximum outrage and motivated the Jews to plan a “suicide” rebellion against the empire. We will talk about Bar Kokhba’s rebellion later, and now we will concentrate on understanding why in Tisha beAb we remember “that the city was plowed”.
In 130 of the common era Hadrian decreed that the name “Yerushalayim” will be eradicated, and that the new city shall be called from now on: “Aelia Capitolina”. “Aelia”, in honor of Adriano, since it was one of his names (Aelio) and “Capitolina”, in honor of the Roman mythological idol, Jupiter capitoline, to whom the pagan shrines of the new city were to be dedicated.
Now, what did the Romans do, in general, to erase an old non Roman city and lay the foundations of a new city in that same place? The ceremony for consecrating a new Roman city consisted of plowing the previous city, more specifically, demarcating new edges of the city with carved furrows. The ceremony of the plowing of Jerusalem and the dedication of the new pagan city took place on the 9th of Ab of the year 130.
This “ceremony” was celebrated by the Romans by minting a commemorative coin. The text of the coin, as we can see in the image above says: “Col (onia) Ael (ia) Capit (olina)”. Representing Rome, Hadrian can be seen clearly on the left side, plowing the furrows of the new Roman city and demarcating its limits.
The plowing of the city of Jerusalem and the changing of its name shows us that the Goyim did everything in their hands, even 2,000 years ago, to eradicate every trace of memory of a Jewish Jerusalem, and ensure that we will never even dream to return and rebuild our Capital or our Temple.
Ironically, today, no one remembers Adriano י”ש and the name “Aelia capitolina” or the ceremonies of the mighty Roman Empire can only be found in history books and museums.
However, 1,900 years after this day, there is no human in this planet that has not heard the name “JERUSALEM”, our capital city, more beautiful than ever, that B”H is again in our hands.
God willing, the imminent reconstruction of the Bet HaMiqdash, is only a matter of time.
WE MUST BE VERY PROUD TO BELONG TO A NATION THAT NEVER ALLOWED ITS MEMORY TO BE ERASED AND WE HAVE TO BE VERY GRATEFUL TO THE ALMIGHTY FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF LIVING IN THESE TIMES, WHICH ONLY THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL DARED TO DREAM OF.
