![]() Eventually, John killed the Temple priests, dumped their bodies onto the streets for his Zealots to trample over, and then threw them to the dogs. This self-described nationalist leader had no qualms about inviting a foreign army, the Idumeans, to help him suppress the rebellion. John, who’d had time to consolidate power, prevailed through sheer brutality. Eventually, the people revolted against the Zealots, but it was too late. That hunt for so-called traitors was an excellent excuse to consolidate power and eliminate opponents. The Sicarii, so called for their mastery of a short knife called Sica in Hebrew, used their skill to terrorize the moderates and quell dissent. John of Gischala, the Zealot leader, left the battlefield (like most extremists, he was a coward) and returned to Jerusalem, not to fight the Romans, but to cement his power over his fellow Jews. In Jerusalem, the more moderate forces advocated for compromise. The Zealots obtained only one victory against the Romans and then were methodically crushed in Galilee. The 'Trophies from Jerusalem' relief on the Arch of Titus in Rome.Īs is always the case, extremists proved utterly inept at governing or waging war. Now having a small army at their disposal, they displaced the moderate Jewish leadership and launched, against their counsel, a full-blown – and foolhardy – rebellion against the Roman Empire. The Zealots fought the Roman garrison in the city, though their main objective wasn’t the Romans, but the Jews. ![]() The populace, rabbis and priests distrusted them, but the Zealots took advantage of an opportunity: the outburst of public rage that followed Florus, the Roman procurator, arresting Jewish leaders and confiscating money from the Temple. ?It all started when the Zealots, a small extremist messianic group, seized power in Jerusalem. As an adult, however, I learned the truth: The Great Revolt wasn’t just an act of heroic anti-imperialist defiance, but an extremist folly that was, first and foremost, a civil war. I grew up on a myth: that the Jewish Revolt against Rome was virtuous and heroic a fight for freedom led by saintly men. As Tisha B’Av approaches, we must work to remove ‘extremism and tyranny’ from our midst less we suffer the fate of the Jews of the Great Revolt ![]()
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