Herod's Grand Temple: An Ancient Architectural Marvel

In 22 BCE, 92 years before the destruction, Herod embarked on rebuilding the Temple. He gathered the nation's elders at the Temple Mount and declared, among other things: "Now I reveal to you the project I am committed to undertaking, the most sacred and magnificent of all that has been done in our days. Our ancestors built this Temple to Hashem after returning from Babylon, but it lacks the grandeur of the First Temple built by Solomon by sixty cubits in height. The smaller size was not their fault but was dictated by Cyrus and Darius..."

Herod completely dismantled the Temple built by the exiles, doubling the original size of the Temple Mount by filling earth within colossal stone walls. Some of these stones are currently found in the Western and Southern Walls, weighing around 50 tons, unmatched in their formidable strength. Observing these stones, one comprehends why "the kings of the earth could not believe that an adversary would enter Jerusalem's gates." Josephus writes: "The wall itself was the greatest work ever heard of by humankind." Eighteen thousand workers labored for many years. Herod's Temple was an unparalleled structure, the largest of the ancient world's temples; not in Babylon, Egypt, Greece, or Rome was there a temple as grand and splendid, and no wonder the sages stated, "He who has not seen Herod's building has never seen a beautiful building in their life."

The Temple dedication took place two years later, but construction continued for another forty years, as concluded from later coins found beneath some of the building stones.

In 16 BCE, Herod's sons returned from education in Rome. As noted earlier, Herod killed his Hasmonean sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, although he spared Agrippa, son of Aristobulus, who later became a king appointed by the Romans. Herod's mental state worsened. He spilled blood like water around Jerusalem. Even in his final illness in 4 BCE, when the devout Judah ben Zippori and Mattathias ben Margalot lowered the eagle standard from the Temple, Herod, with his remaining strength, ordered their burning alive. Five days before his death, he commanded the execution of his son Antipater (by his Idumean wife Doris). At the last moment, he ordered his sister "Salome," swearing her to gather all Jewish leaders in the Jericho Hippodrome and execute them with the news of his death, so that day would become a day of mourning. However, even Herod's sister, with Idumean blood in her veins, refused this crime and released the Jewish dignitaries. Forty years ago, an inscription was uncovered in the Jordanian desert stating, "The year Herod the Madman died." This inscription reflects the perception of reality in that era of the deranged king.

After Herod, his son Herod Archelaus, son of the Samaritan Malthace, became king. Archelaus, half-Idumean and half-Samaritan, behaved indeed like a complete pagan. All his life he was educated in Rome and had no respect for Israel's customs. When the nation's dignitaries asked him to replace the High Priest, who was a Herodian foreign to Judaism, he reacted angrily, and during the conflict between his soldiers and the nation's dignitaries, 3,000 people died in the Temple Mount during Passover.

Simultaneous to Archelaus, two other sons of Herod ruled parts of the land. Herod Antipas, Herod's son by his Samaritan wife Malthace, ruled the Galilee for a few years. He was considerate of Jews and did not mint coins with human images. He couldn't understand why Jews refused to live in Tiberias, built by the Herodians in honor of Emperor Tiberius. The reason was that Tiberias was an ancient Jewish burial area, thus residents there were considered ritually impure due to contact with the dead. He settled slaves or impoverished people who agreed in exchange for payment. In fact, Tiberias was considered defiled by unknown graves until Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai emerged from the cave, spiritually marking every location with graves, as it is said, "he purified the city of Tiberias, making it clean."

In parallel to Antipas, Philip, son of Herod and Cleopatra, ruled the trans-Jordan and the Golan. It appeared that Israel had jumped from the frying pan into the fire: instead of one mad and evil king, we received his three sons, no less alienated from Judaism.

Archelaus went to Rome to request Emperor Augustus's approval for his father's will, naming him as ruler, while a delegation of Jewish leaders simultaneously asked the emperor for Rome itself to rule Judea instead of the Herodian house, which acted with hatred and alienation towards Israel. Herod had betrothed Mariamne, daughter of Aristobulus, to him to connect him to the Hasmonean royal family, but Archelaus divorced her and married his brother's wife, a deed forbidden by Torah law. Augustus accepted the Jews' arguments, deposed Archelaus, confiscated his property, and sent him into exile in Gaul (France), where he died at age 39.