Babylonian Exile

After the destruction of the First Temple, the Jewish people spent seventy years in exile in Babylon. This class covers the great leaders of the Jewish people during that era, including Zerubabbel, the exilarch; Mordechai; and the final prophets, Haggai, ...

The story of the Babylonian Exile as told through the lens of archeology.

Convinced by his evil prime minister, Haman, to have all the Jews in his empire killed, he changed his mind after being petitioned by his queen, Esther, who was secretly Jewish.

A process of fragmentation had begun, whereby great scholars established academies of their own.

This title was given to the political head of the (at times) semi-autonomous Jewish community in Babylon, who traced his lineage to King David.

Nebuchadnezzar is notorious for decimating the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, exiling the vast majority of its denizens to Babylon, and destroying the first Holy Temple.

Learn how the Jews fared under the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Medians, the Greeks, and now under Western rule.

This class continues with an analysis of famous historical rulers, and then moves into the documentation of a monarchic miscalculation that proves to be fatal, as the royal emperor of Babylon mistakenly calculated our exilic schedule and engenders harsh c...

The Babylonians were not anti-Semites per se; while they only wanted to destroy Judah as an independent political power, they harbored no ill feelings toward the Jewish religion. As such, Jews were given their own cities, where earlier exiled Jews welcome...

The First Temple’s destruction in the year 3338 (from creation) and the Babylonian exile until the construction of the Second Temple in year 3408.