Tagged Questions
2
votes
1answer
252 views
How do rabbis explain the reason for the Spanish Expulsion. Why did the Jewish people deserve it
I notice you already have this question for the Holocaust but haven't found it for the Spanish expulsion. I understand that many great people gave reasons for it, like the seder hadoros, tsror hamor ...
1
vote
0answers
25 views
What were Bar Kochba's sins?
In his answer to the question Is there any evidence that Rabbi Akiva's students fought with Bar Kochba, Jake cites Y.T. Taanis 4:5 and M.R. Eicha 2:4 as sources for the position that Bar Kochba was ...
0
votes
3answers
117 views
Are there cases of a one-time (extreme) punishment that rabbis meted for the sake of a community's commitment to Torah?
I have heard about cases (during the period of the late Rishonim) where a Posek or a Beis Din meted out a harsh punishment to an individual for their breach of halacha in order to protect their ...
2
votes
2answers
118 views
Is it true that Jews believed in sheol before the belief in hereafter entered into Judaism?
I have heard claimed that Jews first believed in Sheol which was considered as a place below the ground and it meant to be a place of eternal rest, free of any reward and punishment. However in later ...
2
votes
1answer
60 views
Reconciling the Torah and history regarding the Jews' response to reward and punishment
How do we reconcile the Torah's viewpoint that punishments make Jews better with what we see that punishments push Jews away (and rewards make Jews better)?
The Gemara says that Mashiach will come ...
13
votes
3answers
228 views
Did courts ever execute?
The laws of capital crimes elucidated in Sanhedrin and elsewhere make conviction very unlikely. Makkot 1:10 famously tells us that a court that executes once in seven years is bloodthirsty, R. ...
