Second Temple

Hanukkah miracle: Israel discovers evidence of Judah Maccabee’s battlefield near Jerusalem

The site is widely identified with the ancient village of Bet Zecharia, where the Seleucid army and the forces of Judah Maccabee clashed in what is known as the fifth Maccabean battle.

|ByTPS
A bronze coin from the Asia Minor city of Side found at Horbat Bet Zecharia south of Jerusalem, where the Maccabees fought the Greek Seleucid army.
Wild boars cross a road in a residential area after the government ordered residents to stay home to fight the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Haifa, northern Israel April 16, 2020.

'A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig': A Hebrew, Talmud, rabbinic expert goes ‘whole hog’

At the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the Persian era of the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, pigs did not have a unique status; other animals were viewed as equally non-kosher.

|ByARI ZIVOTOFSKY
An anti-government protest takes place in Tel Aviv last week. Israel in 2025 is a remarkable social mosaic, yet also more fragile than ever, says the writer.

If not stopped, Israel's destruction will come from internal division - opinion

Israel's growing internal divide raises fears that baseless hatred could once again be the cause of Israel's downfall.

|ByDAVID BEN-BASAT
Supporters of Iran's exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and pro-Israel demonstrators gather outside the Iranian embassy during a protest in London, Britain, June 22, 2025

The Cyrus Accords: The beginning of a new chapter in Israel-Iran relations - opinion

Reviving ancient ties, the Cyrus Accords present a pragmatic vision for renewed Israel–Iran cooperation in a post-Islamic regime era.

|ByGILA GAMLIEL

Baseless hatred destroyed the temple, baseless love must save this nation - editorial

Our sages taught that the Second Temple was consumed by sinat chinam – baseless hatred among Jews. On this Tisha B’Av, Jewish Israeli society must admit that the disease has returned.

AUGUST 3, 2025ByJPOST EDITORIAL
Worshipers are seen at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av.

First-of-its-kind discovery: Ancient coin from Second Temple Era reveals rebel mindset

The rare bronze coin engraved in Hebrew with 'For the Redemption of Zion' was found near the southwest corner of the Temple Mount in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden – Davidson Center.

JULY 31, 2025ByJOANIE MARGULIES
The reverse of the coin features a lulav flanked by two etrogs, with the inscription “Year Four.”

2,000-year-old ‘Freedom of Zion’ coin unearthed in Jerusalem stuns Milei

“The roots of Judaism and Christianity, followed today by billions of people around the world, originate right here — from Jerusalem.”

JUNE 12, 2025ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Argentina's Prime Minister Javier Milei receives the Genesis Prize at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, June 12, 2025.

'Letters from Home': Exploring tension among Jews in in the Second Temple era - review

The relationship between the Jewish communities of Egypt and Israel created an underlying tension, not unlike the modern-day relationship between world Jewry and the Jews of the State of Israel.

MARCH 29, 2025ByALAN ROSENBAUM
A RECONSTRUCTION of the blue-tiled Ishtar Gate, the northern entrance to Babylon, on display at the Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

The essence of Purim was never the Diaspora. It was always Jerusalem - opinion

The events in Shushan were never merely about the Jews of Persia. Just a few years before Esther’s miraculous rise, we had begun our return to Jerusalem, laying the foundations of the Second Temple. 

MARCH 14, 2025ByMOSHE TARAGIN
Israelis are seen in costume for the holiday of Purim, in Jerusalem.

The Finger of Og or Herod's Pillar? A Jerusalem archaeological mystery

The 12.15-meter-long and approximately 1.75-m -wide column is thought to have been quarried in order to decorate the Second Temple.

JANUARY 10, 2025ByMARION FISCHEL
Herod's Pillar, or the Finger of Og, lies openly in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem.

Ancient Jewish quarter of Phanagoria discovered in Black Sea area of Russia

Phanagoria's 1st century BCE synagogue was discovered last year, following excavations on the ancient Greek city.

NOVEMBER 28, 2024ByMATHILDA HELLER
Ancient Jewish quarter of Phanagoria uncovered in Russia's Taman peninsula

Jerusalem in its glory: Reconstructing the Sukkot pilgrimage to the Second Temple

What was the pilgrims’ visit to Jerusalem on Sukkot during the Second Temple like?

OCTOBER 16, 2024ByALAN ROSENBAUM
ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES Authority workers walk down the Herodian Street dig at the City of David National Park, in 2019. Also named The Pilgrim’s Way, the street lies beneath Wadi Hilweh street in the Palestinian village of Silwan, and leads from the Siloam Pool to the Temple Mount.

A letter to Lebanon: Could Northern Arrows free Lebanon from Hezbollah? - opinion

Center Field: A breakthrough in Beirut could lead to a regional turnaround with Tehran, something in everyone's best interest.

OCTOBER 16, 2024ByGIL TROY
AN ISRAELI soldier drives through southern Lebanon this week. This conflict should be named ‘The Second Hezbollah War,’ or more accurately, ‘The First Iranian War,’ the writer maintains.

Our future is at risk if level of hatred among us is not reduced - opinion

We believe that the most important lesson of Jewish history is that an independent Jewish state is not something that can be taken for granted.

AUGUST 18, 2024ByDR. NETANEL FISHER , DR. ADAR COHEN
THE MASSES gather at the Western Wall, toward the conclusion of Tisha B’Av, on Tuesday. We face the risk of another destruction today if we fail to pull back from the brink, the writers warn.

Hopefully this will be the first and last 'real' Tisha B'Av after October 7 - opinion

For the first time, I truly understood what it means to mourn for the destruction of the Temple, for the loss of our homeland, and for the countless lives that have been taken in the name of hatred.

AUGUST 16, 2024ByJONATHAN LIEBERMAN
THE BOOK of Lamentations is read in a Tel Aviv synagogue at the beginning of Tisha B’Av on Monday night, with worshipers sitting on the floor as a sign of mourning. ‘This year, Tisha B’Av was unlike any other I have experienced,’ the writer laments.