ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the extent to which talmudic rabbis were conscious of political, national and economic implications in Jewish education in the Roman Empire. The rabbis treasure residual memories of historical crises – above all, the destruction of the Temple and the failed revolts – as triggers in the emergence of free Jewish education for children. They plausibly associate the vicissitudes of Jewish education with deteriorating Jewish/Greek relations from the time of the Hasmoneans until the Bar-Kokhba revolt. They also link educational watersheds – whether accurately or not we do not know – with prestigious individuals and places, for example, Simeon ben Shetach in the time of Alexander Jannaeus (late 1st century BCE); the high priest Joshua ben Gamla, around the time of the Jewish revolt in 66 CE; Yohanan ben Zakkai at the time of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE; Bar-Kokhba at Betar, the last outpost of the 132–135 CE revolt; and Rabbi Judah Hanasi and his colleague, Rabbi Hiyya (early 3rd century CE). As Roman-Jewish relations stabilized, businessmen-rabbis such as Judah Hanasi and Hiyya, who were in close contact both with the Roman authorities and the Jewish masses, established schools with a fixed curriculum for male children, cutting across class differences. The rabbis of the Mishna largely determined Jewish education to the modern period.
