By Rabbi Dovid Sapirman, Dean, Ani Maamin Foundation
One of the five tragedies that we mourn on Tisha B’Av is the destruction of Beitar by the Romans. Following the Bar Kochba revolt, the Romans were briefly driven out of Eretz Yisrael, but quickly came back to recapture the land one town at a time. When they were about to conquer Yerushalayim, Bar Kochba and his men escaped to the fortified metropolis of Beitar. The Romans pursued them and laid siege to the city. After three and a half years, they finally succeeded in entering it.
What followed was a bloodbath. About half a million people were slaughtered in cold blood, as described at length by Chazal: “Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shmuel, in the name of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel. What is meant by the pasuk [in Eicha], ‘My eye causes me grief for the all the daughters of my city’? There were 400 shuls in the city of Beitar, each with 400 Torah teachers. Each teacher had before him 400 cheder children. When the enemy entered, the children tried to stab them with their pens. The enemy overpowered and conquered them, wrapped them in their scrolls and lit them on fire.” (While the numbers in the statement may be an exaggeration, it does indicate that there were vast numbers of young children learning Torah in Beitar.)
After the massacre, the Roman emperor Adrianus (Hadrian) exacted a cruel and spiteful revenge. “Adrianus owned a vineyard that was 18 mil by 18 mil, like the distance from Teveria to Tzippori [as much as a 54-mile perimeter]. He had the entire vineyard fenced with the bodies of the victims of Beitar, standing upright and pressed together with their arms in the air...it was decreed that they may not be buried.” In the course of all those years, Chazal tell us, “The bodies did not give off a foul smell, and did not decay.” When a new emperor lifted the decree, the Jews quickly hurried to bury the desecrated victims. In all that time, the bodies had been miraculously preserved.
Birkas Hamazon originally had three blessings. Now, a fourth was added. The Gemara explains, “The day the dead of Beitar were finally buried, [the sages of ] Yavneh instituted [the bracha of ] Hatov Vehameitiv. Hatov, for the bodies did not decay, vehameitiv, for they were allowed to be buried.”
Beitar was nothing short of a holocaust. The sages in Yavneh had surely lost family, students and friends. When faced with such horrific tragedies, many become bitter. Instead, they authored a blessing in gratitude for a miracle, and for their ability to finally bring the dead to rest. No complaints, no doubt, no anger: just a determination to see the good and give thanks to Hashem. This has always been the attitude of our nation.
Adapted from Tranquility and Travail by Rabbi Sapirman.
