Antiquities of the Jews, fit the forty-third

We have now entered into the three weeks leading up to the ninth of Av, on which date both the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the Second Temple by the Romans. Conventionally it is explained the First Temple was destroyed as punishment for the Jews' idolatry, and the Second Temple through שנאת חינם, baseless hatred—which last didn't need G-d's intervention to lead to the Destruction of the Temple; as The Jewish War makes clear, the Romans could pretty much have stood back and let the Jews destroy themselves. Anyhow, here's why Josephus thought G-d brought the Destruction of the Temple upon the Jews (XX.8.165): (Jonathan was the High Priest.)

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The trigger for the revolt of the Judaeans against the Romans, which led eventually to the Destruction, was a clash between the Jewish and Greek ("Syrian") residents of Caesarea. The seeds of this clash were sown a little while in advance (XX.8.163):

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Josephus notes         Jewish learning notes index

Balaam

Yesterday's Torah reading covered the story of the Mesopotamian^*or Ammonite^† prophet Balaam.

Did you know (I didn't, or I'd have posted this last week!) that Balaam is the earliest Biblical character to be mentioned in an independent text?

See here for a summary; here for a reconstruction of the text, and here for pictures.

* According to Jewish tradition.

† According to the Samaritan Torah^‡ and, according to Wikipedia, other sources.

‡ Which reads פְּתוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר עַל־הַנָּהָר אֶרֶץ בְּנֵי־עַמּוֹן in place of the Masoretic text's פְּתוֹרָה אֲשֶׁר עַל־הַנָּהָר אֶרֶץ בְּנֵי־עַמּוֹ.

The best response yet of someone to seeing the sideburns I've been growing for a while

"Where's your bass guitar?"