Group None

This is something we can attribute to the words of our Rabbis, of blessed memory (Yoma 9b): “Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of three things that existed there: idolatry, sexual perversion, and bloodshed. But the Second Temple in which they occupied themselves with Torah, good deeds, and acts of loving-kindness – why was it destroyed? Because there was baseless hatred. R. Yoḥanan and R. Eliezer both say: Those first ones [who lived in First Temple times] – their sins were revealed and the end [of their exile] was revealed. Those who lived later [i.e., in Second Temple times], their sin was not revealed, so the end [of their exile] was not revealed….” (The meaning of the matter is that the sins of the First Temple were revealed and open, known to be grave sins in the eyes of observers without even turning to contemplate, but the later sins were not visible except to one who closely scrutinized their great severity and astonishing magnitude, manifesting in the specific of terrible sins with nothing to check them, may God save us.)The Amora’im then ask: Who was better, the earlier or later? They answered: Look at the Temple – which was restored after the first but not after the second. This is what we said above: The one who is greater than his friend (like in the Second Temple, when they were occupied with Torah…) – his evil urge is greater, leading him to terrible sins, the magnitude of whose evil is known only to one who is wise enough to grasp the truth.