Judaism

Topics represented

Judaism (43) · Religion (43) · Texts and halakha (7) · Diaspora (6) · Conflict (5) · Temples and worship (5) · Political history (4) · Rabbinic Judaism (4) · Antisemitism and the Shoah (3) · Law & constitutions (3) · Shoah (3) · Zionism (3)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. c. 1200 BCE–c. 1000 BCE

   Highland settlements and early Israelite religion

   Archaeology locates highland communities; the exact formation of Israelite monotheism remains debated. It is not a datable founding of rabbinic Judaism.

2. 722 BCE–721 BCE

   Fall of Samaria to Assyria

   Sargon II completed the capture of Samaria and deported part of its population, a major rupture for the Israelite kingdoms.

3. 587 BCE–586 BCE

   Destruction of the First Temple and Babylonian exile

   Nebuchadnezzar II captured Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and deported a significant part of the population to Babylon.

4. 539 BCE–538 BCE

   Return permitted under Cyrus

   After the Persian conquest of Babylon, the return of deported peoples—including Jewish groups— opened the Second Temple period.

5. c. 516 BCE

   Second Temple in Jerusalem

   The sanctuary’s reconstruction structured Persian Judea; its precise date and process should be read as tradition and archaeological context.

6. 332 BCE

   Judaea under Hellenistic kingdoms

   Alexander’s conquest introduced a long Hellenistic setting, with Judaea contested by successor dynasties.

7. c. 250 BCE–c. 68

   Dead Sea Scrolls

   The corpus preserved near Qumran documents textual and sectarian plurality in Second Temple Judaism; attribution of every manuscript is not settled.

8. 167 BCE–160 BCE

   Maccabean Revolt

   A conflict against Seleucid rule that became foundational in Hanukkah memory and produced a priestly Hasmonean dynasty.

9. 164 BCE

   Temple rededication (Hanukkah)

   Hanukkah commemorates the Temple’s recovery and rededication; it distinguishes liturgical memory from debated historical details.

10. 142 BCE

    Hasmonean autonomy

    The Hasmoneans consolidated autonomy and later kingship in Judaea, linking priestly, political, and territorial authority.

11. 63 BCE

    Roman intervention in Judaea

    Pompey entered Jerusalem and Judaea was incorporated into Rome’s sphere, a decisive setting for late Second Temple Judaism.

12. c. 20 BCE–c. 18 BCE

    Herodian expansion of the Temple

    Herod began a major reconstruction of Jerusalem’s Temple complex.

13. 66–73

    Great Revolt against Rome

    The first Jewish–Roman war culminated in Jerusalem’s capture; Masada fell later.

14. c. 70–c. 100

    Post-Temple rabbinic consolidation

    Traditions about Yavneh matter, but a single academy should not be presented as a founding act: this was a process.

15. 70

    Destruction of the Second Temple

    Titus’s forces destroyed the Temple; Jewish practice gradually reoriented around texts, prayer, calendar, community, and synagogue.

16. 132–135

    Bar Kokhba Revolt

    Rome suppressed the second major revolt; subsequent administrative changes and restrictions deepened regional transformations.

17. c. 200

    Redaction of the Mishnah

    The Mishnah gathers and organizes oral legal traditions, a cornerstone of later rabbinic literature.

18. c. 200

    Redaction of the Mishnah

    The Mishnah’s redaction as a fixed text is usually placed around 200 CE in Galilee, though it gathers traditions from different periods and its later written transmission has its own history. It is a rabbinic compilation of debate and practice, not a closed state code.

19. c. 350–c. 450

    Redaction of the Palestinian Talmud

    The Palestinian Talmud formed in rabbinic communities of Late Antique Palestine around the fourth and fifth centuries. Its legal commentary extends discussion of the Mishnah and does not by itself represent all Jewish communities.

20. c. 400

    Jerusalem Talmud

    A Palestinian rabbinic compilation generally dated to the fourth and fifth centuries; represented as an approximate range.

21. c. 450–c. 600

    Redaction of the Babylonian Talmud

    The Babylonian Talmud was redacted over several centuries in Babylonia’s communities and became a central reference for later halakhah. Its historical reach does not erase diversity of practice or its long editorial history.

22. c. 500

    Babylonian Talmud

    Its final redaction is normally placed in fifth- and sixth-century Babylonia and became central to rabbinic study and halakhah.

23. c. 650–c. 1038

    Geonic academies of Babylonia

    Sura and Pumbedita, among other centers, articulated legal responses and networks of authority for dispersed communities.

24. c. 750–c. 1000

    Development of Karaite Judaism

    Karaite communities affirm the primacy of Scripture over rabbinic oral authority; they are not a homogeneous rupture.

25. c. 950–c. 1250

    Cairo Geniza documents

    The Fustat archive makes it possible to reconstruct medieval Judeo-Arabic commercial, family, liturgical, and legal networks.

26. 1040–1105

    Rashi’s commentaries

    Rashi’s Bible and Talmud commentaries became an enduring reference for Ashkenazi learning.

27. 1170–1180

    Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah

    Maimonides compiled a decisive systematization of Jewish law in Egypt; its influence and controversies cross communities to this day.

28. 1492

    Expulsion from Spain

    The expulsion decree reshaped Sephardi communities across the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and the Americas.

29. 1648–1649

    Khmelnytsky Uprising

    Violence destroyed many Jewish communities in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; victim estimates vary widely.

30. c. 1740–c. 1772

    Emergence of Hasidism

    The movement associated with the Baal Shem Tov developed devotional and leadership networks in Eastern Europe, alongside mitnagdim responses.