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Roman Dispersion
Lesson Plan | Grades 7–12 | by Zion Ozeri and Josh Feinberg

The Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy

Relief from the Arch of Titus, Rome, Italy
 

Opening

Before offering any historical context, project the image of the Arch of Titus and give students 60 seconds to look at it in silence. Ask them to pay attention to details, without trying to interpret them yet.

Go around the room and ask students to name one detail their eye keeps returning to, and record their observations on the board. Do not correct, explain, or identify anything yet. The goal is to let the students encounter the image before they encounter its history. Keep their observations visible so you can return to them once they understand what the arch depicts and why it matters.

Part 1: Reading the Photographs

Photographs 1 and 2: The Arch of Titus

Look closely at the images and discuss:

• First, look at the way these people are dressed and what they're wearing on their heads. What do you notice? Where and when do you think these people might be from?
   
• The Arch of Titus was constructed in 81 CE and still stands today. What materials do you think allowed it to survive for 2,000 years?
   
• Which objects do you recognize being carried in this procession?

Along with plaques and trumpets, these men are carrying a seven-branched menorah, which had an important place in the ancient Temple of Jerusalem. This scene was carved on a grand archway, known as the Arch of Titus, built in Rome in 81 CE — about eleven years after the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.

• Why do you think the Romans carved an image showing objects carried off from the Temple? How do you think the Romans felt about this event?
   
• What might people do today to publicize an event like this?
   
• How do you think the Jewish people felt about this image? How do you feel seeing it today?

Read more about the Arch of Titus:
Where Did the Temple Menorah Go? - Biblical Archaeology Society
Smarthistory - The Arch of Titus

Photograph 3: The Western Wall

The Wall, Jerusalem, Israel, 1992 © Zion Ozeri

Now examine this photograph and discuss:

• What do you see here?
   
• Do you recognize this place? What do you know about it? How does this picture connect to the Arch of Titus? Roughly how long after the first image was carved was this photograph taken?
   
• Why do you think these people are here? Why do they still care about this place? How do you feel about this place?
   
• How do you think Judaism has changed in the time between the first images from the Arch of Titus and this one? What has stayed the same?

Learn more:
What Is the Western Wall? | My Jewish Learning
The Western Wall Heritage Foundation

Part 2: The Text

The following story is from the Talmud, a collection of rabbinic discussions from the early centuries of the Common Era. When the Talmud tells the story of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, one of its heroes is a teacher named Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. At the time of the Roman conquest, a group of Jews known as the Zealots wanted to fight the Romans to the death. When Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai saw that Jerusalem could not be saved, he found a way to escape the city. He asked the future emperor of Rome, Vespasian, to grant him a new center where Judaism could survive and evolve. This passage tells the story of how Yavne, a city dedicated to Torah study, became the new center of Jewish life after the destruction of the Temple, which had long been the center of Jewish worship. 

Gittin 56a-b

The Gemara relates: Abba Sikkara was the leader of the zealots of Jerusalem and the son of the sister of Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai. Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai sent a message to him: Come to me in secret. He came, and Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai said to him: Until when will you do this [keep fighting] and kill everyone through starvation? Abba Sikkara said to him: What can I do, for if I say something to them they [the other Zealots] will kill me. Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai said to him: Show me a method so that I will be able to leave the city, and it is possible that through this there will be some small salvation.

Abba Sikkara said to him: This is what you should do: Pretend to be sick, and have everyone come and ask about your welfare, so that word will spread about your ailing condition. Afterward bring something smelly and place it near you, so that people will say that you have died and are decomposing. And then, have your students enter to bring you to burial, and let no one else come in so that the zealots not notice that you are still light. As the zealots know that a living person is lighter than a dead person.

Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai did this.

[Having escaped, Rabbi Yochanan went to the Roman camp and approached Vespasian, the general of the army, who was about to be named the leader of the Roman empire]

Vespasian then said to Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai: I will be going to Rome to accept my new position, and I will send someone else in my place to continue besieging the city of Jerusalem and waging war against it. But before I leave, ask something of me that I can give you. Rabban Yoanan ben Zakkai said to him: Give me Yavne and its Sages and do not destroy it.

Discuss:

• Why do you think Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai undertook this dangerous plan? What do you think could have happened to him if he'd been caught?
   
• What would you have done if you were in his position?
   
• Why do you think the compilers of the Talmud wanted to tell this story?

• What impact do you think Rabbi Yochanan's actions had on Judaism moving forward?

Learn more:
Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkais Choice - National Library of Israel
What Is the Mishnah? | My Jewish Learning  

Part 3: Synthesis

• Keep both images in mind: the menorah paraded through Rome as a trophy, and the crowds gathered at the Wall centuries later.  In this story, a rabbi decides that the future of Judaism depends not on saving the Temple, but on saving something else entirely. What connections do you notice between his choice and the two images we just examined?
   
• The Arch of Titus, still standing today, preserves the moment of loss; the Wall preserves the moment of return; the story of Yavne explains what happened in between. What does it take for a people to survive the destruction of the place they built their identity around?
   
• Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai chose Torah study over the Temple — ideas over a building. Looking at the two photographs, do you think that choice succeeded? What is the evidence, nearly two thousand years later?
   
• Stone, photograph, and text are three different ways of preserving a moment. What can each one capture that the others cannot?

Follow-Up Activities:

1. A Place That Matters

The Western Wall is important to Jews today because it's the spot where the Temple, the central institution of ancient Judaism, once stood. What locations matter to you, or to your local Jewish community? 

Take a photograph of a place that's meaningful to you or your community. How will you capture its significance? What makes a location meaningful?

2. A Note in the Wall

Many visitors to the Western Wall write prayers on small pieces of paper and place them in the crevices between the stones. Write your own prayer: for the world, for the Jewish people, or for yourself. What do you wish, hope, or pray for?

3. The Other Side of the Arch

The Arch of Titus shows the aftermath of the Temple's destruction from the Roman perspective; soldiers carrying off the spoils of victory. Imagine what that same moment might have looked like from the Jewish perspective. Stage a photograph with props and costumes to show the aftermath of and reaction to the destruction of Jerusalem from the Jews’ point of view.