from Matteh Dan
Behold it is acknowledged and well known to any educated person that in the Second Temple period and for hundreds of years after its destruction, in the Land of Israel and beyond, there lived millions of Jews, so many that it is hard to believe. This is as they said in Pesachim 64b, "One time King Agrippa sought to focus on the count of the multitudes of Israel Egypt Alexandria Egypt Judah Israel
Now I will quite for you the words of Agrippa[5] to Ceasar Caius[6]. It describes what happened when that wicked man decided that all kings shall bow to him and all nations should worship him as a god, including all the congregations of Israel that are spread throughout the four corners of the earth and in the Temple in Jerusalem. These are some of his words as they pertain to us:
" As for the holy city, I must say what befits me to say. While she, as I have said, is my native city she is also the mother city not only of one country Judea but of most of others in virtue of the colonies sent out in diverse times to the neighboring lands Egypt, Phoenicia, the part of Syria called Hollow[7] and the rest as well and the lands lying far apart, Panphylia, Cilicia, most of Asia up to Bythinia, and the corners of Pontus, similarly also into Europe, Thessaly, Boetia, Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, and most of the best parts of Pelloponnese. And not only are the mainlands full of Jewish colonies but also the most highly esteemed of the islands Euboea Cyprus Crete Babylon
One of the Christian scholars went too far, for he had written that during the Second Temple Land of Israel
This is something that does not make sense, for during the Second Temple Judea
Be it as it may, everyone accepts that the number of the Children of Israel was great and awe-inspiring, one that could not be counted or grasped, whether inside the Land or outside it.
[1] This peculiar construction that qualifies the number or multiples of 600.000.00 as "the number that went out of Egypt" may be used to indicate that the number 600.000.00 that refers to the number of males has standing behind it also appropriate numbers of women and children, just as the 600.000.00 that went out of Egypt were accompanied by women and children.
[2] This account is corroborated by Josephus who reports that the number of people coming to the Temple
[3] From the Talmudic discussion itself it appears that only the specific examples quoted there are subject to the principle, "The Sages spoke in an exaggerated language (see Tosafot Chullin 90b, s.v Bshlosha Makomot )", while R. Nieto appears to understand it as a general principle that can also be applied to toher Aggadic passages. In this he follows Maimonides in the Guide for the Perplexed II, 47 and Shiltei Giborim Avodah Zara, p. 6 (in Alfasi).
[4] A parsah is 2.3 - 2.9 miles.
[5] AGRIPPA I (10 B.C.E.–44 C.E.), tetrarch of Batanea (the Bashan Galilee Judea Rome Temple Jerusalem
[6] From Philo's Legatio at Gaium, Section 281-282 (vol.10, p 143 in Loeb Calssical Library, Tr. F. H. Colson, London
[7] The Greek is Coele, I,e, Coele-Syria, the offician Seleucid designation for those portions of Palestine Syria
[8] Only Judah and Benjamin have returned from captivity. R. Nieto assumes that priests and Levites were evenly distributed throughout kingdoms of Judah Israel Judah
[9] Erachin 33a.
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