Timeline - The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was ransacked and destroyed by  the Romans in year 70. Masada, the last pocket oaf Judean resistance,  was conquered by the Romans in year 73. The Jews who survived fled or  were north west, Hijaz, later to be known as Arabia in the south, Egypt  and north Africa in the South West.      The events we will speak about today are based in North Africa and  Egypt, but also reach Cyprus, Persia and Judea.   The year is 115, 45 years after the devastating destruction of Jerusalem  and exile of the Jews. Large nukulus of Jews are now settled in North  Africa and other areas mentioned earlier. Again for timeline perspective  these events took place a least 100 years before the connotation of the  Mishna, long before the Talmud. Who were the Jews in the beginning of  the 2nd century and only a few decades after the loss of Jewish  independence in Judea? What were their core beliefs and objectives? Did  they dream to gather strength to return to their homeland and reclaim  independence.   We don’t really have precise answers to those questions. But we do know  that the Jews at the time were not happy with their reality living as an  oppressed minority in the vast Roman Empire. We know this because they  held a major revolt starting in Cyrenaica, now northern Libya. A Jewish  leader named Lukuas Andreas gathered forces and fought the Romans. They  took control of the city and destroyed many Temples of Idolatry and  Roman culture.   From there they proceeded east to Alexandria which too had a very large  Jewish population who readily joined the revolt against the Romans  which spread out to other provinces.    Not enough is known about the objectives of the Jewish revolt. Did  Lukuas Andreas actually declare himself Messiah and King of the Jews as  some historians have described or is that a later addition. The Romans  responded to the revolt with great force. By 117, two years after it  began, they succeeded in depressing the revolt at great cost to the Jews  who were totally wiped out in Cyprus and in great numbers in  Alexandria. The Jews who survived were forced to pay heavy taxes to  cover costs of rebuilding the ruins of the war.    For information on Tours in Israel https://www.tours.haivri.com   Follow David Ha'ivri for more updates from the Heartland of Israel Twitter: https://twitter.com/haivri Podcast: https://anchor.fm/haivri Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haivri Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david.haivri Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhaivri/