Sadly, Jewish national history came to an end 2000 years ago, in the backdrop of various civil wars, which had a religious and sectarian basis. These are recorded in the works of Josephus. One of the central conflicts, it seems, was that between the priestly lineages, including the Hashmonaim and sadducees , versus the Pharisees (who also had their own internecine conflicts, eg with the Sicari and Biryonim).
The issues on this blog have been based on the Sadducee/Pharisee conflict. This was of both religious and political nature, and drew in King Janneus for example, who got into a brutal civil war with the Pharisees.
The exact cause and effect of these conflicts and the destruction of the Temple is not clear, although both sides agree that we would have been better off without the civil wars.
So, my question is whether the continuing debate should be reframed and attempted to be done civilly, rather than as open warfare? It is difficult not to have strong emotions when it comes to religious conflicts. A number of posts on here have addressed the variouis conflicts between the Sadducees and the Perushim.
Today there is no Temple, and the practical differences are also fewer between the Karaites and Rabbanites. This leads to the question of how would a Temple be built and run, if there is still an ideological divide?
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