The Lessons of Bar Kamtza and Titus

Jerusalem was destroyed on account of Kamtza and bar Kamtza.

Kamtza and Bar Kamtza were the names of two Jews.

There was a certain man whose friend was named Kamtza and whose enemy was named bar Kamtza. He once made a large feast and said to his servant: Go bring me my friend Kamtza. The servant went and mistakenly brought him his enemy bar Kamtza. The man who was hosting the feast came and found bar Kamtza sitting at the feast. The host said to bar Kamtza. That man is the enemy [ba’al devava] of that man, that is, you are my enemy. What then do you want here? Arise and leave. Bar Kamtza said to him: Since I have already come, let me stay and I will give you money for whatever I eat and drink. Just do not embarrass me by sending me out. The host said to him: No, you must leave. Bar Kamtza said to him: I will give you money for half of the feast; just do not send me away. The host said to him: No, you must leave. Bar Kamtza then said to him: I will give you money for the entire feast; just let me stay. The host said to him: No, you must leave. Finally, the host took bar Kamtza by his hand, stood him up, and took him out. After having been cast out from the feast, bar Kamtza said to himself: Since the Sages were sitting there and did not protest the actions of the host, although they saw how he humiliated me, learn from it that they were content with what he did. I will therefore go and inform [eikhul kurtza] against them to the king. He went and said to the emperor: The Jews have rebelled against you. The emperor said to him: Who says that this is the case? Bar Kamtza said to him: Go and test them; send them an offering to be brought in honor of the government, and see whether they will sacrifice it.

A gentile may voluntarily bring korbanos to be slaughtered on the mizbei’ach.

A good eye means wanting to see others completely fulfilled and satisfied

What did Titus do when he conquered the Temple? He took a prostitute with his hand, and entered the Holy of Holies with her. He then spread out a Torah scroll underneath him and committed a sin, i.e., engaged in sexual intercourse, on it.

But in the end of the days of the Second Temple, sinath chinam [vain hatred] and lashon hara [slander] increased among us (in our many sins), for which reason the Temple was destroyed and we were exiled from our land (viz. Yoma 9b and Yerushalmi 1:5). [Though the Gemara calls it "sinath chinam," lashon hara is included, proceeding, as it does, from sinah. If this were not the case, they would not have been punished so severely; as the Gemara there concludes: "This is to teach you that sinath chinam is equivalent to idolatry, illicit relations, and the spilling of blood." And we find the same in Arachin 15b in respect to lashan hara, and, likewise, in the discussion in Yoma itself (viz. 9b and 23a).]...

But of the second we know that they toiled in the Torah, were careful about the commandments and tithes, and every good custom was in them; only they loved money and hated one another without reason. Hate without reason is hard for it is the equivalent if idolatry, and uncovering nakedness, and spilling of blood... They said, any generation in which it is not rebuilt is debited as if it had destroyed it.

Hashem said, "In this world because there was loshon hora among you, I removed My Divine Presence from your midst.

What did Titus do when he conquered the Temple? He took a sword and cut into the curtain separating between the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies. And a miracle was performed and blood spurted forth...

G-d performed this miracle to demonstrate how deeply He was pained by the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash.

(18) There is blunt talk like sword-thrusts,
But the speech of the wise is healing.

Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Death and life are in the hand of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21). Does the tongue have a hand? Rather the verse comes to tell you that just as a hand can kill, so too a tongue can kill. If you were to claim that just as the hand kills only from close by, so too the tongue kills only from close by...

The Gemara relates that the tanna who recited mishnayot and baraitot in the study hall taught a baraita before Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak: Anyone who humiliates another in public, it is as though he were spilling blood. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said to him: You have spoken well, as we see that after the humiliated person blushes, the red leaves his face and pallor comes in its place, which is tantamount to spilling his blood...

[Regarding humiliation, see The Power of Speech by Yehuda Cahn, page 171-172].

(1) מכה רעהו בסתר [CURSED BE] HE THAT SMITETH HIS FELLOW SECRETLY — It is of slander that it here speaks (slander may be termed “smiting in secret”) (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 53).

The mouth is the holiest of the holy.

The Gemara resumes its story about Titus. The Divine Voice continued: Go up on dry land and make war with it. He went up on dry land, and a gnat came, entered his nostril, and picked at his brain for seven years...

(7) God יקוק formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being.

(7) And the Lord God created man, dirt from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils a living soul, and it was for a speaking spirit in man.

The soul of intelligence is something exclusive to man, something he shares with beings in the higher worlds, beings which live forever in their sacred domains The seat of this soul is in man’s brain, and it is generally referred to as נשמה. This is what the Torah described in our verse as the נשמת חיים which G-d “blew” into Adam’s nostrils.

(2) For the soul (neshamah) is the rational part of man and its place is in the brain of man.​​​​​​​

The origin of its abode is in the brain, the tool of thought...

Thus said King Solomon in his wisdom: “One who watches his mouth and his tongue guards his soul from troubles,” meaning: guard your mouth from eating bad food and from being fully satisfied, and your tongue from speaking except as needed. Likewise the wise man said: One who eats a small amount of harmful foods is not harmed as much as one who eats excessively of good food.

Concerning this Solomon in his wisdom said: "Whoso guardeth his mouth and his tongue guardeth his soul against distresses" (Prov. 21.23), meaning, that whoso guards his mouth against bad food and ravenous eating, and his tongue from speaking aught but of the things he needs, guards his soul against distresses.

(11) But the main way to merit Olam Haba is by guarding one's tongue. That is worth more than all the Torah and good deeds... [See also Even Shlomo 7:1 ד"ה ע"י שמירת הפה משתמר הנפש and Even Sheleimah].