New thought on the Bar Kamtza episode
I've referred to the Kamtza and Bar Kamtza story a few times. Here's the Maharal's take on it:Why blame-Kamtza? and I revisited it in 2021 here: disinviting-bar-kamtza. Today I thought of another possible insight into why this particular incident is identified as the direct catalyst for the churban in the case of the burning of the second Temple.
Today I thought about the principle we're taught motivated Tamar to remain silent about the identity of her babies father and that a charitable rabbi and his wife got to act on when they entered an oven to avoid being seen by the beneficiary of their charity: it's better to jump into a fiery furnace than to publicly embarrass someone.
What happened at the party that Bar Kamtza got invited to by mistake was a public humiliation for him. He was willing to go so far as to pay the cost of the entire party to be spared the embarrassment of being thrown out. But the host wouldn't have it, and the rabbis in attendance did not speak out to prevent such disregard for a person's feelings. It was that feeling of being rendered inconsequential that spurred Bar Kamtza into revenge by manipulating the rabbis in charge of receiving sacrifices into a scenario that would arouse th wrath of the foreign power against them and the Temple.
The principle that Tamr upheld to the point of risking her life and the lives of the children she carried is a reminder that we have to value the dignity of the individual to such an extent that we consider public embarrassment tantamount to murder should submit to a fiery death than be the cause of it. When the rabbis saw this happening at the party and failed to act, they made a fateful mistake. The consequences of that failure was a fire was able to consume even the stone of the Beit Hamikdash and a destruction that we continue to mourn even today.
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