Historical Highlights of Rabbinic Judaism

Roman Rule

• "First Jewish Revolt" (66-72 ce): Destruction of the Second Temple (70 ce)
• Rabbinic Judaism begun at Yavneh: Yochanan ben Zakkai
• "Second Revolt" (132-135): Aqiva dies, Jews barred from Jerusalem
• Period of the Tannaim (first two centuries ce): Mishnah (about 220 ce)
• Period of the Amoraim (third to fifth centuries): Babylonian Talmud (about 500 ce)

Middle Ages

• Period of the Geonim (6th to 12th centuries ce)
• Islam begins (7th century)
• Karaism begins (8th century)
• Saadia Gaon (10th century)
• Rashi (11th century)
• Maimonides, Rashbam, and Ibn-Ezra (12th century)
• Zohar and rise of Kabbalah (13th century)
• Expulsion of Jews from Spain (1492)

Early Modern Period

• Joseph Karo's Shulchan Arukh (1571)
• Isaac Luria and Safed Spirituality (16th century)
• Shabbatai Zvi and the rise of Sabbatianism (17th century)

Modern Period

• Israel Baal Shem Tov, modern Chasidism begins (18th century)
• Moses Mendelssohn; the Haskalah begins (18th century)
• Reform and Conservative Movements begin; Zionism begins (19th century)
• The Holocaust (1942-1945)
• The Modern State of Israel established (1948)