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In Jerusalem today there is the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Jerusalem is the cynosure of three of the world's religions, and the close juxtaposition of their three holy places has caused conflicts that are well known. What is not well known is the sequence of events that led to the construction of these holy places. It is a history that, from the current perspective, is full of surprising alliances, sometimes explicit, sometimes de facto, reflecting very different conflicts, and sometimes no conflict at all. Two little-known historical events-the alliance of the Emperor Julian with the Jewish people in his effort to subvert Byzantine Christianity,1 and the initial reception by the Jews of the construction of the Dome of the Rock-may perhaps shed light on the most mysterious holiday on the Jewish calendar, Lag ba-Omer.
The Holy Land Under Byzantium: From Bad to Worse
A good starting point for this discussion is the rise of the Byzantine Empire. The fourth century was a time of particular challenge for the Jews of the Holy Land. Jews had learned to live under Rome, an aggressive but ideologically neutral colonizing power. The adoption of Christianity by Emperor Constantine in 312 CE and his 324 defeat of Licinius, Emperor of the eastern part of the Empire, meant that Jews had suddenly come under the dominion of their fiercest theological opponents and, in due course, tormentors. From the start, Jerusalem was aggressively Christianized; maps were disseminated and pilgrimage was encouraged as part of a campaign of Christian appropriation of the Holy Land.2 In a reprise of draconian Hadrianic decrees, Jews found themselves barred from Jerusalem except to mourn its destruction, and thereby, once yearly, bear witness to their own subordination and supersession. Constantine's successors imposed economically discriminatory legislation, and did not restrain Christian persecution of Jews. The charged atmosphere inspired a limited Jewish revolt in 351 against the Caesar of the East, Constantius Gallus, who was based in Sepphoris, Tiberias and Lod, before it was put down, with devastating effect.3
While the rabbinic leadership was apparently not involved in the revolt, the ancient empirical Jewish calendar system ceased in 358; the relationship of this to the foregoing events, if any, is...