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 When
people hate each other for no reason. There’s an ancient legend that
describes why Jerusalem was destroyed. It all started over a misunderstanding,
because two people had almost the same name.
A man decided to throw
a party. He sent invitations to all the important people in Jerusalem
and to his closest friend, Kamtza. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up,
and the invitation that was supposed to go to Kamtza accidentally got
sent to someone else, Bar Kamtza, who the man had hated for a very long
time. Bar Kamtza was very excited to get the invitation. He thought
that the man wanted to apologize and be his friend again.
He jumped
into the bath, got all dressed up, and ran to the party. But when he
got there, the host just stared at him and said: “What are you doing
here? How dare you come to my house? Get out now!” “Please,” begged
Bar Kamtza, “don’t throw me out. I promise I won’t even eat anything.
Just don’t embarrass me by throwing me out of the party.” The man refused
to listen, though, and in front of all the guests, he had his servants
carry Bar Kamtza out.
Bar Kamtza was fuming. “How dare he throw me out?
And not one guest was willing to stick up for me. I’ll teach them.”
Instead of going home, he went straight to the Roman governor of Jerusalem.
“Your Excellency,” he began, “the Jews of Jerusalem are planning a revolt,”
and he told a long story to trick the governor into believing that it
was true. The governor massed his armies, laid siege to Jerusalem, and
eventually destroyed the city - all because of a misunderstanding, and
because two people hated each other.
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