Healing Well of Miriam

Without the Temple and without the Land, the rabbis and sages had to find ways to preserve the Jewish People.   During the time of the Greek domination, when learning Torah was prohibited, the readings of the Haphtorah were established in the place of the Torah parsha.  (Later that custom came alongside the weekly Torah reading.)     During the Roman period there was a fear that the Oral Law might be forgotten, so Yehudah the Prince made the decision to write it down.  With the crises of national survival, Judaism shifted from the Temple to the synagogue and became the religion of the Exile.  Halacha has changed over the centuries, adapting to various situations, local customs, new innovations, etc.  However, the people of the host nations had to be considered warily, for there was the ever-present danger of anti-Semitic attack.  Centuries of living under these conditions forced Jewish communities to concentrate their focus inward.