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Descendants of the Hellenists- those Jews who adapted to greek thought during the greek occupation of Yisrael in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes. Most know the story of hannukah, during then, many jews were influenced by greek philosophy and culture.
well, the sadducees were the descendants of those Hellenistic jews.
They(tzaddikim)[righteous/just ones] were opposed to the prushim[the seperated ones] and stood for the temple, the preisthood and sacrifices. Many of the High Preists who were tzaddikim, abused their position by extortion;they compeled people to be their business agants, making much money from selling animals for sacrifices, many of which were blemished or stolen.
they held the aka bet din and appear to have begun around the 2nd century BCE, being appointed by corrupt men into office such as AntiochusIV. They held political power from 2BCE until the destruction of the temple in 70CE
They drew their support mainly from the aristocratic classes. As they represented the nobility and wealth of the country, their intrests were cheifly political not religious and spiritual for the lives of the people.
They controlled political sanhedrin-court of law- which ruled Israel under much influence from Rome.
They didnt believe in divine origin of oral law, they didnt acknowledge the sages who interpreted Oral law and so made up their opwn opinions on the Torah, believing that every individual can interpret the Torah personally.
They didnt believe in the ressurection of the dead, immortality of the soul, or in the World to come, nor in spirits or angels.(more on this later)
with the destruction of the temple- there were no need for them to exist as a power- no temple to "RUN". They were useless.
EL got rid of them!
MTZVA
Beseder
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