What was the Babylonian conquest and exile of Jerusalem (597-38 BCE) and what impact did it have on Jewish religious practice?
"Babylonian Captivity, also called Babylonian Exile, the forced detention of Jews in Babylonia following the Neo-Babylonian Empire’s conquest of the kingdom of Judah in 598/7 and 587/6 bce. The captivity formally ended in 538 bce, when the Persian conqueror of Babylonia, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine. Historians agree that several deportations took place (each the result of uprisings in Palestine), that not all Jews were forced to leave their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia—thus constituting the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Diaspora." (Britannica School, 2025).
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