Sotah 108

5:
Whatever the Urim and Tumim were they ceased to play any part in Israel's reality from the destruction of the first Bet Mikdash in 587 BCE. But it was not only the Urim and Tumim that ceased. Our mishnah teaches that the Shamir also ceased. According to rabbinic tradition – faithfully recorded by the medieval commentators! – this was a worm-like creature that could eat into stone. The Gemara [Sotah 48b] tells us that it was used by King Solomon to construct the first Bet Mikdash. However there is one sage there who finds this difficult to accept, and Rabbi Neĥemyah insists that the Shamir was used as an implement to engrave the names of the Israelite tribes onto the precious stones of the breastplate of the High Priest (which also contained the Urim and Tumim) [Exodus 28:21]. According to the Gemara the actual names were written on the precious stones in ink and the Shamir would then (miraculously, of course!) engrave the names according to the ink markings. Is it too fanciful to think that he has a diamond in mind? Whatever the Shamir was it ceased to play any part in Israel's reality from the destruction of the first Bet Mikdash in 587 BCE.

6:
Our mishnah also says that from that date there was no more "sweetest honeycomb". The term is borrowed from Psalm 19:11 where the poet declares that the details of God's law are sweeter for him that "sweetest honeycomb". The Gemara [Sotah 48a] has some surprising definitions of this honeycomb, including some kind of sweet-tasting pastry straight out of the oven. But most commentators accept that the reference is to the honey of bees. I have not found any source which explains why bees' honey was less sweet after the destruction of the first Bet Mikdash than afterwards. Perhaps this part of our mishnah should be understood as referring more to the state of things after the destruction of the second Bet Mikdash, as indicated below.

7:
The post-destruction period is also characterized by a loss of faith, according to our mishnah. I have translated the Hebrew term "Amana" as "steadfast belief", but I am not certain that this is the real intention of the Tanna. The biblical verse that is specifically quoted [Psalm 12:2] suggests to me that a better translation may have been one that suggests credibility more than belief. In common with the named sages whose opinions are subsequently brought perhaps Tanna Kamma sees a decline in the perceived quality of human inter-reaction after the destruction of the second Bet Mikdash; for the biblical verses and its continuance (which Tanna Kamma assumes we know by heart) is as follows:

This feeling of mine is made more certain for me by the fact that the phrase "Anshei Amana" is used in one of the major poems recited in the Sefaradi ritual before the confessional on Yom Kippur. At any rate, this wistful comment by our mishnah left me with the haunting thought that:

8:
Rabbi Yehoshu'a ben-Ĥananyah (whose dictum is quoted in our mishnah by Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el) himself lived through the period of the destruction. At the time of the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE he was a young student, one of the most promising of the protegés of Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai. (On several occasions in the past we have related the story of how he and his colleague, Rabbi Eli'ezer ben-Hyrkanos, helped their esteemed teacher escape from beleaguered Jerusalem in order to get permission from Vespasian to found a rabbinic meeting place in Yavneh.) His comment expresses better than anything else the deep sense of despair that the surviving generation must have felt: with the loss of the Bet Mikdash in Jerusalem all the sweetness of life had departed and people felt that they were left with just the bitter taste of the completely defeated.

I wrote: Once the Sanhedrin ceased they ceased singing at celebrations, as it says: "They will not drink wine with a song; strong drink will taste bitter to those who drink it." […] It says [Lamentations 5:14]: "The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music." The Sanhedrin is those elders which the Torah [Deuteronomy 16:18] commands: "Judges and officers shall you appoint in all your gates." When they ceased the singing ceased as well.

Josh Greenfield amends:

Not all singing ceased – but the tone seems to have changed: Rav Hisda said, "In olden times, when people held the Sanhedrin in awe, naughty words were never included in songs. But once the Sanhedrin was abolished …" [Eicha Rabba 5:15]

I respond:

Josh's comment is most apposite.