Cheftze: There was a war. Jews died fighting in battles throughout Bayis Rishon. There wasn’t the special protection that they had had in the Midbar and Kibush E”Y. I should have said “presumably”, because there’s no source for it, but do you have any reason to think that no Jews died in those battles?
RT: Maybe, but that’s not what the Chasam Sofer says.
AIC: And we have our Poskim nowadays. Do you really think that kings like Menashe or Herod (who killed every member of Chazal he could find) really let the Sanhedrin decide Halachah and how to run the country? I don’t see Z’man Hazeh as any different than what was then. Now as probably better; the government allowed Frum Jews religious freedom.