Moses received Torah from Sinai and passed it on to Joshua; Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets and the prophets passed it on to the Members of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be moderate in judgement, Create many students, and Make a fence around the Torah.
And all the people assembled as one man in the square which was in front of the Water Gate, and they told Ezra the Scribe to bring the scroll of Moses' Torah which God had commanded Israel. Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation … and he read from it in the square which is before the Water Gate from first light until noon … Ezra stood upon a wooden platform which they had made
[specially] for the purpose… Ezra opened the scroll in the sight of all the people – because he was above all the people – and when he did so all the people stood. Ezra praised the Lord, the Great God, and all the people responded 'Amen, Amen' with upraised hands, then they bowed and prostrated themselves before God face down upon the ground. And
[thirteen named persons] and
[the rest of] the Levites explained the Torah to the people, who were still standing… Then all the people went to eat and drink and send portions
[of food to each other] to make merry because they had understood what had been told them…
"And we hereby make and ratify a covenant, signed by our leaders, our Levites and our priests." The signatories were Nehemiah the Governor… and [22 named] priests; and for the Levites [19 named persons]… The heads of the people [44 named persons]… "And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites … and all who separate themselves from the surrounding peoples for God's Torah, their wives, sons and daughters, all fully understanding, ratify [what has been done by] their brethren, their mighty ones, and take a solemn oath and undertaking to observe God's Torah which was given by Moses, God's servant, and to observe and keep all the commands of the Lord…"
20:
For our purposes I think that two phrases in particular need to be stressed: "the Levites explained the Torah to the people". Possibly for the very first time the Torah was 'explained' to them in terms they could understand. And then the people made merry "because they had understood what had been told them". Ezra declaims the Written Torah and his assistants give an oral explanation.
To be continued.
Ed Frankel writes:
The opening mishna of Avot to me shows an approach to historiography that remained common through the writings of the Middle Ages, when "history" busied itself with the legitimization and jusitification of a school of thought or of an idea. In this paragraph it seems perfectly clear that the line of succession is far more complex than that here suggested by the text. Where are the kohanim, for example, who were for many years the primary teachers of our ancestors. However, the mishna is not aiming at historical accuracy in our modern sense of the term. Its goal is to foster a sense of the legitimacy of the Sanhedrin whose members, especially the Pharisees, were the shapers of Jewish practice for millenia to come.
I respond:
I tend to agree with Ed here. Though to be fair, in the detailed list of recipients of the oral tradition that we quoted from Rambam last time, he does include many known to be priests: Pinchas, Eli, Elijah, Yehoyada, Jeremiah, Ezra; there were probably more.
Also connected with Rambam's list: I wrote: The other end of the list given above is no less unreliable. Zechariah was a prophet of the second Bet Mikdash, not the first, and yet he is placed before Jeremiah who was active in the last years of the first Bet Mikdash which was destroyed in the year 587/6 BCE.
Yiftah Shapir writes:
Could it be that here Rambam is not referring to Zechariah ben-Iddo, but to a different prophet who is referred to in the book of Chronicles [2 Chronicles 24:19-21] as belonging to the period of King Joash: "And He sent them prophets to restore them to God; they testified against them but they would not listen. God's spirit imbued Zechariah the son of Yehoyada the priest. He stood above them and told them, 'Thus says God: why do you transgress God's commandments? You will not be successful. Because you have forsaken God He has forsaken you.' They conspired against him and, at the king's instigation, they stoned him in the Temple courtyard."
I respond:
What an intriguing suggestion! It certainly fits very well. I like it.
