1:
We have previously noted that Simon the Righteous was High Priest towards the end of the third century BCE. It was he who had joined forces with the Pharisees in order to stem the tide of advancing Hellenism. The very name of his successor as leader of the pietist movement shows how deeply Hellenism had penetrated into the social and cultural fabric of the small country of Judah: Antigonos is a pure Greek name. This fact, of course, teaches nothing about the cultural leanings of Antigonos himself, but it does tell us something about the family and society from which he hailed. Sokho was the name either of the village from which he came or, possibly more likely, the name of the village in which he lived and taught.
2:
Antigonos was active in the first half of the second century BCE. This was the period immediately before the fight between the Traditionalists and the Hellenizers with the Jewish populace broke out into open rebellion under the Hasmonean family. This was the period in which the Hellenist rulers of Judah, the Seleucid dynasty which was centered in Antioch in modern Syria, began raging a campaign of violence in order to force cultural conformity upon the Jewish population of Judah. This campaign reached great heights of cruel and tyrannical coercion during the reign of Antiochus IV [175-164 BCE]. This King took the title "Epiphanes". The term can best be understood by looking at the inscription on one of the coins he issued, an inscription which reads:
King Antiochus. God Manifest, Bearing Victory.
We can see his likeness on a coin he issued.
To be continued.
Albert Ringer is very much concerned with the concept of "making a fence around the Torah" which we discussed in connection with the teaching of Simon the Righteous. He writes:
I think I express the feeling of many Jews of our days when I say that I understand the need of a fence around the Torah and interpretation to keep Torah a source of 'living water'. However, I do have a problem with the way this is done in traditional Judaism in modern times. I have the impression the fence is that high, that the Torah inside cannot be seen anymore. Already in early tanaitic times a similar idea was worded. In Avot de Rabbi Nathan we find the following commentary:
'And make a hedge around the Torah.' A vineyard which is surrounded by a fence is unlike a vineyard not surrounded by a fence. [This also means] that no one should make the fence more important than what is to be fenced in – for if the fence falls down, then it will cut down the plants. For this is what we find in connection with Adam: he treated the fence as more significant than what was essential. When the fence fell down, it cut down the plants.
The reference to Adam is a midrash on the creation story, also found in Avot de Rabbi Nathan. God commanded Adam not to eat from the two trees in the middle of Gan Eden (Bereshit 2:17). However, he instructed Eve not to touch the tree, nor eat its fruits. (Bereshit 3:3). Well, the snake showed her touching it brought her no harm and that's how it came about… I suppose you will agree that Halacha in Conservative Judaism is not about creating this kind of fence. I found the commentary to Avot in Alon Goshen-Gottstein, The Sinner and the Amnesiac, the Rabbinic invention of Elisha ben Abuya and Eleazar ber Arach. The book gives a literary reading of the traditional sources around the two rabbis.
I respond:
The halakhic concept of making a fence around Torah is ancient and worthy. Every legal system uses the concept. If statistics show that the safest speed with which to drive a vehicle in a built up area is 56 kph the authorities will enact that the top speed must be 50 kph: this is making a fence around the law. The fences that the ancient Tannaim created are worthy and so much have they become part and parcel of traditional Judaism that only the very learned are aware that they are such. But I fully agree with Albert that the tendency in some circles today to erect a fence around the fence, as it were, is to be severely deprecated.
I do not know the book to which Albert refers so I cannot make a valid comment about it; but I would say that I know of have no valid reason to believe that Elisha ben-Avuyah is a fictional character.
