Yehoshu'a ben-Peraĥyah and Nittai ha-Arbeli received [the tradition] from them. Yehoshu'a ben-Peraĥyah says: Create a rabbi for yourself, acquire for yourself a friend, and give every man the benefit of the doubt.
1:
The next pair in the succession of
Zuggot was Yehoshu'a ben-Peraĥyah and Nittai ha-Arbeli. If our reading of the implications of the mishnah Ĥagigah 2:2 [see discussion in Avot027] are correct then in this pair Yehoshu'a ben-Peraĥyah was the representative of the landed and the bourgeoisie, while Nittai ha-Arbeli represented the peasantry and the proletariat. When I use the term "next in succession" it may be misleading, for it can create in the mind of the reader an impression that there was an unbroken line of succession, one pair following another. This, however, does not seem to be the case from the historical point of view. We have seen that the previous pair, Yosé ben-Yo'ezer and Yosé ben-Yoĥanan, lived during the pre-Hasmonean persecutions. You will recall that Yosé ben-Yo'ezer was crucified at the instigation of his nephew, Yakum/Alcimus, who had 'bought' the high priesthood in order to further hellenism among the Jews.
2:
Thus, Yosé ben-Yo'ezer must have died around the year 168 BCE. It is quite possible that Yosé ben-Yoĥanan outlived him by many years, but even so he would not have reached the time of the next pair. According to the Ĥanukah story the Jews, under Judah the Maccabee, won an astounding victory over the Syrian (i.e. Greek) overlords in 165 BCE, recaptured and repurified the desecrated Temple, chased the invader from the land and "all lived happily ever after". This is far from the historical truth. Indeed, about the only thing that seems to be correct is the recapture of the precincts of the Bet Mikdash. Militarily, the war was far from over in 165 BCE, but continued unabated for many years. Judah himself was killed in battle in 162 BCE and was succeeded by his brother Jonathan.
3:
In 159 BCE, the high priest that the Maccabeans had opposed was killed and that position of power was open. In a power struggle within the Seleucid government, a man claiming to be the son of Antiochus IV was attempting to take control. In his attempt, he offered the high priesthood to Jonathan and Jonathan accepted. Thus, in an ironic twist of events, the Maccabean family accepted the high priesthood and thus participated in the corruption they had opposed. Jonathan was not as sound a military leader as his older brother Judah. His main accomplishments were "surface matters" – he renewed the alliance with Rome; made various political maneuvers within the Seleucid kingdom; "played" various rulers against each other. He was killed as the result of one such episode and was succeeded in 143 BCE by yet another of the Hasmonean brothers, Simon.
4:
Simon managed to stabilize the situation and began to rule the country. The Hasmonean brothers, all sons of Matityahu the priest from Modi'in, were descendents of Aaron, not of David. Another Great Assembly was held in which the high priesthood was vested in Simon and his heirs "until a prophet shall arise and indicate otherwise". In 141 BCE it was declared that Judah was free from the control of Syria. To all intents and purposes Simon made himself king of Judah, but the idea of having a king who was not of the line of David was anathema to the pietists of the time. The coins that Simon minted bear witness to this: on one side the inscription is in Greek and he is described as "King Simon", but on the other side of the coins, in Hebrew, no mention is made of his kingship. In 135 BCE, Simon was assassinated and his son, Yoĥanan Hyrkanos took over. Note, that we are now 30 years after the death of Yosé ben-Yo'ezer and we still have not reached the time of the next Zug [Pair].
To be continued.
This has been held over for far too long, but is fortuitously apposite since in this shiur we have recalled Yosé ben-Yo'ezer. In Avot027 we recounted the conversation between Yosé ben-Yo'ezer and his nephew Yakum which took place before the execution of the former:
Yakum, seated regally upon a horse even though it was Shabbat, jeered at Yosé that he, Yakum, was riding one kind of horse while Yosé was riding a very different kind of horse (a cross). Yosé retorted that if Yakum was thus rewarded by God imagine what a reward awaits those that do His will. Yakum replied, "Has any man done God's will more than you?" Yosé responded, "If this is how He reacts towards those who do His will, imagine how he will react to those who don't!"
Amnon Ronel writes:
So Yosé claims of Heaven that the righteous deserve to ride upon horses and the wicked deserve to be crucified. Have I understood this correctly?
I respond:
No, you have not. Yosé is saying that if I, a righteous person, have reached this end, you, a wicked person, will surely be punished by God in even greater measure.
