Rabban Gamli'el used to say: Make yourself a master, escape all doubt, and do not tithe by estimation too often.
1:
If Chapter One were to follow the pattern established thus far in the fifteen mishnayot covered so far we would expect that mishnah 16 would contain the teachings of a sage who received the tradition from Hillel and Shammai together with a colleague. However, this does not happen. At this point in the historical development of the oral tradition our tractate makes a lengthy diversion and will only return to the major student who came after Hillel when we are well into Chapter Two.
2:
The cause of this diversion is to be found in the fact that with Hillel and Shammai the dual leadership of the Zuggot effectively came to an end. While each generation from now on still had both a President of the Sanhedrin and a President of the Court (see Avot 025, explanation #3) the presidency of the Sanhedrin assumed paramount importance and – a matter of much greater moment – the presidency became hereditary, vested in the descendents of Hillel.
3:
However, what happened immediately after Hillel's death is not at all clear. According to the Gemara [Shabbat 15a] Hillel was followed in the presidency by his son Shim'on. However, this seems most unlikely because there is no other reference to such a sage nor has any halakhah or other teaching been handed down in his name. It seems much more likely that Hillel was followed immediately by Rabban Gamli'el – though we have no means of ascertaining whether Gamli'el was Hillel's grandson (son of the above-mentioned Shim'on) or actually his son.
4:
The line of Hillel, during the period of the Mishnah, was as follows:
- Rabban Gamli'el the Elder must have been the leader after the death of Hillel himself until around the year 40 or 50 CE.
- He was followed by his son, Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el, who was killed some time during the Great War against the Romans, around the year 67 CE.
- His son – a minor at the time of his father's unexpected death – was to become Rabban Gamli'el, the second of that name; his grandfather is therefore usually called Rabban Gamli'el the Elder and he himself is called Rabban Gamli'el of Yavneh.
- He was followed by his son, yet another Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el who held the leadership during the extremely difficult years that followed the collapse of the Bar-Kokhba revolt.
- His son, Yehudah, was the famous President of the Sanhedrin who, at the start of the third century CE, published the Mishnah in written form, thus bringing to an end the period of the Tannaïm.
(His descendents continued to exercise the function of President of the Sanhedrin for more than two centuries more, until the Byzantine government abolished the function at the beginning of the 5th century CE.)
5:
This plethora of similar names has left considerable confusion in our present tractate. Sayings are attributed to Rabban Gamli'el and to his son Rabban Shim'on ben-Gamli'el, though it is not clear which of the two 'father-and-son' combinations is intended, since this is followed immediately by teachings of Rabbi Yehudah ha-Nasi and his son, yet another Gamli'el! We shall have to do the best we can to establish which sages are intended in each case. In all probability the similar names caused considerable historical confusion and two sages of the same name have been conflated into one by accident.
6:
We have no concrete information as to why the presidency of the Sanhedrin was vested in the house of Hillel. In all probability this was done in order to prevent the prevailing of complete halakhic disorder among the Pharisees. The Tosefta [Ĥagigah 2:4] tells us that up to the time of Hillel and Shammai there had been relative halakhic agreement among the Pharisaic leadership and very few halakhic disagreements were recorded. But during the time of Hillel and Shammai two distinct schools of thought developed, each with its own halakhic customs and interpretations:
While this last statement is clearly an exaggeration it also holds a kernel of truth. The internal divisions within the Pharisaic movement which had cohered for more than two centuries, since the time of Simon the Righteous, were now too deep and too wide to prevent rupture. The Gemara [Eruvin 13b] sums up the situation that thus arose:
For three years the schools of Shammai and Hillel argued, each claiming that halakhah followed their opinion. A heavenly voice declared that both were the words of the living God but that halakhah must follow the opinion of the School of Hillel. Now why did the School of Hillel deserve to have halakhah decided according to their opinion? – because they were easy going and humble and they would learn both their own views and those of the School of Shammai; furthermore [when quoting] they would always quote the opinion of the School of Shammai first.
7:
Almost everywhere in Tannaïtic literature where the phrase "a heavenly voice" occurs to solve a dispute it corresponds to what we would call today "public opinion". The School of Hillel was more popular than the School of Shammai: it was more liberal in its views and more amenable than the rather stern conservatism of the School of Shammai.
To be continued.
Because of the incidence of Rosh ha-Shanah the next shiur will be on Monday 20th September. In the meantime you may care to read something that I wrote a few years ago
concerning Rosh ha-Shanah. Please let me take this opportunity of thanking all those who have sent me their best wishes for the New Year: I am afraid they are too numerous for me to be able to respond to each individually. May all of us be inscribed for a happy, peaceful and prosperous 5765 and may we go from strength to strength in our Torah study.
