Avot155

1:
In many versions of Tractate Avot this mishnah is presented together with the next one. However, since there is no immediately obvious thematic connection between them it seems better to treat them separately.

2:
Many sages – both of the mishnaic and the talmudic periods – bore the name Ĥanina (which may be an Aramaized familiarization of the name which is equivalent to the English name John). The Rabbi Ĥanina of our mishnah was a high-ranking priest who lived in the second half of the first century CE; roughly speaking, he was a contemporary of Rabban Yoĥanan ben-Zakkai. In our mishnah he is given the title S^egan ha-Kohanim. This may mean that he was second in rank in the priestly hierarchy, after the High Priest. But it is more likely that it was the title used to designate the "superintendent" of the procedures of the Bet Mikdash. When we studied Tractate Tamid we encountered this functionary many times. At any rate, it is clear from various sources that the Rabbi Ĥanina of our mishnah did, in fact, officiate in the Bet Mikdash during its last days, and from the personal point of view he is most probably the "superintendent" of Tractate Tamid.

3:
Rabbi Ĥanina was an eye-witness to the destruction of the Bet Mikdash and survived the débacle of the Great War; in the years following the fall of Jerusalem he offered to the sages assembled in Yavneh many reminiscences of Temple procedure. (We encountered one example of this when we studied Tractate Pesaĥim [1:6]. Clearly he loved the Bet Mikdash and its ritual: in a discussion in the Gemara [Ta'anit 13a] whether people (priests) who are required to bathe in a ritual bath may do so in cold water on Tish'ah b'Av he is reported to have said:

He must have died some time around the year 80 CE.

4:
Even though he was a very high-ranking priest it is clear that his emotional and political support was given to the "peace party" headed by Rabban Yochanan ben-Zakkai. The Midrash [Sifrei, Naso 42] quotes him as saying:

Great is peace which is equal [in worth] to the whole of creation.

When we bear in mind that this sage was the official in the Bet Mikdash who supervised the daily rendition of the priestly blessing it is most instructive that in that same Midrash he gives his understanding of the last clause of the Aaronic blessing. Each day the priests would invoke God's blessing [see Tamid 7:2]. They would say:

Rabbi Ĥanina says that the last phrase, and grant you peace, refers to domestic tranquility:

5:
After having lost his beloved Temple and seen the slaughter of myriads of Jews in the great war against the Romans it is particularly poignant that in the aftermath Rabbi Ĥanina has not lost his abiding faith in peace. That people can behave like wild animals he knows only too well; he was also witness to the senseless internecine strife between the moderates and the zealots during those last, fateful, months. But, he insists, one must pray for the welfare of the Roman Empire, because it is only fear of the strong arm of the law which keeps people from killing each other.

6:
While, clearly, the teaching of Rabbi Ĥanina applies to any government under which Jews live, in our present mishnah the Hebrew term malkhut refers to the Roman Imperial government.

7:
Rabbi Ĥanina must have been influenced by something that the Prophet Jeremiah said. Jeremiah had warned his people that if they did not submit to the Babylonian yoke there would be exile. In the year 597 BCE a large contingent of exiles, together with King Yehoyakhin, were exiled to Babylon. Jeremiah's political and prophetic opponents tried to soothe the people by telling them that this was a momentary set back and that the exiles would soon return. Jeremiah himself wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon warning them to settle down there because their stay would not be a short one:

8:
The instruction of the prophet Jeremiah together with the exhortation of Rabbi Ĥanina in our present mishnah have served throughout the ages to prompt Jews everywhere to include in the Sabbath ritual a prayer for the welfare of the local government. I have heard people say that there should be no such prayer in the State of Israel because such a prayer is appropriate only for the diaspora. Rabbi Ovadya of Bertinoro clearly would not accept such a proposition. In his commentary on our present mishnah he writes: