Eretz-Israel 007

נושא: EI

Bet Midrash Virtuali

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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32:
We have noted that there was a certain tension between at least some of the sages of Eretz Israel and some of the sages of Babylonian Jewry. This tension was exemplified for us by the halakhic argument between Rabbi Zeira and Rav Yehudah when Rabbi Zeira decided to make aliya to Eretz-Israel. This tension was not just about aliya and the permissibility of aliya. It seems that there was a considerable difference between the method of learning in the two centres. Since we have mentioned Rabbi Zeira let us also mention that the Gemara [Bava Metzi'a 85a] tells us that

When Rabbi Zeira made aliya to Eretz Israel he fasted a hundred fasts in order to forget the Babylonian Gemara [and method that he had learned before making aliya], so that it would not trouble him [as he acquired the different method and learning of his new home].

He even went so far as to refer to the Babylonian school as "stupid Babylonians" [Betzah 16a]. The most important student of Rabbi Zeira was Rabbi Yirmiya [Jeremiah], who also made aliya to Eretz-Israel from Babylon. Rabbi Yirmiya too would refer to the Babylonian school as "stupid Babylonians" [Pesaĥim 34b]. But Rabbi Yirmiya went even further: concerning the Babylonian method of study he was wont to quote Lamentations 3:6 {Sanhedrin 24a:

He [God] has made me [Israel] dwell in darkness like those long dead.

The sages in Babylon did recognise the superb quality of the sages of Eretz-Israel, but often it was like a back-handed compliment. For instance:

Abayé says: "One of them [the sages of Eretz-Israel] is as good as two of us." Rava [his cousin] said: "But when one of us goes there [from Babylon to Eretz-Israel] he is as good as two of them! Rabbi Yirmiya [is an example]: when he was here he could not understand what the sages were saying, but when he made aliya he was able to refer to us as 'stupid Babylonians'. [Ketubot 75a]

33:
There were two main spheres in which the sages of Eretz-Israel did their best to maintain their superioriity over the sages of Babylon. There was the issue of semikhah and the issue of regulating the calendar. (Semikhah here refers to rabbinic ordination.) Let us deal with the regulation of the calendar first.

34:
When we studied tractate Rosh ha-Shanah we learned about the intricacies of the administration of the Jewish calendar during the time of the Tannaïm and the Amoraïm. The sages of Eretz Israel jealously and zealously guarded the right to administer the calendar only from Eretz Israel. This meant that only in Eretz Israel was it possible to determine when the new moon was; and this, of course, had repercussions on all the festivals. Once the sages of the Sanhedrin in Eretz Israel had determined that the new moon had been seen by reliable eye witnesses they would send emissaries to all the main centres of the diaspora to inform the Jews there of the correct date. The sages of the Sanhedrin in Eretz Israel held on to this right until the last possible moment: only in the year 358 CE did the President of the Sanhedrin, Hillel II, establish the permanent calendar which is still in use. (And in the first decades of the 5th century CE the Byzantine government took the opportunity of disbanding the Sanhedrin, because the President was childless.) In other words, even when it was no longer possible for the Sanhedrin to regulate the calendar this task was not transferred to the sages of Babylon but to the Jewish people as a whole.

35:
Another calendar issue was the intercalation of leap years. Only the Sanhedrin in Eretz Israel had the right to decide whether a given Jewish year was to have twelve or thirteen months (according to certain observable phenomena). The Gemara [Sanhedrin 11b] preserves for us a glimpse of how this was done. It concerns Rabban Gamli'el and this must have been the first Rabban Gamli'el who lived before the destruction of the Bet Mikdash.

It once happened that Rabban Gamali'el was sitting on a step on the Temple-hill and the famous scribe, Yoĥanan, was standing before him with three cut sheets before him. "Take one sheet", he [Rabban Gamli'el] said, "and write a letter … to our brethren the exiles in Babylon and to those in Media, and to all the other exiles of Israel, saying: 'May your peace be great for ever! We hereby inform you that the doves are still tender and the lambs still too young and that the crops are not yet ripe. It seems advisable to me and to my colleagues to add thirty days to this year.'"

36:
Rabbi Yehoshu'a had a nephew who was also a Tanna (sage). He left Eretz Israel for Babylon, returned, but could not settle down and went to Babylon once again. There he established a Yeshiva and decided to regulate the calendar for the Jews of Babylon. The Gemara [Berakhot 63a] recounts what happened:

When Ĥananya the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshu'a went down to the Diaspora he began to intercalate the years and fix new moons outside Eretz Israel. So they [the sages of the Sanhedrin] sent to him two scholars… When he saw them, he said to them, "Why have you come?" They replied, "We have come to learn Torah [from you]." He exclaimed, "These men are among the most eminent of the generation, they and their ancestors have ministered in the Sanctuary [and yet they come to learn Torah from me]!"… [However,] soon they began to declare clean what he declared unclean and to permit what he forbade. Thereupon he proclaimed, "These men are worthless, they are good for nothing!" … He said to them, "Why do you declare clean when I declare unclean, why do you permit when I forbid?" They replied, "Because you intercalate years and fix new moons outside Eretz Israel." He said to them, "Did not Akiba ben-Yosef intercalate years and fix new moons outside of Eretz-Israel?" They replied, "You can't compare yourself to Rabbi Akiva who did not leave his equal in Eretz Israel." He said to them, "I too have not left my equal in Eretz Israel!" They said to him, "The kids which you left behind have become goats with horns, and they have sent us to you, instructing us, 'Go and tell him in our name. If he listens well and good; if not, he will be excommunicated. Tell also our brethren in the Diaspora [not to listen to him]. If they listen to you, well and good; if not … let them all become renegades and say that they have no portion in the God of Israel'." Immediately all the people broke out into weeping and cried, "Heaven forbid! We have a portion in the God of Israel. Why all this fuss?"

In response the two sages quote to them the well known verse from Isaiah:

For out of Zion shall go forth the Torah and God's word from Jersualem.[Isaiah 2:3]

They meant, of course, that Zion and Jerusalem were the source of God's law and not Babylon. In the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Sanhedrin 6a] we find a truly caustic comment about this matter.

Rabbi Yitzĥak stood up [in the Sanhedrin] and read [as if from the Torah]: "These are the festivals of Ĥananya the nephew of Rabbi Yehoshu'a!" [parodying Leviticus 23:4 – "These are the festivals of the Lord"]. Rabbi Natan then stood up [as if reciting] the Haftarah: "For out of Babylon shall go forth the Torah and God's word from the River Pekod!"

37:
God willing, in our next shiur we shall continue our survey of the attempts of the sages of Eretz Israel to establish their halakhic superiority over the sages of the diaspora.

To be continued.

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