Sotah 082
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BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI
of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel
RABIN MISHNAH STUDY GROUP
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How [are we to understand] the Reading of the King? On the day following the first day of Sukkot, in the eighth year, at the end of the seventh, a wooden platform is erected for him in the courtyard, and he sits upon it. (This is based upon the words of the Torah: "at the end of seven years, at the time". The Overseer would take a Sefer Torah and pass it to the Head of the Assembly, who would pass it to the Deputy, who would pass it to the High Priest, who would hand it to the king. The king would stand to receive it and read from it while seated. King Agrippa stood to receive it and read it while standing and the sages praised him. When he reached "You may not appoint over you someone of foreign extraction" there were tears in his eyes. They said to him, "Do not worry, Agrippa, you are our brother, you are our brother!" He reads from the beginning of "These are the words…" as far as "Hear". [Then he reads] "Hear", "If you listen", "Tithe, you must tithe", "When you complete the tithing", the king's passage, and the blessings and the curses until he finishes that whole section. The same benedictions that the High Priest recites the king [also] recites, except that he mentions the festivals instead of the forgiveness of sin.
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
6:
The remaining matter of consequence in our mishnah is the episode with King Agrippa. I see no point in re-inventing the wheel; so what follows is heavily indebted to the Encyclopedia Judaica. Agrippa was born in the year 10 BCE. He was the grandson of Herod the Great and Mariamne (Miriam) the last surviving Hasmonean princess, and the son of Aristobulus and Berenice. He was educated in Rome and made several important friendships; in particular we can note his early friendship with Gaius Caligula (later to become emperor). He was constantly in debt – and, it would seem – also indiscreet. Once, when drunk he said that he wished that Caligula were emperor instead of Tiberius, and was sent to prison for his indiscretion. Caligula on his accession released him.
In the year 39 C.E. he was granted the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, who had been exiled by Caligula, consisting of Galilee, Tiberias, Sepphoris, and Perea. During this period Agrippa used his connections in Rome to intercede with Caligula on behalf of the Jews. They wished Caligula to retract an order to erect his statue in the Temple in Jerusalem. Shortly afterward Caligula was murdered. Agrippa, who was in Rome at the time, was among those who supported the succession of Claudius. He was rewarded in 41 C.E. by the addition of Samaria and Judea to the area under his rule. With the acquisition of these territories, Agrippa now reigned over the whole area of his grandfather Herod's kingdom.
The three years of Agrippa's reign were a period of relief and benefit for the Jewish people of Judea. The residents of Jerusalem were exempted from the impost on houses. Agrippa also made an attempt to fortify the walls of the city, until prevented by Marsus [the Roman governor of Syria – SR]. He omitted the patronymic "Herod" from coins minted for him and followed a markedly pro-Jewish policy when he was required to arbitrate disputes between Jews and non-Jews. He was also mindful of the welfare of Jews in the Diaspora. Agrippa made frequent changes in the appointment of the high priest. He was highly sympathetic to the Pharisees and was careful to observe Jewish precepts. He married his daughters to Jewish notables, and withdrew his consent to the wedding of one daughter to Antiochus, king of Commagene, when the latter refused to be circumcised. His close association with the Pharisees is attested in the statement of Josephus that "his permanent residence was Jerusalem, where he enjoyed living, and he scrupulously observed the ancestral laws."
Agrippa is referred to in the Mishnah which points out that when celebrating the festival of the first fruits, "even King Agrippa carried the basket [of fruits] on his shoulder" [Bikkurim 3:4]. He is also mentioned in our present mishnah, of course, which states that contemporary rabbinical sages accorded him particular regard when he made a special point of standing up to read the Torah, even though it was permissible for a king to do so while seated. When he reached the passage, "one from among your brethren shalt you set a king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you," [Deuteronomy 17:15] his eyes filled with tears, since he was not of pure Jewish descent. The sages, however, called out, "Agrippa, you are our brother! You are our brother!" Agrippa died suddenly when in Caesarea, possibly as a result of poisoning by the Romans who feared his popularity with the population. After his death, Judea reverted to the status of a Roman procuratorship.
This concludes our study of Chapter Seven of this tractate. DISCUSSION:
I wrote (about Adam Zertal's theory that an altar he discovered near Shechem was that built by Joshua for the ceremony of the Blessings and the Curses) that he makes out a very convincing case. Most interesting is the fact that this altar is situated in such a way that it seems reasonable that what the Samaritans now call Mount Gerizim was, in fact, originally Mount Ebal!
Yiftah Shapir writes: I understood his theory differently. The altar is on mount Ebal – the same mountain we used to call Ebal. His theory moves Mount Gerizim. Instead of the generally accepted mountain, on the southern side of Shechem – (where the Samaritans have their sacred site) – he thinks that Gerizim is the mountain on the other side of Ebal – generally known as Jabal al Kabir. Needless to say – this theory is totally unacceptable to the Samaritans !!! Yiftah also addresses another issue that we have dealt with: the Ten Commandments, and the opinion that the curses and the blessings are another set of ten commandments. Let me suggest another set. The term "Aseret HaDevarim" appears twice in the book of Deuteronomy [2:13, 10:4] and once in Exodus. Let me concentrate for a moment on the text in Exodus 34. Verse 27 tells us that God instructed moses to write "all these words" (Ha-devarim ha-eleh) – because these are the words of the covenant. Verse 28 tells us that Moses was on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights and there he wrote on the tables "the words of the covenant, the ten words". (for lack of a better term I translate "Davar" into "Word"). What does it refer to? reading the "Pshat" (and forgetting for a minute that we were taught from kindergarten onwards that the 10 "Devarim" are the words found in Parashat Yitro and in Va-Ethanan) we come to the conclusion that the text refers to what comes exactly before these verses – beginning with verse 10. This is the covenant between God and His people. God promises to evacuate the peoples now living in the land – and demands from the people obedience – and fulfillment of certain Mitzvot. Some of these are parallel to what we see in the "ten commandments" – not to worship idols, to keep Shabbat. Some are missing – there is no "thou shalt not steal" for example. The covenant does not contain Mitzvot which are between people (Bein Adam la-Havero). Instead of these we have a list of ritual commandments. Peter Hamor, Bikkurim, Shalosh Regalim -and "thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk"!!! Furthermore, try again to forget what we were taught: look at the text of the "10 commandments" and try to count them (preferably using the left side of a Tikkun Kor'im – no punctuation and no vowels). It is very difficult to come to the number 10. (Even the division of the Massorah divides the text into 13 verses.) The text of the covenant – is easily divided into 10 sections. So we have to come to the conclusion that what was written on the tables was not "I am the Lord thy God" but "thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk"! |
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