D. Falk, 2005
1. Academy and Synagogue
1.1. Synagogue
1.1.1. Second Temple Synagogues
Check out the literature, images, and FAQ on Second Temple Synagogues at Donald Binder’s web site (follow the links)
Literature: http://www.pohick.org/sts/lit.html
Images: http://www.pohick.org/sts/image.html
FAQ: http://www.pohick.org/sts/faqs.html
(Binder’s Synagogue home page: http://www.pohick.org/sts/)
1.1.2. Byzantine Synagogues
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/synagogues.htm
1.1.3. Theodotus Inscription.
[A dedication inscription for a synagogue in Jerusalem, ca 1st c. CE.]
Theodotus, son of Vettanos, a priest and an archisynagogos,* son of an archisynagogos
grandson of an archisynagogos, built the synagogue for the reading of Torah and for teaching the commandments; furthermore, the hostel, and the rooms, and the water installation for lodging
needy strangers. Its foundation stone was laid by his ancestors, the elders, and Simonides.
(Translation by K. C. Hanson and Douglas Oakman;
http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/greek/theodotus.html)
Picture of Theodotus Inscription: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~dfalk/courses/ejud/synagogues.htm
1.2. Chain of Tradition
1.2.1. Mishnah Avot 1: 1-17; 2:1-10, 18; 3:2, 5, 8-10, 12, 14; 4:16; 5:10, 22;
[Mishnah Avot records traditions about the rabbinic “fathers.” It purports an unbroken a chain of tradition from Moses to the rabbis]
Chapter 1
1. Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua,
and Joshua to the elders,
and the elders to the prophets,
and the prophets to the men of the Great Synagogue.
They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah.
2. Shimon the Righteous was one of the last survivors of the Great Synagogue.
He used to say: By three things the world is sustained: by the Torah, by the (Temple) service, and by deeds of loving-kindness.
3. Antigonus of Socho received the Torah from Shimon the Righteous.
He used to say: Be not like servants who serve their master for the expectation of reward, but be like servants who serve their master without the expectation of reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.
4. Yose ben Yoezer of Zeredah and Yose ben Yochanan of Jerusalem received the Torah from them. …
6. Joshua ben Perahyah and Nittai the Arbelite received the Torah from them.
Joshua ben Perahyah said: Provide for yourself a teacher and get yourself a friend; and judge every man towards merit. …
8. Judah ben Tabbai and Shimon ben Shetah received the Torah from them . . .
10. Shemayah and Avtalion received the Torah from them. . . .
11. Avtalion said: Sages, be careful with your words lest you incur the penalty of exile …
12. Hillel and Shammai received the Torah from them.
Hillel used to say: Be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving others and bringing them close to the Torah. …
15. Shammai said: Make your study of the Torah a fixed habit. Say little and do much, and receive all men with a cheerful face.
16. Rabban Gamaliel said:
Provide yourself with a teacher and remove yourself from doubt, and do not make a habit of tithing by guesswork.
17. Shimon [ben Gamaliel] said:
All my days have I grown up among the sages and I have not found anything better for a man than silence. Study [of Torah] is not the most important thing but doing [it]. Whoever multiplies words makes occasion for sin.
Chapter 2
1. Rabbi [Judah the Prince] said:
… Be as careful about a light precept as of a weighty one, for you do not know the reward allotted for each precept.
Count the loss of fulfilling a law against the reward [from it], and [count] the gain [from committing] a transgression against the loss from it.
Consider three things and you will not fall into the power of sin: Know what is above you: a seeing eye, a hearing ear, and all your deeds recorded in a book
2. Rabban Gamaliel the son of Rabbi Judah the Prince said:
Great is study of the Torah when combined with a worldly occupation, for toil in them both puts sin out of mind. And all study of the Torah not accompanied by worldly work is in the end futile and leads to sin. Let all who work with the congregation do so for the sake of God [literally, for the name of Heaven], for then the merit of their fathers sustains them and their righteousness endures forever. And as for you, God will then say: I count you worthy of great reward as if you had done it all yourselves.
4. He used to say: Do His will as if it was your will that He may do your will as if it was His will. Make your will of no effect before His will that He may make the will of others of no effect before your will.
5. Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community. Do not trust yourself until the day of your death. Do not judge your fellow until you have been in his place. … Do not say: when I have leisure then I will study—you may never have leisure.
8. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai received the Torah from Hillel and from Shammai. … Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five disciples: Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Joshua ben Hananiah, Yose the Priest, Shimon ben Natanel, and Elazar ben Arach. …
10. They each said three things.
Rabbi Eliezer said: Let the honor of your fellow be as dear to you as your own. Do not be easily provoked to anger. Repent one day before your death.
…
18. Rabbi Shimon said: Be careful in the reciting of the Shema and in the Tefillah. When you pray do not make your prayer a fixed task but [a plea] for mercies and supplications before God…
…
Chapter 3
…
2. Rabbi Hanina, the deputy high priest said:
Pray for the welfare of the government, since but for fear of it men would swallow each other alive.
5. Rabbi Nehunya ben Hakhanah said:
Whoever takes upon himself the yoke of Torah, from him will be taken away the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly care; but whoever throws off the yoke of Torah, upon him will be laid the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly care.
…
8. Rabbi Jacob said:
If a man is walking by the way and is studying and then interrupts his study and says: “How fine is this tree!” or “How fine is this ploughed field!” Scripture reckons it to him as though he was guilty liable for his life.
9. Rabbi Dostai ben Yannai said in the name of Rabbi Meir:
He who forgets one word of his study, Scripture reckons it to him as though he was guilty liable for his life… a person is not guilty unless he deliberately puts those lessons away from his heart.
10. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa said:
He whose fear of sin comes before his wisdom, his wisdom will endure; but he whose wisdom comes before his fear of sin, his wisdom will not endure. …
12. Rabbi Elazar of Modiim said:
If a man profanes sacred things, and despises the festivals and puts his fellow to shame publicly, and makes void the covenant of Abraham our father, and teaches meanings in the Torah which are not according to Halakhah, even though he has a knowledge of the Torah and good works, he has no share in the world to come.
…
14. Rabbi Akiva said:
…Tradition is a safeguarding fence around the Torah. …
16. All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given.
4:16. Rabbi Jacob used to say:
This world is like a vestibule before the world to come. Prepare yourself in the vestibule that you may enter into the banquet hall. …
5:10. There are four types among men:
He who says, “What is mine is mine and what is yours is yours”–this is the common type, though some say that this is the type of Sodom.
He who says, “What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine”–he is an ignorant man.
He who says, “What is mine is yours and what is yours is thine own”–he is a saintly man.
And he who says, “What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine”–he is a wicked man.
5:22. Ben Bag-Bag used to say of the Torah:
Turn it and turn it again, for everything is in it. Ponder it, and grow gray and old over it. Stir not from it for you can have no better rule than it.
(Ben Bag-Bag is supposed to have been a proselyte and a disciple of Hillel. In Aboth d’R. Nathan this saying is attributed to Hillel)
(Adapted from Danby translation)
1.3. Shammai and Hillel
1.3.1. Bavli Shabbat 31a
On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, ‘Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.’ Thereupon he repulsed him with the builder’s cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him, ‘What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.’
. . . said they, Shammai’s impatience sought to drive us from the world, but Hillel’s gentleness brought us under the wings of the Shechinah.
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.3.2. Disciples. Abot de R. Nathan A 3
“And raise up many disciples“:
The school of Shammai says:
–“Do not teach a man unless he is wise and meek and the son of wealthy parents!”
The school of Hillel says:
–“Teach every man! For there were many sinners in Israel who were led to study Torah, from whom came righteous and pious and worthy men.”
(Translation by Mahlon H. Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/index.html#texts)
1.4. Oral Torah
1.4.1. Unwritten Laws. Philo, Special Laws 4.143–50
[Re: the written law]
(143) The lawgiver also gives this most admirable injunction, that one must not add anything to, or take anything away [allusion to Deuteronomy 4:2] from the law, but that it is a duty to keep all the ordinances as originally established in an equal and similar state to that in which they were at first delivered without alteration; for, as it seems, there might otherwise be an addition of what is injust; for there is nothing which has been omitted by the wise lawgiver which can enable a man to partake of entire and perfect justice.
(147) …for any addition will engender superstition, and any diminution will produce impiety…
[Re: unwritten laws]
(149) There is also this commandment ordained which is of great common utility, that, “Thou shalt not move thy neighbours’ landmarks which the former men have set Up.”[ deuteronomy 19:14.] And this injunction is given, as it seems, not only with respect to inheritances, and to the boundaries of the land, in order to prohibit covetousness respecting them, but also as a guard to ancient customs; for customs are unwritten laws, being the doctrines of men of old, not engraved on pillars or written on paper which may be eaten by moths, but impressed in the souls of those living under the same constitution. (150) For the children ought to inherit from the father of their being the national [or ancestral] customs in which they have been brought up, and in which they have lived from their cradle, and not to despise them merely because they are handed down without being written. For the man who obeys the written laws is not justly entitled to any praise, inasmuch as he is influenced by compulsion and the fear of punishment. But he who abides by the unwritten laws is worthy of praise, as exhibiting a spontaneous and unconstrained Virtue.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/text/philo/book30.html
1.4.2. Josephus, Antiquities 13.297
. . . What I would now explain is this, that the Pharisees have passed on to the people a great many observances handed down by their fathers, which are not written down in the law of Moses. For this reason the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to consider to be obligatory only those observances which are in the written word, but need not observe those which are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.
(Whiston translation)
1.4.3. Mark 7
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
`This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.”
9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! (RSV)
1.4.4. Fence around Torah. Mishnah Avot 1:1
Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah.
(Danby translation)
1.4.5. Hillel and Shammai. Bavli Shabbat 31a
Our rabbis taught: It happened that a certain foreigner came to Shammai and said to him: “How many Torahs are there for you?”
He told him: “Two! A written Torah and an oral Torah.”
He said to him: “I will trust you on the written but I will not trust you on the oral. I will be a proselyte providing you teach me (only) the written Torah.”
(Shammai) rebuked him and drove him out in anger.
(The foreigner) came before Hillel who made him a proselyte. The first day (Hillel) told him: “Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth [= ABCD]”
The next day he turned them around for him.
(The disciple) said to (Hillel): “But yesterday you did not tell me like this!”
(Hillel) told him: “Did you not then trust what I said? Trust me likewise [with regard to Oral Torah]!”
(Adapted from translation by Mahlon H. Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/index.html#texts)
1.4.6. Deuteronomy 9:10
And the Lord gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the Lord had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. (RSV)
1.4.7. Yerushalmi Hagigah 1:8 (76a)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said, “‘Upon them’—‘And upon them’; ‘all’—‘according to all’; ‘words’—‘the words.’ Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud, halakhah, and aggadah. Even that which an experienced student will teach, has already been taught to Moses at Sinai.”
(translation S. Berrin in Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, 10.5.2, p. 536)
1.4.8. Deuteronomy 33:10
They shall teach Jacob your ordinances (mishpateyka) and Israel your law (torateka). (Falk)
1.4.9. Sifre Deuteronomy 351
“And your Torahs to Israel” (Deut 33:10): This teaches that two Torahs were given to Israel, one memorized, the other in writing.
Agnitos, the governor, asked Rabban Gamaliel, saying to him, “How many Torahs were given to Israel?” He [Rabban Gamaliel] said to him, “Two, one in memory, one in writing.”
(translation by J. Neusner, Sifre to Deuteronomy, 2:428)
1.4.10. Halakhah and Torah. Mishnah Abot 3:12
Rabbi Eleazar of Modi’im said:
–“He who profanes holy things and spurns the set times, he who exposes his colleague in public, he who voids the covenant of our father Abraham, he who discovers parts of the Torah contradicting halakah, he has not share in the world to come, even if he has a grasp of Torah and good deeds.”
(Translation by Mahlon H. Smith, http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/index.html#texts)
1.5. Study of Torah
1.5.1. Midrash Rabbah – Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created” (Genesis 1:1).
R. Oshaya commenced [his exposition thus]: Then I was by Him, as a nursling (amon); and I was daily all delight (Prov. 8:30). ’Amon’ means tutor; ’amon’ means covered; ’amon’ means hidden1; and some say, ’amon’ means great. ’Amon’ is a tutor, as you read, As an omen (nursing father) carrieth the sucking child (Num. 11:12). ’Amon’ means covered, as in the verse, Ha’emunim (they that were clad-i.e. covered) in scarlet (Lam. IV, 5). ’ Amon ‘ means hidden, as in the verse, And he concealed (omen) Hadassah (Est. II. 7). ’Amon’ means great, as in the verse, Art thou better than No-amon (Nah. III, 8)? which is rendered, Art thou better than Alexandria the Great, that is situate among the rivers?3 Another interpretation: ’amon’ is a workman (uman). The Torah declares: ‘I was the working tool of the Holy One, blessed be He.’ In human practice, when a mortal king builds a palace, he builds it not with his own skill but with the skill of an architect. The architect moreover does not build it out of his head, but employs plans and diagrams to know how to arrange the chambers and the wicket doors. Thus God consulted the Torah and created the world, while the Torah declares, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED (I,1), BEGINNING referring to the Torah, as in the verse, The Lord made me as the beginning of His way (Prov. VIII, 22).
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.5.2. Bavli Baba Metzia 86a
Now, they were disputing in the Heavenly Academy thus: If the bright spot preceded the white hair, he is unclean; if the reverse, he is clean.10 If [the order is] in doubt — the Holy One, blessed be He, ruled, He is clean; whilst the entire Heavenly Academy maintained, He is unclean.11 Who shall decide12 it? said they. — Rabbah b. Nahmani; for he said, I am pre-eminent13 in the laws of leprosy and tents.14 A messenger was sent for him, but the Angel of Death could not approach him, because he15 did not interrupt his studies [even for a moment]. In the meantime, a wind blew and caused a rustling in the bushes, when he imagined it to be a troop of soldiers. ‘Let me die,’ he exclaimed, ‘rather than be delivered into the hands of the State. As he was dying, he exclaimed, ‘Clean, clean!’16 when a Heavenly Voice cried out, ‘Happy art thou, O Rabbah b. Nahmani, whose body is pure and whose soul had departed in purity!’ A missive fell from Heaven in Pumbeditha, [upon which was written,] ‘Rabbah b. Nahmani has been summoned17 by the Heavenly Academy.
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.5.3. Bavli Baba Metzia 59a-b
We learnt elsewhere: If he cut it into separate tiles, placing sand between each tile: R. Eliezer declared it clean, and the Sages declared it unclean; and this was the oven of ‘Aknai.1 Why [the oven of] ‘Aknai? — Said Rab Judah in Samuel’s name: [It means] that they encompassed it with arguments2 as a snake, and proved it unclean. It has been taught: On that day R. Eliezer brought forward every imaginable argument ,3 but they did not accept them. Said he to them: ‘If the halachah agrees with me, let this carob-tree prove it!’ Thereupon the carob-tree was torn a hundred cubits out of its place — others affirm, four hundred cubits. ‘No proof can be brought from a carob-tree,’ they retorted. Again he said to them: ‘If the halachah agrees with me, let the stream of water prove it!’ Whereupon the stream of water flowed backwards — ‘No proof can be brought from a stream of water,’ they rejoined. Again he urged: ‘If the halachah agrees with me, let the walls of the schoolhouse prove it,’ whereupon the walls inclined to fall. But R. Joshua rebuked them, saying: ‘When scholars are engaged in a halachic dispute, what have ye to interfere?’ Hence they did not fall, in honour of R. Joshua, nor did they resume the upright, in honour of R. Eliezer; and they are still standing thus inclined. Again he said to them: ‘If the halachah agrees with me, let it be proved from Heaven!’ Whereupon a Heavenly Voice cried out: ‘Why do ye dispute with R. Eliezer, seeing that in all matters the halachah agrees with him!’ But R. Joshua arose and exclaimed: ‘It is not in heaven.’ What did he mean by this? — Said R. Jeremiah: That the Torah had already been given at Mount Sinai; we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice, because Thou hast long since written in the Torah at Mount Sinai, After the majority must one incline.
R. Nathan met Elijah and asked him: What did the Holy One, Blessed be He, do in that hour? — He laughed [with joy], he replied, saying, ‘My sons have defeated Me, My sons have defeated Me.’ It was said: On that day all objects which R. Eliezer had declared clean were brought and burnt in fire. Then they took a vote and excommunicated him. Said they, ‘Who shall go and inform him?’ ‘I will go,’ answered R. Akiba, ‘lest an unsuitable person go and inform him, and thus destroy the whole world.’ What did R. Akiba do? He donned black garments and wrapped himself in black, and sat at a distance of four cubits from him. ‘Akiba,’ said R. Eliezer to him, ‘what has particularly happened to-day?’ ‘Master,’ he replied, ‘it appears to me that thy companions hold aloof from thee.’ Thereupon he too rent his garments, put off his shoes, removed [his seat] and sat on the earth, whilst tears streamed from his eyes. The world was then smitten: a third of the olive crop, a third of the wheat, and a third of the barley crop. Some say, the dough in women’s hands swelled up.
A Tanna taught: Great was the calamity that befell that day, for everything at which R. Eliezer cast his eyes was burned up. R. Gamaliel too was travelling in a ship, when a huge wave arose to drown him. ‘It appears to me,’ he reflected, ‘that this is on account of none other but R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus.’ Thereupon he arose and exclaimed, ‘Sovereign of the Universe! Thou knowest full well that I have not acted for my honour, nor for the honour of my paternal house, but for Thine, so that strife may not multiply in Israel! ‘At that the raging sea subsided.
Ima Shalom was R. Eliezer’s wife, and sister to R. Gamaliel. From the time of this incident onwards she did not permit him to fall upon his face. Now a certain day happened to be New Moon, but she mistook a full month for a defective one. Others say, a poor man came and stood at the door, and she took out some bread to him. [On her return] she found him fallen on his face. ‘Arise,’ she cried out to him, ‘thou hast slain my brother.’ In the meanwhile an announcement was made from the house of Rabban Gamaliel that he had died. ‘Whence dost thou know it?’ he questioned her. ‘I have this tradition from my father’s house: All gates are locked, excepting the gates of wounded feelings.’
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.6. The Essence of Torah
1.6.1. Bavli Shabbat 31a
On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, ‘Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.’ Thereupon he repulsed him with the builder’s cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him, ‘What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.’
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.6.2. Mishnah Abot 3:13-14
Rabbi Akiva used to say: Beloved is the man that he was created in the image of G-d; an extra love is made known to him that he was created in G-d’s image, as it says (Genesis 9:6) “for in His own image G-d made humankind”. Beloved are the Jews that they are called sons to G-d; an extra love is made known to them that they are called sons to G-d, as it says (Deuteronomy 14:1) “You are children of the Lord your G-d.” Beloved are the Jews that there has been given to them the precious instrument; an extra love is made known to them that they were given the precious instrument of the world’s creation, as it says (Proverbs 4:2) “For I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching.”
(from http://www.angelfire.com/mt/talmud/avot.html; Copyright 2000 Gil Student)
1.6.3. Bavli Makkot 24a-b
[“THEREFORE GAVE HE THEM TORAH (TEACHINGS) AND MANY COMMANDMENTS . . .”]
R. Simlai when preaching said: Six hundred and thirteen precepts were communicated to Moses, three hundred and sixty-five negative precepts, corresponding to the number of solar days [in the year], and two hundred and forty-eight positive precepts, corresponding to the number of the members of man’s body.
Said R. Hamnuna: What is the [authentic] text for this? It is, Moses commanded us torah, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob, ‘torah’ being in letter-value, equal to six hundred and eleven, ‘I am’ and ‘Thou shalt have no [other Gods]’ [not being reckoned, because] we heard from the mouth of the Might [Divine].
David came and reduced them to eleven [principles], as it is written, A Psalm of David. Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy mountain? — [i] He that walketh uprightly, and [ii] worketh righteousness, and [iii] speaketh truth in his heart; that [iv] hath no slander upon his tongue, [v] nor doeth evil to his fellow, [vi] nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour, [vii] in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but [viii] he honoureth them that fear the Lord, [ix] He sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, [x] He putteth not out his money on interest, [xi] nor taketh a bribe against the innocent. [Psalm 15]. . . .
Isaiah came and reduced them to six [principles],19 as it is written, [i] He that walketh righteously, and [ii] speaketh uprightly, [iii] He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, [iv] that shaketh his hand from holding of bribes, [v] that stoppeth his ear from hearing of blood, [vi] and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil; he shall dwell on high [Isaiah 33:25-26]. . . .
Micah came and reduced them to three [principles], as it is written, It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord doth require of thee: [i] only to do justly, and [ii] to love mercy and [iii] to walk humbly before thy God [Micah 6:8].
Again came Isaiah and reduced them to two [principles], as it is said, Thus saith the Lord, [i] Keep ye justice and [ii] do righteousness [Isaiah 56:1].
Amos came and reduced them to one [principle], as it is said, For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye Me and live [Amos 5:4].
To this R. Nahman b. Isaac demurred, saying: [Might it not be taken as,] Seek Me by observing the whole Torah and live? — But it is Habakuk who came and based them all on one [principle], as it is said, But the righteous shall live by his faith [Habakkuk 2:4].
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)
1.6.4. Bavli Shabbat 31a
Resh Lakish said, What is meant by the verse, and there shall be faith in thy times, strength, salvation, wisdom and knowledge [Isaiah 33:6]? ‘Faith’ refers to the Order of Seeds; thy times, the Order of Festivals; strength, the Order of Women; salvation, the Order of Nezikin; wisdom, the Order of Sacrifices; and knowledge, to the Order of Purity. Yet even so the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
(modified from Soncino Classics translation)