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Apr. 6th, 2021 11:59 pmI realized I may owe Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh an apology. There's too many Gamliels. So Rabban Gamliel of the Sanhedrin story with R' Elazar Ben Azariah is the one who became Nasi shortly after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. It's theoretically possible he, as a younger man, was the one who tossed coins to the person doing Terumas Halishka, but it's much more likely it was his grandfather, also named Rabban Gamliel. In my defense, there's like six Rabban Gamliels. And I'm not exaggerating.
Daf 14
There's some interesting stuff about the special arts required to run the Temple Rite. There was one family that held the secret to how to compound the incense so it would not just smell right but also behave right. There was a another family that held the secret to baking the lechem panim so that it wouldn't fall apart. The Rabbis tried to get the secrets out of them, or find someone else who could reverse engineer it, but they failed, resulting in a)The Rabbis reluctantly paying those families twice as much as before and b)the Rabbis putting a curse on the families. Eventually after the Beis Hamikdash fell, someone gave the secret of the incense to R' Yochanan ben Nuri.
Lanna reads these passages as being implicitly about the political battle between the Kohanim and the Rabbis about who gets to set policy for the Temple rite, and I think that's a plausible reading. I also think there's a good reading where these stories are about the philosophical divide between those who saw the Temple Rite as monolithic and those who thought it could be broken down and studied and comprehended like any other piece of Torah.
Daf 15
Raiders of the Lost Ark!
The Aron Hakodesh was lost during the Babylonian exile. Some say it was taken to Bavel with all the treasures of the first Beis Hamikdash. Others say it was buried below the Kodesh to keep the Babylonians from stealing it. Others say it was buried beneath a woodshed on the Temple mount, as a theoretically better hiding place, and that every so often some random Temple craftsman or Kohen would come across it while working and a holy flame would pop up and swallow them. This seems possibly suboptimal.
Daf 16
The Gemara discusses the manufacture and use of the anointing oil that was used to anoint kings and Kohen Gadols. This leads to discussing other laws involving anointing kings, and the Gemara of course mentions again that Kohanim and Levi'im are not supposed to be kings, and they cite two different drashes proving it- one drash is based on a pasuk that promises the kingship to Shevet Yehudah, the other is based on a juxtaposition of a pasuk about kings with a pasuk about limiting the Levites' inheritance in the land.
A few thoughts:
The connection to the discussion of both Kings and the Kohen Gadol being anointed does not seem accidental to me. The Rabbis are trying to emphasize a principle of separation of powers, these two people are the highest authorities in Israel in their respective realms, and there is a danger in allowing the two power bases to mix.
But also as I know I've discussed in the past on Chanukah, the relatively recent past of Israel from the perspective of the Tannaim at least was of the Hasmonean kings who were of Kohanic descent, representing a dissolution of the separation of powers. And who were apparently fairly corrupt (how much is corruption and how much is anti-Hasmonean propaganda, who can say?), and clearly not always so devout. So when the Rabbis emphasize this rule and come up with multiple justifications for it, they're not just debating abstract political philosophy, they're also jabbing at their political enemies.
And I think the two verses cited are significant. On the one hand, there's the promise of Judah's kingship, which by Amoraic times is a promise of Messianic (anointed?!) redemption more than a political standpoint on its own. And on the other hand there's a reassertion that Levites and Kohanim hold a specific role within the communal and ritual life of Israel, and they are praiseworthy and essential to Jewish life when they stay within its confines and they are dangerously undermining when they try to seize power in other areas. That's a really complicated balance to reach.
Daf 14
There's some interesting stuff about the special arts required to run the Temple Rite. There was one family that held the secret to how to compound the incense so it would not just smell right but also behave right. There was a another family that held the secret to baking the lechem panim so that it wouldn't fall apart. The Rabbis tried to get the secrets out of them, or find someone else who could reverse engineer it, but they failed, resulting in a)The Rabbis reluctantly paying those families twice as much as before and b)the Rabbis putting a curse on the families. Eventually after the Beis Hamikdash fell, someone gave the secret of the incense to R' Yochanan ben Nuri.
Lanna reads these passages as being implicitly about the political battle between the Kohanim and the Rabbis about who gets to set policy for the Temple rite, and I think that's a plausible reading. I also think there's a good reading where these stories are about the philosophical divide between those who saw the Temple Rite as monolithic and those who thought it could be broken down and studied and comprehended like any other piece of Torah.
Daf 15
Raiders of the Lost Ark!
The Aron Hakodesh was lost during the Babylonian exile. Some say it was taken to Bavel with all the treasures of the first Beis Hamikdash. Others say it was buried below the Kodesh to keep the Babylonians from stealing it. Others say it was buried beneath a woodshed on the Temple mount, as a theoretically better hiding place, and that every so often some random Temple craftsman or Kohen would come across it while working and a holy flame would pop up and swallow them. This seems possibly suboptimal.
Daf 16
The Gemara discusses the manufacture and use of the anointing oil that was used to anoint kings and Kohen Gadols. This leads to discussing other laws involving anointing kings, and the Gemara of course mentions again that Kohanim and Levi'im are not supposed to be kings, and they cite two different drashes proving it- one drash is based on a pasuk that promises the kingship to Shevet Yehudah, the other is based on a juxtaposition of a pasuk about kings with a pasuk about limiting the Levites' inheritance in the land.
A few thoughts:
The connection to the discussion of both Kings and the Kohen Gadol being anointed does not seem accidental to me. The Rabbis are trying to emphasize a principle of separation of powers, these two people are the highest authorities in Israel in their respective realms, and there is a danger in allowing the two power bases to mix.
But also as I know I've discussed in the past on Chanukah, the relatively recent past of Israel from the perspective of the Tannaim at least was of the Hasmonean kings who were of Kohanic descent, representing a dissolution of the separation of powers. And who were apparently fairly corrupt (how much is corruption and how much is anti-Hasmonean propaganda, who can say?), and clearly not always so devout. So when the Rabbis emphasize this rule and come up with multiple justifications for it, they're not just debating abstract political philosophy, they're also jabbing at their political enemies.
And I think the two verses cited are significant. On the one hand, there's the promise of Judah's kingship, which by Amoraic times is a promise of Messianic (anointed?!) redemption more than a political standpoint on its own. And on the other hand there's a reassertion that Levites and Kohanim hold a specific role within the communal and ritual life of Israel, and they are praiseworthy and essential to Jewish life when they stay within its confines and they are dangerously undermining when they try to seize power in other areas. That's a really complicated balance to reach.