DS UC-NRLF *B 2^0 TMfl \ / JEWS' \ / / \Tlonoon, PUBLICATION NO. 1 The Political and the Social Leaders of the Jewish Community of Sepphoris in the Second and Third Centuries BY A. BUCHLER, Ph.D. PRINCIPAL OF THE JEWS' COLLEGE PUBLICATION NO. 1 The Political and the Social Leaders of the Jewish Community of Sepphoris in the Second and Third Centuries BY A. BUCHLEB, Ph.D. PRINCIPAL OF^k& JEWS' COLLEGE i\ CONTENTS Introduction 3-6 : Eabbinic sources on Galilee in the second century, their importance for the first century, halakhic and agadic discussions and discourses reflect actual life, their historical value. References to public life in Sepphoris by rabbis in schools and synagogues, to the public position of the wealthy and the fight of rabbis against the wealthy of Sepphoris. Chapter I. The leaders of the Jewish community of Sepphoris (7-20). § 1. Jewish communal organization and political leaders (7), the great ones within the community and as representatives before the Roman government (7) identical with the first ten as tax collectors (8). The great ones of the generation (8) are no scholars, civil leaders (9) ; title of Jewish and non- Jewish leaders (10) ; the same title later given to scholars (10). Complaints against the great ones (11) who were non-observant (12) ; the heads (13). § 2. Parnasim of the generation (13) not connected with charity (14), but are political representatives (14) and wealthy (15) ; the patriarch one of the Parnasim (16) who constitute the Jewish nobility of Sepphoris (16). § 3. Relation between nobles and scholars (17, 18), nobles haughty, some scholars haughty (19). Chapter II. Jewish official judges in Sepphoris in the second and third centuries (21-23^. § 1. Autonomous courts, official judges no scholars (21, 22). § 2. They judge by non -rabbinic (22), Roman or Palestinian law (23, 24). § 3. They are charged with injustice by rabbis (25, 26), § 4, in their sermons (26) and with acceptance of gifts (27) ; the officials of judges (28). § 5. Judges appointed by unknown authority (30), whether by the patriarch (30). § 6. Judges and rabbis (31), charge of class justice (32). Chapter III. The wealthy of the Jewish community in Sepphoris (34-49). § 1. The wealthy men (34), § 2, promise contributions to charities in synagogues (35) on Sabbath (36), but pay hesitatingly (37, 38). § 3. Tax burdens of the wealthy (39), unjust distribution of Roman impositions (39), Roman extortions from the wealthy (40, 41), the Boule and taxes (42). § 4. Charges of dishonest dealings and of violence (43-46). § 5. Charges of immorality (46, 47). § 6. Lewdness of the population of Sepphoris (48), the task of rabbis (49). Chapter IV. The population of Sepphoris and the rabbis (50-65). § 1. The rabbis criticized and charged with immorality (50) ; immoral students (51), remedies (52). § 2. No respect for scholars (53) and abuses (54> 55)- § 3^ Contempt of schojaj-s ,(56)' and hatred (57). § 4. The 'Am- ha'ares of Sepph£>fi£*C68, 59)^ • "§'5. .'Utterances of scholars on 'Amha'ares (59, 60). § 6. Non-t^servant* 'scholars (61, 62), § 7, study the Torah not for its own sake (63); their. relations to the schools (64, 65). Chapter V. ThU Vn&inVenance of trc scholars in Sepphoris (66-78). § 1. Poverty of vhe papulation \h6). % § 2. Poverty of scholars (67), some turn to worldly occupation (68). § 3. Priests though receiving dues do not study (69). § 4. Only poor young men study (70), their maintenance (71) ; some give up study (71), occupations (72). § 5. The Jews of Sepphoris expected to support the scholars (73), the rabbis suggest it to them (74), § 6, but the wealthy refuse support (75). § 7. Some rabbis decline support (76). Results (77, 78). Index (79-92). 6 INTRODUCTION The great interest attaching to the history of the Jews in Galilee in the first century is not, and cannot be satisfied by Josephus and the New Testament, the two direct narrative sources at our disposal. Both have as their central objects events which engross their whole attention ; and they therefore only very incidentally throw light on important details of the inner life of the community. The descriptions in modern writers both of the Galilean Jews and of Galilean Judaism of the first century are indeed vivid and complete j but combination and imagination have played far too great a part in their formation. Other information being so scanty, the usefulness and importance of Rabbinic litera- ture have been of late increasingly recognized, and single parallels are often quoted, if only as illustrations. It is true that this Rabbinic material deals with or reflects the conditions in Galilee in the first half of the second century at the earliest, and it has been on this ground refused illustrative force for the first century by some scholars. Yet it should readily be admitted that popular belief and religious customs, social conditions and abuses, communal organization and the position of the ruling classes, the average man and the violent noble, were almost, if not wholly, the same in the second and first centuries. And just all these points are fully and fairly clearly illustrated in the Talmudic literature. Not that there is a connected description or narrative of a single point bearing upon the inner life of the Galilean Jews. . But the various halakhic discussions and decisions of the schools in Galilee reflect religious needs and deficiencies, worse than the usual, which forced A 2 449909 4 INTRODUCTION thorn selves apon the attention of the scholars of the second century and were met by suggestions, well mean- ing, though without legal force. And there are numerous agadic statements and interpretations of the Bible, frag- ments of sermons once delivered which dealt with moral life and action in all those manifold forms which are not subject to regulations by law, and which contained impres- sive admonitions, rebukes forcible or comforting, serious strictures on one section of the population, consolation offered to another. They all reflect actual conditions of life, suffering, resignation, resistance, power, violence and extortion ; and if they be once recognized as reflection of facts and their places and dates be determined, they prove an abundant source of trustworthy information. They may sometimes appear one-sided, exaggerated accounts by teachers and preachers prejudiced against the men of position and wealth. If so, they must be reduced to their true value, but must not be altogether rejected without examination. Of the different classes of the Galilean Jewish popula- tion it is the ruling classes who form the subject of this essay, and of them only the leading and wealthy men of Sepphoris. This city was the greatest of Galilee and the centre of the Roman and of the autonomous adminis- trations of the country, and therefore the seat of the representatives of the Jewish community. Consequently most of the incidental references of the rabbis in the Talmud and Midrash to Galilean public life and its bear- ing on the people concern in the first instance the community of Sepphoris, whether its name is expressly mentioned or not. Before the year 136 information is scanty, as Sepphoris had then only few rabbis ; but between this year and the end of the second century there were rather more, and one of the latter, E. Jose b. Halaftha, was a native of the city and his statements deserve special attention. Towards the end of the second century the central body of rabbis, the Beth-din, was INTRODUCTION 5 transferred under the patriarch R. Jehuda I to Sepphoris and retained its seat there for over fifty years. The Mishna was composed there, and several of the collections of the Baraithas were made in the same city. Several scholars not only studied, but lived, taught and preached in Sepphoris itself, and their sermons and other state- ments reflect the life and the struggles of the population of that town and the ways of dealing of the ruling classes. But the subject of this investigation will not be their policy and management of the internal administration of the Eoman province to the satisfaction of the Eoman governors after the death of Agrippa II. It will be con- fined to the position of the leading and the wealthy men within the Jewish community in their relations to the Jewish population, which honoured them for their official position, and in spite of their inveterate selfishness bore with them for fear of their power and influence grounded on the Roman support at their disposal. All this is reflected in the Halakha and the Agada. As members of the city council of Sepphoris, as judges, as representa- tives of the Jewish community before the Eoman govern- ment and as Eoman tax-collectors, the leaders of the Jews exercised their power usually in the interest of their own class, and rarely had the time or the sense of duty to think of the needs of the people which they nominally represented. They have left no record of their activity ; and the same is the case with the people and those from among their own midst who may have actually represented them. In the Talmudic sources the rabbis of Galilee appear as the voluntary advocates of the interests of the people. In consequence of the terrible war of bar-Cochba and the Hadrianic persecutions, the rabbis had settled in 'Usha and several other places in Galilee. Living among the people, they soon became acquainted with the ways in which the nobles and the wealthy dealt with them. The rabbis were themselves, as a rule, men of the people, and 6 INTRODUCTION as such were received by the ruling and landowning class of the Galilean Jews with contempt. In the synagogues and schools, where on the sabbaths and festivals all the Jews assembled, the preachers waged war against the political heads and the social leaders, their injustice as judges, their egotism when acting as representatives of the Jews, their persistent meanness in not supporting the schools and scholars, their dishonesty in their private dealings and their immorality. Of course, instead of succeeding in improving this state of affairs, they incurred the hatred of the classes which they criticized so fear- lessly. As their strictures were apt to lessen the respect in which the leaders and the wealthy were held by the people, these not only continued to refuse to support the scholars, but in order to avert the attack, themselves took the offensive. This conflict between the wealthy and influential heads of the community of Sepphoris who were natives of the town, and the poor rabbis who came from Judaea or from villages of Galilee, reveals several points in the inner life of the Galilean Jewish communities which have hitherto been unknown to historians. CHAPTEE I THE LEADEES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHOEIS. No express data have been preserved about the organiza- tion of the Jewish community in Sepphoris in the second and third centuries ; yet it may be confidently assumed that it was the same as in all greater cities of Galilee. The Talmudic material on the general organization of the Jewish communities has been collected by Dr. Weinberg in a series of articles. 1 But little or no reference was made by this writer to the political leaders, though the Jewish community like the rest of the population must have had representatives before the Eoman government. With these leaders, whether official or unofficial, this chapter will deal, as far as it is necessary for the due appreciation of the communal organization and as far as Talmudic sources give us an insight into actual conditions in Sepphoris. i. With regard to the official class in Sepphoris the vague title of Gedolim (D*7tta lit. the great ones) of the city (cf. 2 Kings x. 6) is first to be pointed out. No doubt the word denoted only one class of dignitaries or leaders 2 in Sepphoris, as was the case in Kabul in Galilee. 3 The title existed before 135 in Sepphoris,* and 1 In Monatsschrift fur die Geschichte und Wissenschafi des Judentums, vol. 42. 2 In Kohel. rabla, iii. 2, 3 : one of the niC2 ^TB bad his son circumcised and the people of 'En-T'ena went up to do him honour, amongst them R. Simon b. Halaftha. 3 In Levit. rabba, xx. 3 : when the son of one of the Vim ^"m married, many people of this town were invited, amongst them R. Zakkai. * Tanhuma, «sco 1, Num. rabba, xxiii. 1 : The mDS ^"na received letters containing threats from the Roman government and they consulted R. Eleazar b. Parta. 8 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF was applied fco two influential and very rich members of the community of Jerusalem between the years 60-70, who in another passage are quoted as Bouleutes, coun- cillors. 1 No doubt, the Gedolim were influential men in Galilee whose word had weight with the government ; from them the Jewish scholars hoped for succour during the merciless religious persecutions of the emperor Hadrian. 2 To them the Roman government sent their official letters, and as late as about the year 300 they represented their city before a Roman delegate in matters of taxes. 3 Probably they are identical with the beita TTp&Toi (the first ten) of a city (e. g. those of Tiberias mentioned by Josephus), 4 whose main duty it was to collect taxes and who were held responsible for the full amount of the levy. A scholar about the year 300, R. Isaac, knew a family in Sepphoris called bar-Levianus which belonged to the Gedolim of the country (pan ^na) and which may be identified with a family of Bouleutai mentioned elsewhere as resident in Sepphoris. 5 Another title is Gedol haDor (l)in b)l) lit. the great of the generation). This designation characterizes its bearer as one enjoying reputation transcending local 1 Genes, rabba, xlii. i : ben-Sisith haKeseth and Nakdimon b. Goryon rwrarr 'Vnji ; in Kohel. rabba, vii. n, Bouleutes, obviously members of the council of Jerusalem, as in jer. Ta'anith, IV, 8, 69 a, 26 ; Threni rabba, i. 5. In Ruth rabba, i. 1, § 4, 'Elimelekh of Ruth i. 1 is termed one of the 2 Ta'anith, 18 a : R. Jehuda b. Shammu'a and his friend consulted in the Hadrianic persecutions a lady at whose house all the vyn 'Vm used to meet. These may have been non-Jews. 3 R. Levi in Levit. rabba, xxx. 7, Tanhuma, y\Vi*, 22, Pesiktha, 182 b, said : This can be compared to a town which owes arrears of taxes to the emperor ; when he comes to collect the taxes and is within ten miles of the town, the ro*TDn 'Vila go out to meet him and praise him, and he releases a part of the arrears. When within five miles, the Patrobouloi come to meet him and praise him, and he releases another part of the arrears. In jer. Pe'a, I, 1, 15 c, 18, we find Damab. Nethinaasthe head of Patroboule in Ashkalon ; he was a non-Jew. 4 Vita, 13. 57; Wars, II, 21, g^Vita, 33; Vita, 68; Schurer, Geschichte z , II, 172. 5 Hullin, 87 a ; jer. Sabbath, XII, 3, 13 c, 69. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OP SEPPHORIS 9 limitations. Further, it is probable that, while the title denoted a special dignity or position in the community or the country, it in no case implied scholarship. It occurs in a Baraitha in an enumeration of the dignitaries of the school, of the synagogue and of the community 1 5 and the context shows that the Gedol haDor belonged to neither of the first two categories, and must therefore be one of several civil leaders of the Jewish com- munity. "We find the same distinguished from scholars in statements by teachers of the second half of the third century in Sepphoris. 2 They were so well known in Galilee that R Simon b. Johai in a sermon could apply to 'Elimelekh, Mahlon, and Khilion (Ruth i. 2) the same title 3 ; and an anonymous preacher of the second century used it with reference to Joshua and the high priest Eleazar (Synh. f 3 b). Another Tanna of the same time describes 'Amram as Gedol haDor, Moses' father, whose example all the Israelites in Egypt are reported to have followed (Sota, 12 a). A preacher about the year 300 applied the title to the leaders of the Jews and the non- Jews in Persia in the times of Esther, 4 and another speak- ing of the non- Jewish prominent men of Abraham's time uses the same title. 5 From this it is evident that in the two great Galilean cities, in Sepphoris and Tiberias, there 1 Pesah., 49 b : one should sell all his property in order to marry the daughter of a scholar ; if he fails to find such, he should marry a daughter of -rnn ^m ; failing this, a daughter of one of the heads of synagogues. Cf. E. Isaac's statement in Gift, 60 a. 2 In Kohel. rob., ix. 18, 2, R. Isaac b. Maryon said : He who is insolent to scholars and Tnrr >bnj commits as great a sin as though he had behaved thus to a king. Obviously *Vru in the plural is required by the context. In Kiddush., 70 b ; jer. Kiddush., IV, 1, 65 d, 47, R. Johanan reports that mm ^Vn:, whom he knew, had intermarried with people of doubtful descent. 3 In a Baraitha in Baba bathra, 91 a, Tos. 'Aboda zara, IV, 4 : They were "mn tHiEfl mn *VrO (Tos. reads tqs 'Dnsi), and God punished them because they left Palestine. R. Hanina calls so King David and Daniel in Megilla 15 a. 4 R. Hanina b. Papa in 'Esther rabba to i. 5 said : King Ahasuerus gave a dinner to all the people who were present in Susa ; the leaders of the time had fled. 5 R. Levi in Baba mesi'd, 87 a. IO THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF were Jews and non-Jews Gedole haDor. The majority of the political leaders were no longer Jews as in the times of Josephus, and therefore the few Jews who occupied political positions were respected much more than formerly. It must, however, be stated that in some instances scholars in the third and fourth centuries, as it seems without any political position, were styled by rabbis Gedole haDor. When about the middle of the third century R. Joshua b. Levi defended his friend R. Hanina b. Hama of Sepphoris before the people of this city, and ac- counted for the plague prevailing by the sins of the Jews in Sepphoris, R. Hanina said: "What can the Gedole haDor do, since the community is judged according to its majority 1 Y Thus R. Joshua b. Levi himself is referred to by the prophet Elijah in the same way {Pesiktha, 88 a, 136 a) ; and two scholars, explained by 'Abbai to have been the patriarch R. Jehuda I and his friend R. Jacob b. 'Aha, are quoted by the Babylonian authority Samuel as Gedole haDor (Moed Katan, 22 b). 2 R. 'Assi of Tiberias about the year 300 speaks of the officials of the temple of Jerusalem under the same designation (jer. Pe'a, VIII, 7, 21 a, 28). It seems from a statement of R. Levi of about the same date that members of the highest religious body, usually called the elders, were designated by this title. 3 1 Jer. Ta'anith, III, 4, 66 c, 61 -inn *Vru ws y no. R. Joshua applies the title in Threni rab., i. 6 to the responsible leaders in Jerusalem before the destruction. 2 In Gittin, 23 b, R. Ze'ira and R. Samuel b. Isaac are given this title. In Levit. rab., xvii. 5, R. Jonathan of beth-Gubrin, in his farewell address to the Jews of an hospitable community, calls the scholars 'ww »Vn3, whereas in the second century R. Jehuda b. 'Il'ai on a similar occasion in his thanks to the Jews of 'Usha (in Cantic. rab., ii. 5, 3) calls his colleagues minrr >bna and irrvm. Even R. Eliezer, the son of R. Jose the Galilean, applies the title only indirectly to the same scholars ; cf. Pesah., 66 a, 70 b. 3 In Lev. rab., xxx. 7, Pesiktha, 183 a, and parallels, R. Levi said : On the eve of New Year -mn $VU fast ; from New Year to the day of Atone- ment the CH'm fast ; on this day all people fast. The political leaders cannot possibly be meant in this connexion, and in the original passage THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS II Several contemporary scholars of Sepphoris in the first half of the third century refer to the Gedolim, 1 blaming them for not consulting other people on important matters, 2 for not doing their duty, 3 for being impatient with the people, 4 and in the opposite sense, for yielding to popular clamour. 5 Once the people are reproached with speaking of their Gedolim in a disparaging way. 6 A statement by a scholar of the end of the third century who interprets the reproach against the great to refer to the patriarch, 7 would suggest that the blame levelled against the great was aimed at R,. Jehuda II or III and his supporters. Forced by the heavy burdens imposed by the Eomans during the continuous wars, this patriarch seems to have sided, unlike his predecessors, with the on the procedure on fast-days because of distress {Ta'anith, 10 a. b) the inn >Vn:i are not mentioned at all. According to R. Jehuda b. Simon in Cant, rab., vi. 5, the B§th-din decrees the fast, and d'tjt, children and elders fast. It would follow from the comparison of the two passages that the leaders of the time were the elders. See Wa ^m in Hullin, 106 a. 1 Jerem. v. 5 uses the word to denote the leaders of Jerusalem ; also in vi. 13 ; a Kings x. 11 ; Jonah iii. 7 ; Nahum iii. 10 ; see also -port *n in Jerem. xxxix. 13, xli. 1. 2 R. Jonathan b. Eleazar in Genes, rab., viii. 8 said : We should learn from God who at the creation of the first man consulted the angels, that the great man should not think it below his dignity to consult a man below him. 3 R. Hosha'ya in Deut. rab., i. 10 said : When Israel obey their great men, but these do not do their duty, the responsibility lies with the great men ; when, however, the people do not obey, the sin of the great men rests upon the people. * Injer. Bosh haShana, II, 5, 58 b, 58, R. Johanan and R. Simon b. Lakish differ on the meaning of Psalm cxliv. 14. R. Johanan said : When the great bear the little, there is peace ; R. Simon said : When the little bear the great, there is peace (cf. Ruth rab., Prooem., 6). 6 R. Joshua b. Levi in Deut. rab., i. 10 said : When the little obey the great, the great decree and God realizes their decrees ; but when the great follow the little, they fall upon their faces. 6 R. Hosha'ya in Lev. rab., xviii. 4 said : The Israelites in the wilderness were punished with leprosy and issue for having talked evil of their great men by saying : this family is one of a leper. 7 R. Samuel b. Nahman in Deut. rab., ii. 19 said : What the great do, their contemporaries do after them. For instance, if the patriarch allows a thing, the vice-president, against his own conviction, follows suit, and so do all the members of the Beth-din. 12 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF political leaders of the Jewish community, and to have ignored the spiritual leaders, the teachers who sided with the people. Our poor knowledge of the actual conditions of Galilee in the middle of the third century hardly enables us to interpret satisfactorily the complaints of the scholars embodied in the statements quoted. 1 Already in the second century we find some similar strictures on the Gedolim. An anonymous statement emphasizes the truth that all elders, Gedolim and pro- phets alike 2 were bound to observe the commandments . and this implies that such emphasis was necessitated by actual conditions of the time. 3 In singularly strong terms E. Jehuda b. 'ITai, a leading member of the Beth- din in 'Usha, blames the Gedolim of his time, applying to them Deut. xxxii. 32, 33.* He calls them full of gall and 1 R. 'Aha in the fourth century in Pesiktha rab., xii. 50 b derived from Exod. xvii. 12 a the statement that, when Israel is in distress, its great men impose upon themselves suffering with the nation (cf. Ta'anith, 11 a ; Mekhiltha E. Simon, p. 83, and Mekhiltha, 54 b). Obviously the great of his time acted in a different way, and so in the second century did those mentioned in the Baraitha in Ta'anith, 11 a, who separated themselves from their people in distress. 2 Si/re" Deut., 48, p. 84 b : TOHn ke>uj .nwn msnn to n» pinron "\\qvj d« «3 maion to nap-orm tioio □« *3 Vn owaxi 'an yw D^nan »» ]w> cnpin «aa ]w rrona una tomr> avon Tata ,nwrr. 3 R. Simon b. Johai in Genes, rab., xxvi. 5 in interpreting Gen. vi. 2 said : Lawlessness which does not proceed from the great is no real lawlessness. He refers to the leading class and not to scholars, since he translates the sons of God by \(itwn »a, judges. These we find also in Si/re Deut, 13 where an anonymous Tanna derives from 'I will make them rulers over you ' (Deut. i. 13) that the sins of the Israelites rest on the heads of their judges in. accordance with Ezek. xxxiii. 7. The reference to the responsibilities of a prophet shows that the judges mean leaders, and in fact the Midrdsh Tannd'im, p. 8, reads pTDTWa* Cf. R. Simlai's saying in Synh., 8 a, where pi is a leader. * Sifrc Deut, 323 : ;ni nonE ;mo oaatD D'VTOsro flpli m-mo rotow •ran DDanj onicsm DfWikjo oa» D»a*an npnr .... Vna sb« bwx jw ,rcna3 ran ,in» ian .1CW nn pita C32U? DnoNnn rin ,toh nono wii »o*rana tmrvi "fa* ,ton mho wn .wara orran D3i« «^n *ht D'ainnn ,aa" D»a*an nin jnBD cm©, the gall is spread in the great among you as in a serpent ; the poison of the pious and well reputed among you is like that of snakes ; the heads among you are cruel like an asp. Another explana- tion : the poison of the cautious and sin-fearing among you is like that THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 13 poison, and calls the heads (Mj cruel, without illus- trating his charges. But other references will show that it was in their capacity of collectors of taxes for the Eoman government and in their allotting the public burdens imposed upon the community that they ex- hibited so little sympathy with the less wealthy members of the towns. Eeference must be made also to the ttvm just mentioned, a title given probably to the same leaders of the community, but in all instances borrowed from the Bible passages applied to them. 1 They are on one hand the representatives of the Jews in times of distress, on the other hand they do wrong and ought to have been prevented from doing so by the influential scholars. 2 2. "We find in a statement of the second century quoted above (p. 9) that some of the Gedolim of the generation were at the same time Parnese haDor (inn *ona Baba bathra, 91 a, Tos. 'Aboda zara, IV, 4). It would be a great mistake to identify this Parnas with the head of the charity organization within the Jewish community. He is connected with the political organization of the of snakes, and the heads among you are like asps. On account of the interpretation of VncjN as 'great man' (Sota, 47 a. b) one would be in- clined to think that the scholars are blamed here, and to assume that E. Jehuda used concerning the scholars the strong language of his teacher K. Eliezer b. Hyrkanos in Aboth, II, 10, and even his similes. But the good qualities of the men characterized tend to show that R. Jehuda had non-scholars in view ; and the titles D^TO and D'ttttO (see below) make it certain that the political heads are meant. 1 R. Joshua b. Levi in jer. Homy., Ill, 9, 48 b, 71 said : Who has the precedence, the head or the elder? The elder, for there would be no head if there were no elder. Moses in Deut. xxix. 10 mentions the heads before the elders, Joshua in xxiv. 1 the elders first. R. Hanina of Sepphoris in Sabb.j 54 b, 55 a, using Is. iii. 14, said : God will punish the elders for not having prevented the leaders (amc) from doing wrong. Who were meant by heads is evident from R. Levi's statement in jer. Horay., Ill, 9, 48 c, 4 : Moses mentioned the heads before the elders, for he saw in prophecy that the Israelites will once be handed over to the nations and the heads will then protect them. They are clearly the political re- presentatives of the Jews. 2 The head of a town is mentioned in the advice given by R. 'Akiba to his son in the Baraitha in Pesahim, 112 a : Do not live in a town the head of which is a scholar. 14 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF Galilean towns only, and his function is in no way to be mistaken for that of the Parnas frequently quoted in the Talmudic literature. A Parnas of the latter type was for instance R. Eleazar b. Pedath in Sepphoris, but he had nothing to do with representing the Jews in matters of government. On the other hand the fact that Moses is termed the Parnas of Israel to whom Joshua succeeded in the same dignity, 1 and that the high priest 'Eli 2 and King David 3 are given the same title, is sufficient evidence that Parnas denoted the general leader or leaders of the people and not merely the administrator of charity. The comprehensive nature of the function of these Parnasim is brought out in the tradition describing Moses and David as offering their lives for Israel in their capacity of Parnasim. They are in the same passage com- pared to the Gedole Israel who are held responsible for their people. 4 We find R. Gamaliel II, the head of the Beth-din in Jamnia, denominated Parnas of the genera- 1 Si/re Num., 137, 138, 139, 141 ; Si/re Deut, 26, 334 (here of Joshua ■Oasn to D31D n:on:), Joma, 86 b. In Si/re Num., 139 God showed Moses all the d^-id who will rule over Israel from his times till the Messiah will come. The words crcon *rotol iS« are, no doubt, a mistake, as the context clearly shows. It is true we find the title given to scholars in Si/re Deut, 357> P* I 5° a > namely to Hillel, R. Johanan b. Zakkai and R. 'Akiba, just as in Seder 'Olam, ch. XII, XIII, to Joshua and 'Eli. Yet these scholars are not enumerated in the capacity of scholars, but as the leaders of the Jews. As to R. 'Akiba, see jer. Sota, IX, 10, 24 a, 27, .nypv VI tqw iy Vntrw 109 n^i mono ww ab *\bm mo:iD TttOB iVn n^m ? fflVow m n? rrunn toi, There was no ViuW before R. 'Akiba. Were not all the pairs of scholars mbiaiDN ? Yes, but the difference between them and R. 'Akiba is that they did not serve as Parnasim, whereas R. 'Akiba served as Parnas. 2 Seder 'Olam, ch. XIII, tow n» D212 in the form of a verb. 3 Sifre Deut., 344 on Deut. xxxiii. 3 : The holy ones are the Parnasim of Israel who defend Israel and give away their lives for them ; thus Moses in Exod. xxxii. 32, and David in 2 Sam. xxiv. 17. (In Mekhiltha, Introduction, p. 2 a, R. Jonathan said : Thus you find that the ma« and the prophets gave away their lives for Israel, thus did Moses and David.) R. Hanina calls David a great of the generation in Meg., 15 a. 4 In Sifre Deut, 344, on Deut. xxxiii. 3, btinXP 'Vm V>N ,"TT2 "Wnp to I ^>n^D , to D'aiCDrraiD. The verb prco occurs in the Hithpa'el in Mekhiltha, 66 b : one commits a sin in secret and the whole people (prcorra) is held responsible, as in the case of 'Akhan. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 15 tion by R. Joshua b. Hananya, his colleague, 1 and simi- larly with his son and successor R. Simon b. Gamaliel II in 'Usha, both the official representatives of Palestinian Judaism in the first and second century respectively. In the third century the patriarch Jehuda II is referred to by the same title, 2 so that it is evident that these leaders of the Jews were termed Parnasim. Their position was hereditary for several centuries, and it is probably with reference to them that a second-century Halakha states that the dignity of Israel's Parnasim fame* *wia) is inherited from father to son. 3 The Parnasim of the generation were men of wealth and were expected to assist their people in times of famine.* And in fact we learn that the patriarch 1 In Berakh., 28 a, R. Joshua reproaches R. Gamaliel : Woe to the generation whose Parnas you are ; you do not know the sorrow of the scholars, how they maintain themselves. The reference to the condition of the scholars does not prove that a Parnas is meant who had to look after the poor. He is the head of the central school and of the Jewish community in Palestine, and in this capacity he ought to take cognizance of the hard struggle of the scholars. In the Baraitha in Horay., 13 b, an anonymous Tanna said : If sons of a scholar who is appointed d:id TQiTT hs t are able to understand the lecture, they sit in front of their father with their backs to the people. If the definition given is correct, this statement could refer to the patriarch only. In fact R. Johanan refers it to the times of R. Simon b. Gamaliel II and to his Beth-din in 'Usha. The parallel in Tos. Synh., VII, 9, has instead corn 'TttSm &B3R »33j and extends the privilege to the heads of all schools. 2 In 'Arakh., 17 a there is reported a controversy between Jehuda II and the contemporary scholars as to whether the people are according to the Parnas or the Parnas according to the people. It is obvious that the patriarch himself is meant by the Parnas (Bacher, Palaest. Amoriier, I, 533, 8). 8 In Si/re Deut., 162, on Deut. xvii. 20 we read : When the king dies, his son succeeds him. The same applies to all the 'w-ra' >D2"\D, their sons succeed them. This can hardly refer to scholars who could not be compared to kings, whereas the patriarchs descending from David actually ruled over the people. In R. Johanan's statement in Sabb., 114 a tqsh *& D2"iD ini« paao D3n Tnbn JHw, Who is the scholar that could be appointed the leader of the community ? probably the head of an individual community is meant, as in R. 'Akiba's advice given to his son in Pesah., 112 a : Do not live in a town the head of which is a scholar. * In Ruth rab., i. 1, § 4 : 'Elimelekh was one of the great men of the city l6 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF R. Jehuda I in Sepphoris in years of drought opened his stores and invited all scholars and even those possessed only of some knowledge, to take food (Baba ftathra, 8 a). He must have been one of the Parnasim, as both his predecessors and his successor were, as we have seen. Now we find that the support of the poor in times of famine was considered the duty of the Bouleutes. 1 This would suggest that Parnas was sometimes used to denote a member of the council of the city. Since these councillors were considered the most important persons of the population, 2 it is not improbable that the compre- hensive title ' Parnas ' was applied to them. Sepphoris had Jewish Bouleutai in the third century, 3 and their position is characterized by the fact that at the court receptions of the patriarch they had the precedence 4 ; a fact that at the same time points very strongly to the high function of the patriarch as the official representa- tive of the Palestinian Jews. All these leading members of the Jewish community in Sepphoris constituted the Jewish nobility in that city. From several passages of the second century it seems that there lived in Sepphoris members of the Jewish and of the Parnasim of the time. When the years of famine came, he was afraid lest all the Israelites would come begging with their baskets, and to escape this he fled abroad. 1 In Ruth rab., i. i, § 4 : Of a Bouleutes living in the city the in- habitants thought he would be able to supply food in the years of drought for the city. 2 R. Helbo and the scholars discuss in jer. Nedar., VI, 13, 40 a, 53 the meaning of 13DD1 win in 2 Kings xxiv. 14 ; R. Helbo said, these denoted the scholars ; his opponents said, they meant the Bouleutai. 3 Jer. Pea, I, 1, 16 a, 34. Sabb., XII, 3, 13 c, 69 : There were two families in Sepphoris, one descending from Bouleutai and the other from private people. They went every day to greet the patriarch, and the Bouleutes had the precedence in going in and coming out. About the middle of the third century we find R. Simon Bouleuta reporting in the name of R. Hanina of Sepphoris in jer. Pesah., IV, 1, 30 c, 69; he must also have been the son or grandson of a councillor. 4 R. Johanan, in Synh., 8a, terms Joshua "»rr, leader: Moses said to Joshua, You will act with the elders ; God said to Joshua : one leader and not two leaders at the same time. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHOEIS 1 7 royal family. 1 The references to them are all incidental and only mention some minor details of their luxurious and easy life. 2 No traces of their relations to the Jewish community have been preserved, and it is impossible to state whether they were children of Agrippa II (according to Schurer, I 3 , 600 he probably had none,) or distant relatives of his. 3. Whether there was any intercourse between the Jewish nobles of Sepphoris and the scholars, is not reported expressly. But several teachers of the third century criticize the haughty (rmn *D5) in a manner which suggests that the object of attack was the political leaders of the community. B,. Hanina of Sepphoris said (Syrih. 98 a) : The Messiah will not come ere the haughty 1 In Tos. Sota, III, 16, K. Jose b. Halaftha of Sepphoris said : 'Abshalom cut his hair every Friday, which not even mcs ill NnntD 113, people of Tiberias and Sepphoris do. If the average men of these two greatest cities of Galilee were meant here, there would be no climax expressed in R. Jose's statement, for 'Abshalom was a prince. They were un- doubtedly people of very high position, at least equal to 'Abshalom. They could have been either descendants of Agrippa II, who continued living in Galilee, or members of a non-Jewish nobility, Palestinian or Roman. The parallel in Nazir, 5 a, runs : R. Jose says, 'Abshalom cut his hair every Friday, as we find that the princes do so every Friday. (The same in Mekhiltha on Exod. xv. 2, p. 36 a, except that the author is Rabbi ; obviously the name Jose has dropped out.) That they were Jews, follows from Berakh., I, 2, where, concerning the latest time when the Sh'ma 1 may be said in the morning, R. Joshua said, Till the third hour, for it is the custom of princes to get up at the third hour. Similarly Jewish princes are referred to in Sabb., VI, 9 : on the Sabbath, boys may go out with knots and princes with bells ; this latter permission applies to everybody, only the teachers deal with actual occurrences. . 2 Sabb., XIV, 4 : On the Sabbath princes may smear their wounds with rose oil, since princes are accustomed to do so on week days ; R. Simon said : All Jews are in this respect princes. Sabb., 129 b, Tos., XV, 3, jer., XVIII, fin., 16 c, 70 : R. Simon b. Gamaliel said : Princesses may hide the after-birth on the Sabbath in vessels of oil, rich ladies in tufts of wool, poor women in hackled wool. In Sabb. , 80 b, Rabh said : Jewish girls who have reached puberty, but not the legal age, if poor, apply lime as a depilatory, if rich, flour, princesses apply myrrh oil. Here the introductory words clearly prove that the princesses were Jewesses. Rabh lived for several years in Sepphoris. R. Meir in Lev. rab., vii. 3 said : It is a custom with princes to invite their brothers and sisters to dine with them. fc 1 8 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OP disappear from Israel. Since he does not give any further description, it is not certain that he is referring to the nobility; he may just as well be alluding to haughty scholars. But the same rabbi said (Zebah., 102 a) : The dignity given by God to a man is given to him also for his children ; but haughtiness is the cause that God humiliates him. This inclines one to the conclusion that R. Hanina's attack is directed against the nobility and not against teachers. For besides the dignity of the patriarch no other hereditary position is known to have been held by a scholar, whereas political leadership and membership of the council depended on property and wealth and was therefore hereditary. R. Hanina's re- proach refers to an honorary position of this kind, although he clearly characterizes it as one which for some exceptional reason could be withdrawn. 1 The hereditary line of the patriarchs continued for a long 1 They are probably the same dignitaries of whom R. Simon b. Jehosadak in Joma, aa b said : Only he should be made Tasn by d:id from whose back a basket of unclean insects is hanging, in order that, in case he should become overbearing, he might be told : look behind your back ! (Cf. the -msn br ruunnn d:id in the Baraitha in Hagiga, 5 b.) This strange characterization of the leaders agrees with R. Johanan's statement concerning the "iiin »Vru in Kiddush., 71a, jer., IV, 1, 65 d, 47, that they had intermarried with people whose descent had been open to blame. R. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris in a long interpretation of Num. xxi. 37-30 in B. bathrarffth, blames immoral and haughty people who deny God. These points apply best to the G-nostics, of whose school in Sepphoris there are traces in the Talmudic literature. In 'Arakh., 16 a, the same R. Jonathan said : There are seven kinds of sin for which leprosy is the punishment : denunciation, bloodshed, false oath, immorality, haughtiness, robbery and grudging. It would be unfair to refer this enumeration of vices to one single class of the Jewish population in Sepphoris, although we shall find that several of these points applied to the rich. R. Alexander in Sota, 5 a said : He in whom haughtiness prevails, is confounded by the weakest wind. It may be that this refers to a man in high position. R. Johanan in Sota, 4 b said : The haughty will ultimately fall and commit even the sin of adultery. R. Hama b. Hanina, the son of R. Hanina of Sepphoris, said in Sota, 4 b : Haughti- ness is as great a sin as incest, both are termed abominations, Lev. xviii. 27, Prov. xvi. 5 ; cf. R. Simon b. Johai in Sota, 4 b : A haughty man is like an idolater, of both the Bible speaks as an abomination. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 1 9 time after E. Hanina in the same family, so that when he refers to the cessation in the hereditary dignity, he cannot have alluded to the patriarchs; hence he must have had in mind the nobles in their official position. These and similar strictures on the Galilean nobility are to be found only in the third century 1 ; this indicates that some changes in the relations between the leaders of the community and the teachers took place which occasioned the complaints of the rabbis. With even greater persistence scholars were assailed when they exhibited any degree of haughtiness. Although it was a rare case, yet it happened that the knowledge they had acquired made teachers proud and their colleagues had to suffer from their conceit. Already in the school of Jamnia or Lydda in B,. 'Akiba's times there was occasion to denounce this failing, 2 but in Sepphoris the complaint is more persistent. Several scholars not only reprehend it most emphatically, but also demand humility of a student of the Torah as an indispensable quality. 3 1 The only scholar of the end of the second century who deals with the same failing of men, is, as far as I see, E. Simon b. Eleazar in Aboth R. Nathan, IX, 21 a.b, Sifra, 73 a, 9, Tanhuma, StTSO B. 8 : for denunciation and haughtiness leprosy is the punishment. But this is identical with R. Jonathan's statement, so that both must have had the same occasion for this blame. Similar is Derekh 'eres, II, Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXV, 43 a, ivtm nrrto num ^m a>2D >wi dwtcti pnmm praam pnnwr roiiiDn D'Sffii rwm '3 "imN, those who terrify, act overbearingly, who are haughty, presumptuous, insolent and violent, will be crushed. 3 In Aboth R. Nathan, XI, 23 b, R. 'Akiba said : Whoever acts overbear- ingly on account of his learning, is like a carcass thrown away in the street ; everybody passing holds his nose and runs away from it. 3 R. Jose b. Halaftha in Aboth R. Nathan, XI, 23 b, said : He who is overbearing on account of his learning, will ultimately be humiliated ; and he who humiliates himself on account of his learning, will ultimately be raised. R. Hanina b. 'Idi, about 200, said in Ta'anith, 7 a : Just as the water descends from the height to the lower regions, so the knowledge of the Torah is preserved only in the humble. In an anonymous Baraitha in Berakh., 43 b, it was considered discreditable for a scholar to walk erect in the street. R. Jannai in Midrash Psalm v. 1 said : Only he who makes himself similar to the pasture on which all tread, will acquire Torah ; but, if he becomes haughty, chastisement will come upon him. R. Hanina in Deut. rab., viii. 6, said : The Torah was given B % 20 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS The sentences glorifying humility and self-denial generally and denouncing arrogance most strongly are so numerous that it must have been the public audience that required to be taught the lesson. The heads of the Jewish community in Sepphoris looked down upon the teachers, as will be seen later on, and the wealthy middle class followed suit in considering the scholars below them. The only weapon in the hands of the learned was to preach humility and to denounce pride and haughti- ness. The general results of their objective fight are not known, though several details of the unequal struggle have come down to us. together with all the tools required for it : modesty, justice, straight- forwardness and its reward. R. Johanan in Sota, 21 b, said : Learning remains only with him who regards his own person as nothing. And in 'Erub., 55 a he said : Torah is not to be found with the haughty, nor with the merchants, nor with the traders. CHAPTER II JEWISH OFFICIAL JUDGES IN SEPPHOEIS IN THE SECOND AND THIED CENTURIES. i. It may be assumed as very probable that the Jews of Judaea and Galilee had autonomous courts of their own after the complete dissolution of the Jewish state in the year 70, and that they continued bringing their civil cases before these Jewish courts. 1 But very little is known about these autonomous institutions. Only in- cidental references in the Talmudic literature give scanty information, and even those merely report occa- sional decisions and judgments by individual rabbis in their schools or by three scholars constituting a formal court for that one occasion. 2 But it is not with these that we have to deal in our investigations as to the leaders of the community in Sepphoris, but with the official Jewish judges, recognized by the Roman govern- ment, whether their appointment was by the city or by a Jewish authority. This is a point which to my know- ledge has so far not been examined by historians, though for the internal life of the Jewish community in Sep- phoris and Galilee at large it is of no little moment. The official judges were as a rule not scholars, but, in accordance with the early organization of the Israelites in biblical times, were the heads of the cities or towns, i.e. the nobles. Their decisions and judgments were therefore not based on Rabbinical law, which they had 1 Gittin, 88 b, R. Tarfon's statement, Midrash TannaHm on Deut., p. 96, Tank. D'EBtJO 6, Yalkut Mekhiri on Isa., p. 12 ff. 2 The data were collected by H. P. Chajes in Revue des Etudes Juives, 1899, xxxix, 39-52. 22 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF not learnt, but, in all probability, on precedent and common sense. Before schools of rabbis existed in the Galilean cities, nobody questioned the principle from which the nobles derived their judgments ; at most the individual decision was considered unjust. When after the war of bar-Cochba the school of Jamnia was trans- ferred to 'Usha and scholars settled in different towns and places, especially in Sepphoris, the principles com- menced to be examined by the rabbis and we suddenly hear them complain of injustice in courts, admonishing the judges from the pulpits to be just, and urging upon their minds the importance of careful judgment. All this information has to be derived from incidental remarks the close and detailed examination of which will therefore not be deemed superfluous. 2. Two scholars of the second half of the second century are reported to have been in the service of the Roman authorities in Galilee in some capacity or other, R. Ishmael b. R. Jose and R. Eleazar b. R. Simon (Bdba meda, 83 b). But the exact nature of their respective positions it is difficult to state. 1 Now we find R. Ishmael also acting as judge, and as such he was extremely par- ticular as to his judgments being in the slightest way influenced by any personal considerations (MaJcJcoth, 24 a). Whether he was appointed as such by the Roman authorities, is not reported. One of his judgments is incidentally quoted 2 : he assigned alimony to a woman 1 See Jastrow in Gratz* Monatsschrift, 1882, XXXI, 185 ff., Gratz in 1884, XXXIII, 490, Krauss in 1894, XXXVIII, 151 ff. 2 Jer. Kethub. ,XIII, 1, 35 d, 3 : .mDsn '\>W2 rrvxb m:ira pew? bwryar »ani »a maro ,rn rron nSvd rvb -idn jno nb rimo vfw n ,: ? ion jnq -ioi *n yo» /pura no K. Ishmael assigned alimony (from the estate of an absent husband) to a woman, in the market of Sepphoris. Rabbi, when hearing of it, said : Is it not possible that the husband has been sending alimony to his wife or left her means (before going away)? In Kethub., 107b we read: It happened that Rabbi assigned alimony to a woman from the estate in beth-She'arim, the case came then before R. Ishmael in Sepphoris and he assigned no alimony to the woman. R. Johanan, the 'Amora, could not account for R. Ishmael's decision. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 23 in the market of Sepphoris and the patriarch R. Jehuda I disapproved of it. The way in which the patriarch criticized the decision shows that R. Ishmael was not yet, as later on, a member of R. Jehuda's school, and the latter had no means of reversing the judgment. 1 This happened when R. Ishmael was not yet a rabbi, but a judge. The principle on which he based his decision was evidently not the Eabbinical law applied in the schools of the rabbis. Again, the judgment was given in the market. Although we could interpret this to refer to the Basilica of the forum in Sepphoris, it is certain that the rabbis would not have chosen this place for their sitting. This, too, confirms the explanation that R. Ishmael was a judge of the city of Sepphoris or of the Roman government, giving judgment in the forum. 2 R. Ishmael was the son of R. Jose b. Halaftha of Sep- phoris and must have had a fair knowledge of Rabbinical law when he became a Roman official and afterwards a judge. His father had been his teacher, as the many halakhic utterances quoted by R. Ishmael in R. Jose's name show. Therefore when, in spite of this, the decision of his quoted above differed essentially from the law adopted by the central authority, we must assume that either his own conviction forced him to differ from it, or the law by which he had to judge was different from the 1 Later on R. Ishmael completely submitted to the patriarch, Synh., 24 a, Kohel. rab., i. 7, § 9. 2 This may be meant in the warning to judges by R. Ishmael' s con- temporary, R. Eleazar haKappar in Aboth R. Nathan, and version, XXXIV, 38 b : -]22i *m pro rrayi -pn "rra Nirra >n vzb nth b*n p"> pipt >nn ">n Do not engage in judgment, be not afraid of a man greater than you, and make the forum your enemy. This would indicate that scholars were offered the office of judge. Thus R. Ishmael himself in Aboth, IV, 7 (in Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXIV, 38 b, R. Eliezer haKappar, Eleazar haKappar's son) said : He who refrains from giving judgment, frees himself from enmity, robbery and false oath ; but he whose heart is bold in giving decisions, is a fool, wicked and overbearing. Judge not alone, for none may judge alone save One. The authorities in Sepphoria allowed one judge to decide, contrary to the Jewish law, and therefore the greatest possible care was required. 24 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF Rabbinical. 1 If he was in the Roman service, he cer- tainly had to apply the Roman or the general Palestinian law. That some of the rabbis knew the Roman or the Palestinian law even before the year 135 in the schools of Judaea and later in Galilee, is evident from several passages. When a Jew and a non-Jew brought a case before R. Ishmael b. 'Elisha',he applied either the Jewish or the non-Jewish law, whichever was most in favour of the Jew. He appeased his scruples by referring to Deut. i. 16. R. Simon b. Gamaliel II said: This verse does not justify that procedure ; and he applied that law for which the parties asked him. 2 The same non- Jewish law we see referred to by R. Hiyya of Sepphoris, a friend of R. Ishmael b. R. Jose, and by R. Hosha'ya, a scholar of the first half of the third century who lived in Caesarea and in Sepphoris. 3 It is possible that the Roman govern- ment conceded to the Jews the application of their native civil law only on the condition that they should 1 In jer. Synh., VII, 2, 240,56, it is reported that when the Roman government deprived the Jews of civil justice, R. Simon b. Johai ex- claimed : May God be praised that I do not understand judging ! Does it mean that Jewish scholars knowing non-Jewish law were forced to become members of courts under Roman authority, and R. Simon, having no knowledge of that law, was glad to be disqualified ? 2 Si/re Deut., 16. The same is found in Baba Kamma, 113 a in a Baraitha : If a Jew and a non-Jew come before you for judgment, judge them accord- ing to Jewish law, if you can do so in favour of the Jew, and tell the non- Jew : that is our law. If you cannot give judgment in favour of the Jew except by non-Jewish law, do so, and tell the non-Jew : that is your law. If this is not possible, use subtle ways. All this is R. Ishmael's view. R. 'Akiba said : Do not use subtle ways, for the sake of the sanctifica- tion of God's name. 3 Jer. Baba Kamma, IV, 3, 4 b, 26, R. Hiyya taught : If the ox of a non-Jew gores that of another non-Jew, although they agree to submit to Jewish law, the judgment should in any case be full damages. In Bekhor., 13 a, R. Hosha'ya said : If a Jew has given to a non-Jew money for his cow, then he has according to non- Jewish law acquired possession of it even without having drawn the animal to himself, and he is liable to give its firstborn male to the priest. If a non-Jew has given money to a Jew for his cow, then according to non-Jewish law even without drawing it he has acquired possession of it and is free from the duty of giving its firstborn male to the priest. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 25 apply non- Jewish, law in case the parties desired to be judged by it. 1 3. The Jewish judges in the second and third cen- turies, whether appointed by the Roman officials or in the service of the Jewish community, 2 gave occasion for very serious charges of injustice, the acceptance of gifts and other illegal practices. These charges deserve all the more credit and attention, as the two scholars, R. Ishmael b. R. Jose and R. Eleazar b. R. Simon, who had been in the Roman service and the first of whom had been a judge, use the strongest possible language concerning the duties of judges. R. Ishmael said (Kethub., 105 b): Woe to those who accept gifts! Since my due rent brought to me by my tenant-farmer impressed me so favourably, how much more must those (judges) be impressed by gifts who actually accept such ? R. Eleazar has the following accusations against Jewish judges and judgments (Synh., 98 a): The Messiah will not come before judges and executive officers have ceased in Israel, as Isa. i. 26 says : I will restore thy judges as at the first. And interpreting Isa. xiv. 5, he said (Sabb., 139 a) : 1 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked ' refers to the judges who became a staff in support of their ushers ; 1 the sceptre of the rulers ' refers to the scholars in the families of the judges. It would almost seem that R. Eleazar meant, by these scholars, himself and other teachers of the same position, who were indispensable to judges who owed their nomination only to their wealth and their position in the community, but had not the 1 I. Lewy in Verkandlungen der 33. Philologen-Versammlung (Leipzig, 1879, p. 86) expresses the opinion that Koman courts established in Pales- tine were accessible to the Jews and, as can be seen from some instances, were actually resorted to by Jews, although they were not deprived of their own courts except for a very short time. It would, then, be possible that R. Ishmael in Sepphoris was a judge in the Jewish service who, when required by the parties, applied non-Jewish law. a An incidental reference to the judges of Sepphoris (msx VI) is contained in Baba bathra, VI, 7, where they define the area of the ground near the grave required for comforting the mourners. 26 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF knowledge requisite for their office. In addition the judges had to depend on the guidance of their inferior officials, who availed themselves of the ignorance of their superiors and abused their helplessness for their own interests. 1 Another scholar of the same period, R. Jose b. 'ElishaV said: When you see an age upon which great visitations come, examine the judges in Israel ; and God will not cause his presence to dwell upon Israel, ere the judges and officers cease from Israel. A fourth teacher of the school of the patriarch R. Jehuda I, viz. R. Simon b. Halaftha, said (Sota, 41 b) : From the day on which the fist of flattering prevailed, justice has become perverted and deeds have been con- fused, and nobody can say to his fellow man : my deeds are greater than yours. The reproach of this scholar sees the main part of the evil in the dependence of the judge on the influential people who, when parties to a suit, rely on his favour ; proofs and facts are of no avail. 3 4. The unworthy dealings of the Jewish judges were attributed by the preachers in their usual way to Biblical judges of reprehensible character, and therefore it is quite justifiable to infer the actual state of affairs from such Agadas. Different scholars level different reproaches at the sons of the prophet Samuel as judges, reading into 1 Sam. viii. 3, ' They turned aside after lucre ' their own experiences with contemporary judges. 4 R. Meir said : They asked their due with their mouths 5 ; R. Jehuda 1 E. Eleazar haKappar in Synh., 7 b, discoursed : From the juxtaposition of the laws of judgment in Exod. xxi, and the prohibition of having steps leading up to the altar in Exod. xx. 26, the rule is to be derived : ' be careful in giving judgment.' 2 Baraitha in Sabb. , 139 a. Probably identical with Jose b. Saul in Nidda, 26 b ; Moed Katan, 22 a. * An anonymous Baraitha in Sota, 47 b, mentions a similar corruption of justice : Since worldly people increased in number, justice has been per- verted and deeds confused, and there is no quietness in the world. * In the Baraitha in Sabb., 56 a, Tos. Sota, XIV, 6. * This being no sin in the proper sense, Rashi thinks that R. Meir does not reproach them with wresting judgment. But being the THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 27 said : They forced goods on private men ; E. 'Akiba 1 said : They took with force an additional basket of tithes ; E. Jose said : They took with force priestly dues. 2 The most striking censure, namely that of E. Jehuda, of forcing goods upon private people is proved to have been a fact by the continuation of the statement of E. Simon b. Halaftha quoted above 3 : ' Since those increased in number who forced goods upon private people, bribery has spread and wresting of judgment, and good has ceased.' Judges who were wealthy farmers themselves and wanted to sell their produce, forced merchants and farmers to take and sell it when exporting their own. To refuse to do so would have meant the loss of the favour of the influential judge. In their capacity of Aaronites they extorted tithes and dues of every kind, leaving the farmer no free choice between the poor Aaronite and the dangerous, revengeful judge. All this fits in best with Galilean circumstances ; for here alone do we know of Aaronites constituting a considerable portion of the Jewish population, and of land-owners who exported produce. This sad state of justice accounts for E. Nathan's statement, 4 that the judge who accepts gifts and wrests judgment, will not leave this world before one of three explanation of the verse quoted, it must imply blame ; perhaps they asked the dues of those who had a case to bring before them. In jer. Sota, I, 4, 16 d, 75, R. Hiyya said that the sons of Samuel did not walk in their father's ways, for they accepted tithe and acted as judges in the cause of those who had given them the tithe. 1 It is obvious that in the series of scholars of 'Usha after 135 R. 'Akiba is a mistake. We find R. Jacob in personal intercourse with R. Jehuda in Tos. Themura, I, 17, with R. Nehemia in Tos. Zebah., XII, 8, and he discusses questions with R. Simon, R. Jose, and R. Meir (Bacher, Tannaiten, H> 395) ; and it seems quite certain that «ypy has to be changed into zips* as elsewhere (Bacher, II, 396, 3). The same correction must be made in the Baraitha in Nidda, 20 a. 2 The sons of Samuel who were Levites are here supposed to have taken with force priestly dues, just as the priests of higher rank of the last decade before the destruction of the Temple appropriated all priestly and levitical dues (Josephus, Antiquit., XX, 9, 2, 206 ff. ; 8, 8). 3 Sota, 47 b, Tos. Sota, XIV, 5. * Mekhiltha on Exod. xxiii. 8, p. 100 a, Si/re Deut, 144. 28 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF things have overcome him : confusion in his knowledge of the Torah, so that he will make mistakes in his decisions, dependence on the support of other people, or blindness. Praise had to be bestowed on a just judge. To a judge who, judges properly, and to collectors of charity Daniel xii. 3 refers: 'And they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.' 1 All these passages reflect the very unsatisfactory state of the Jewish courts in Sepphoris and in Galilee in the second century. No change for the better had as yet taken place in the third century in the state of the law-courts in Sepphoris. Moreover, even stronger reproaches were levelled against the Jewish judges. R. Jonathan b. Eleazar, commenting on the sons of the prophet Samuel as judges, said (Sabb., 56 a) : Unlike their father who went on circuit to all places, they stayed at home in order to increase the fees of their officials and scribes. Further he said (Synh.j 7 a) : A judge who gives proper judgment causes God's presence, to dwell upon Israel; by judging im- properly he causes God's presence to leave Israel. From a judge that takes away from one party and gives to the other unjustly, God takes away the soul. R. Johanan, interpreting Eccl. ix. 16, said it refers to an elder who teaches: 'Ye shall not respect persons in judgment/ 1 Baraitha in Baba bathra, 8 b. Reference must be made to two state- ments of R. Simai in Sepphoris about the year 200 on justice and peace. In Midrash TannaHm on Deut. xvi. 19, p. 97, he said : He who wrests judg- ment, appears to be a lover of peace ; in fact, however, he is more distant from peace than anybody ; but more than that, he throws Israel on the sword. And in Mekhiltha R. Simon b. Johai, p. 90, R. Simai said : He who judges properly appears to cause jealousy between men ; in fact, however, he brings about peace between them. These exhortations refer to the great and prolonged discussion between R. Simon b. Gamaliel, R. Eliezer son of R. Jose the Galilean and R. Joshua b. Karha concerning the admissibility and praiseworthiness or justice of a compromise by the judge himself (Tos. Synh., I, 2 ; jer., 1, 1, 18 b 11, b. 6 a.b). We do not know whether the principle of compromise was suggested to the scholars by foreign judges in Galilee, or whether quarrels between Jews and non-Jews had suggested it as a means to avoid the law-courts of the Romans. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 29 and does so himself; 'thou sha.lt take no gift,' and does so himself; 'thou shalt not lend on interest,' and does so himself. 1 This is undoubtedly taken from actual life in Sepphoris or Tiberias, and reflects three points in the private and the official dealings of the judges. Yet the strongest accusation is that read by E. Simon b. Lakish into Isaiah lix. 3 : ' Your hands are defiled with blood ' refers to the judges ; ' and your fingers with iniquity ' refers to the scribes of the judges ; 1 your lips have spoken lies ' refers to the lawyers 5 ' and your tongue has muttered perverseness ' refers to the parties to the lawsuit (Sabb., 139 a). Even if exaggerated, it reveals the corruption of the minds of all the people who had any dealings with the judges in Sepphoris. And though some might style these strictures generaliza- tions of rabbis prejudiced on account of personal ex- periences, yet they remind us of similar censures by the 1 Kohel rab. f IX, 16. R. Johanan in Baba bathra, 15 b, commenting on Ruth i. 1, said : In the days when people judged the judges, when the judge said : Take the chip from between your eyes, the man replied : Take you the beam from between yours. When the judge said : Your silver has become dross, the man replied : Your wine is mixed with water. In Pesiktha, p. 123 a, R. Johanan illustrates Isa. ^. 23 : When a certain man went up with his cause to Jerusalem, the judges ordered him to split wood and draw water, so that the man's money was meanwhile spent and he had to return home without any result. A widow met him on the way and, on inquiring how he fared in Jerusalem, learnt the result. This induced her to give up her cause. The story is, of course, made up, but its elements were borrowed from Galilean occurrences. And R. Eleazar b. Pedath composed the following story about the judges of Jerusalem, though he probably had in view the judges of Sepphoris : When a man died in Jerusalem and guardians were appointed for the orphans, the widow who asked for her marriage settlement, and the orphans who contested her claims, found, on going to a judge, that this latter was in conspiracy with the tutor. An actual instance of Jewish judges in Caesarea in the first half of the third century is preserved in Kohel. rab., ii. 17 : R. Hosha'ya was informed that his judges were drink- ing wine in public ; at first he did not believe it, but when he convinced himself of the truthof the statement he wished to die. It seems as though R. Hosha'ya himself had appointed those judges, since he feels so very much grieved. But it may be that they had been selected by some public authority, and he was their president in the sittings. 30 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF prophets of the unjust and violent, selfish and unscrupulous judges and nobles in ancient Israel and Judah. 5. From the judges, the strictures of the scholars turned against those who were responsible for the selec- tion and the appointment of such judges. According to a passage of the second century, it seems that in Galilee the nomination of the judges was then in the hands of one man, and that in his choice of men for this highly responsible position he was guided by considera- tions of relationship and wealth and by similar grounds. 1 In the third century R. Simon b. Lakish of Sepphoris and Tiberias said : He who appoints an unjust judge is as though he would plant an idolatrous tree. 2 In those times it was the patriarch R. Jehuda II or III who appointed ignorant judges, and the scholars laughed at them in public. 3 This prerogative of appointing judges he, no doubt, enjoyed with the consent of the Roman authorities. It seems that he was not the first to possess this right, for we find that R. Jehuda I ap- pointed rabbis as judges. 4 Yet these hardly had the 1 Sifri Deut, 17 : ' You shall not respect persons in judgments ' (Deut. i. 17), refers to him who is appointed to appoint judges ; he should not say : A. is a handsome man, B. is a valiant man, C. is my relative, D. has lent me money, or E. knows many languages, I shall appoint him judge. It leads to injustice, he acquits the wicked and condemns the righteous, not from wickedness, but from ignorance. In Midrash Tanna'im on Deut. i. 17, p. 9, the same passage differs in two respects : F. is rich, I shall appoint him judge, pn "ortDiH Dm d^:m ; this is added, on the other hand *yftc utn poo Kefon is missing. Hoffmann suggested the reading D'OD^bN = knows Greek, and that poo ^Vn is a corruption of it. The emendation is not probable, since the knowledge of all foreign languages is already stated. 2 Synh., 7 b, 'Aboda zara, 52 a, on Deut. xvi. 18-21. 3 Synh., 7 b, jer. Bikkur., Ill, 3, 65 d, 14. Bank, in Revue des Etudes Juives, XXXVIII, 53, expressed the opinion that the Romans restored to the Jews of Palestine in the times of R. Jehuda II their autonomous justice, and that the patriarch appointed as the first judges unworthy men. Since the government supported the patriarch, there was no possibility for the scholars to prevail. This is hardly correct, for we have found the same complaints in the second century, and it will be seen at once that R. Jehuda I appointed judges at least fifty years before this time. See Gratz in his Monatsschrift, 1885, XXXIV, 441. 4 In jer. Jebam., XII, 13 a, 15, it is reported that the inhabitants of Simonia in Galilee requested Rabbi to send them a man idd Jim pn ^-n THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHOEIS 3 1 same rights as the judges in Sepphoris, and their judg- ments did not have the same force as the decisions of those appointed by the government or by the com- munity. 1 The material offered by the Talmudic literature does not expressly state upon whom the authorities used to confer the right of appointing Jewish judges before the times of the patriarch Jehuda II 2 ; but we can feel certain that he was a Jew, because the rabbis would have only felt justified in attacking a Jew for appointing un- worthy men for judges. 6. Before the year 136 the Galilean Jews knew little about Rabbinical law, for there were only few schools and a small number of scholars in Galilee. The political leaders, as was shown, were at the same time the judges, to the detriment of impartial justice. This state of affairs continued, even after the war of bar-Cochba had caused the transfer of the central school from Jamnia to 'Usha and rabbis had settled everywhere in Galilee. The nobles took no notice of the presence of the scholars and continued applying the rules and laws of their courts as pms to f) inn pjrra who could preach, judge, read prayers (?), teach chil- dren the Bible, teach Mishna and minister to all the religious needs of the congregation. In this passage ' judging ' might perhaps be taken to apply to the decision of religious questions. But the parallel in Genes, rah., lxxxi, 2, "03n nM pi t:m« rfewi WW *npQ shows clearly that the reference is to the decisions of lawsuits. Origen's exaggerated account of the patriarch's power in his letter to Julius Africanus in defence of the authenticity of the story of Susanna (§ 14) does not prove that the patriarch possessed the power of nominating judges. 1 Only if the parties to the lawsuit agreed to bring their cause before such judges, were these entitled to decide civil matters {Codex Theodosianus, II, 1, 10 : ex consensu partium in civili dumtaxat negotio, in an edict by the emperors Arcadius and Honorius in the year 398, Schurer, III, 77, note 75). 3 R. Banna'a in Sepphoris was denounced by people, whose claims he had dismissed, to the Roman authorities for having given judgment without hearing witnesses (Baba bathra, 58 a. b). He was put in prison, yet through his great cleverness he not only was released, but also appointed public judge. Although the whole report is full of legendary details, the main facts may be trustworthy and show that a judge of the synagogue or of the school could be called to account by the Roman authorities, although his appointment was not due to them. 32 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF heretofore. The rabbis, however, soon got into touch with the average man, won his confidence and were often approached by Jewish litigants to decide their cases. 1 They soon learnt of the anomalies prevailing in the Galilean Jewish courts, and started an energetic warfare against the procedure in them and against the utter ignoring of the later developments of Jewish law. They easily discovered serious mistakes and great injustice in the decisions of the Jewish judges. The frequent recur- rence of judgments given in favour of the class of the nobles only enhanced the moral strength of their cause. A very characteristic incident shows a stage of transition in the struggle carried on in Sepphoris. Two men came before E. Jose b. Halaftha with a cause and made the condition that- he should judge them according to the law of the Torah. 2 E. Jose replied : ' I do not know the law of the Torah ; may God who knows your intentions, punish you ! ' It seems that they refused to submit to the law of the rabbis and requested to be judged by biblical law, as though they were Sadducees. No doubt, the official judges in time took notice of the rabbis and their teachings and applied their laws more carefully and more judicially. Yet the constant denunciations by the scholars down to the end of the third century clearly show that they failed in bringing about an im- provement of the system itself. 3 It was too deeply rooted not only in early usage, but also in the privileges of the hereditary nobility. And since the Eoman government 1 See Chajes in Revue des Etudes Juives, XXXIX, 43 ff. 2 Jer. Synh., 1, 1 , 18 a, 37. R. Johanan in Bdba mesi'a, 30 b, said : Jerusalem was destroyed only because of judging according to the law of the Torah. This is explained in the Talmud to mean strict law, as opposed to equity. Cf. Moses Kunitz in wm> p, VI, 80. s There are a few passages denouncing judges for taking payments for their decisions : The judgments of him who takes payment for judging, are invalid (Bekhor., IV, 6) ; differently in one of the Baraithas in Kethub., 105 a : The judge who takes payment, is to be blamed, but his decision is valid. Whether this discussion was occasioned by the dealings of the Jewish judges, does not appear from these passages, but is very probable. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 33 had a vital interest in protecting the wealthy for the maintenance of the state, the moral strength of the rabbis not being supported by equal wealth, proved too weak to displace the judges and the law of the nobility. They incurred the hatred of the leading classes of the com- munity and won only the confidence of the lower sections of the population in Sepphoris. CHAPTEK III THE WEALTHY MEMBEES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN SEPPHOEIS. i. There are no reports preserved of the number of Jews living in Sepphoris in the second and third centuries, nor any references to the wealth possessed by the nobles with whose official position the preceding chapters have dealt. Only incidentally a passing refer- ence is made to the riches of one or two inhabitants of Sepphoris ; but this offers no safe basis for further in- ferences. It is reported that bar-Lufiani in Sepphoris gave away his daughter to a man in 'Akko. For this occasion he erected on the whole way from Sepphoris to Akko booths, in which wine was offered, and set up golden lamps on both sides of the road. 1 When the patriarch R. Jehuda I was honouring one Bonias for his wealth, R. Ishmael b. E. Jose of Sepphoris remarked that Bonias' father owned a thousand ships on the sea and as many villages on the land. 2 When this Bonias, son of Bonias, 3 came to visit the patriarch, the latter said : Make room for the man of ioo minas ; then another man entered and the patriarch said : Make room for the man of 200 1 'Esther rab., ii. 4, 3. Krauss in Lehnworter, II, 311 b, identifies this lyzrh with DMWfo in Hullin, 87 a, who was one of the great men of the generation in Sepphoris (p. 8) ; (Midrash haGadol on Lev. xvii. 13, reads D'jwvb). 2 'Erub., 86 a. The same exaggerated description of the wealth of the high priest Eleazar b. Harsom in Joma, 35 b. 3 For the different forms of the name see Rabbinowicz and Jehuda b. Barzilai in cviyn -idd, p. 136. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 35 minas. Bonias once sent to him a piece of linen which could be put into a nutshell. 1 This patriarch himself was a very rich man, possessed of fields and of many hundreds of cattle ; his house steward was said to have been richer than Shabur the Persian king. 2 Apart from these few very wealthy people, the important citizens of Sepphoris consisted of landowners of smaller wealth. 3 2. The wealthy were often asked by the administrators of charity to contribute to the support of the poor, and it may be assumed that, as a rule, they responded to the appeal. In connexion with such appeals we see them in intercourse with scholars in synagogues and schools, 4 1 Gittin, 59 a. In jer. Kil'ay., IX, 1 , 32 a, 8, it is Hillel b. R. DVn who had a garment worth three hundred thousand denars and who gave it to R. Jehuda I. The latter found that it was made of wool mixed with linen and burnt it. 2 Sabb., 113 b. In jer. 'Aboda zara, II, 10, 42 a, 35, R. Hanina refers to the ships of the patriarch. 8 The patriarch asked R. Ishmael b. R. Jose (Sabb., 119a) by what acts of merit the rich people of Palestine deserved their wealth, and R. Ishmael answered: By observing the law of tithes. This shows that wealth consisted in the first instance in fields. R. Simon b. Lakish of the third century, who first studied and taught in Sepphoris and later on in Tiberias, said in Hullin, 92 a : t tSVQ %2 fJM row nrnoi fifwtt {Btt f\ noi« hn t pae o*ap*i inn row rrupiap ,ynsn na» ink row f&, own »TBftn ib« row mVowN, Our people is compared to the vine: the branches are its landowners (not Hausvater, as Bacher translates in Paltist. Amoraer, I, 371), the clusters are the scholars, the leaves the peasants, the thin branches are the empty ones in Israel. This division of the population of a country or a city is not based on the degree of learning or observance, but on wealth ; therefore the n^pn must have stood at the bottom of the ladder, as the dtq *tfl stood on the top. R. Simon b. Lakish uses the same word in 'Erub., 19a, and parallels: poro n«D D^bo "pD D^pn Vtdn, Even the empty ones in thy midst are as full of religious deeds as the pomegranate. It is true that there he explains in another statement -jnpn to mean brw »ywir, the empty ones in respect of religion, as others explain it in Cant, rab., iv. 4, prmisn . . . d^i:2 . . . fpn, although in a favourable sense. But just as pMO or originally meant the farmer and then the uncultured, so avpn first meant the poor and then the lacking in religion ; and so R. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris in Genes, rab., xxxii. 10, Cant, rab., iv. 2, Deut. rab., iii. 6, applies the word to his ass-driver who gave a clever answer to a mocking Samaritan. * A rich man, a member of the family bar-Selen§, was present in the school of Tiberias when R. Hiyya b. 'Abba appealed for contributions to C 2 36 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF since when appeals were required, they were from early- times made in those public meeting-places, e.g. for re- deeming captives, for marrying poor girls, especially orphans, and for exceptional help to a poor individual. 1 This was done, as a rule, on Sabbath, when all, rich and poor, came to synagogue ; whereas on weekdays only few came and among these hardly the wealthy. 2 Only ex- ceptionally, when urgent need required speedy help, did scholars appeal in their schools also on a weekday. 3 Of charity (jer. JSoray., Ill, 7, 48 a, 62). The foreign name and the mention of the family indicate a man of high standing, since some leaders of the community had foreign names, viz. Bonias b. Bonias in 'Erub., 85 b, bar-Levianus in Hullin, 87 a, bar-Lufiani in 'Esther rab. 7 ii. 4, 3. 1 Tos. Baba bathra, VIII, 14 ; Tos. Theruma, I, 10. prescribes concerning the rights of a guardian of orphans to use the property of his pupils : JTND }>n rmnrr jo msp wwd in rea&n n*o rip-is \Tvbs j»pDiD |*»n |"intt? ur\b, they are not allowed to spend money on redeeming captives, nor must they promise in the synagogue a contribution to charity on behalf of their pupils, these being amounts not fixed in the Torah. In jer. Dammai, III, 1, 23 b, 33, in a Baraitha (Tos. Shebiith, VII, 9 and Te'a, IV, 16, with instructive variants) : pro pw JW nm mbo \rro fDts p* "os? "wro inw n^a© ina >:r\ pa&ua ^n roa^n nm u*sA np-12 Drra ppDiD po peiton jrra petoo pro nwawiw ion mVea to 121 jrrj, produce of the seventh year and of the second tithe must not be used amongst other things for charity promised in the synagogue. Of special interest is the prohibition in Tos. Sabb., XVI, 22, wwrrt irom neon raa uvssh nfpn ppmo p« toim -wto« p pro© *ai rrrr pi ,pn>rm y?n rvai mira nVinrr to pfccno p*o vwvh ur» p piwo pwi noirm mrr B. Simon b. Eleazar reports that the Shammaiites forbade to promise a contribution to charity in the synagogue on Sabbath, or even to enable an orphan to marry (see Tos. Megilla, III, 4). All this proves that contributions to charity were promised in the synagogue on Sabbath. 2 The dealing with matters of charity on Sabbath in the synagogue in Galilee, either as the prevailing custom or as a rule to be introduced, was opposed in the second half of the second century as not befitting the Sabbath by B. Simon b. Eleazar in the name of the Shammaiites. And in Sepphoris the question was not yet settled even in the second half of the third century, since E. Eleazar b. Pedath in Sabb., 150 a stated, as though it were a new question : It is permitted to promise a contribution to charity on Sabbath. B. Johanan said : All matters of rescuing life and of public weal may be discussed on Sabbath, and people may go to the synagogues to discuss public affairs on Sabbath. B. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris in the first half of the third century even allows going on Sabbath to the theatre, the circus and the basilica to discuss public matters. 8 A poor blind man came to the place where B. Eliezer b. Jacob lived THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 37 course, the amount promised on a Sabbath, probably even that promised on a weekday, was not paid on the spot ; otherwise there would have arisen no occasion for com- plaint that people did not pay the charity promised in the synagogue. 1 For we find a very strange complaint against the wealthy people of Sepphoris. R. Johanan said: Rain fails to come down on account of those who promise con- tributions to charity in public and do not pay them. 2 And in a similar way his colleague R. Joshua b. Levi denounces the same fault. It must have been an in- in the middle of the second century (jer. Shekal.,V, 6, 49 b, 27), and asked for assistance. R. Eliezer placed him in his school on a higher seat than his own, in order that the people should think him to be a scholar ; and in fact a greater amount was provided on account of this (ipw hdoid n ,l j p"Q2>). R. Hiyya b. 'Abba about the year 300 w T as appealing for promises of con- tributions in the school of Tiberias (jer. Horay., Ill, 7, 48 a, 62) ; a member of the family bar-Selene who was present, promised a litra of gold ; for his liberality R. Hiyya honoured him by asking him to sit next to him, and applied to him Prov. xviii. 16 : ' The man's gift makes room for him.' A Jew of Babylonia came to Tiberias and asked R. Berekhya for assistance (Lev. rab., xxxii. 7) ; the rabbi told him to come next day when he would arrange for him a ap^D in the congregation. The stranger came and found R. Berekhya preaching. At the end of the lecture the teacher said : Brethren, do charity to this man ! 1 Although F. Perles, in his criticism of Bousset's Religion des Judentums, p. 17, emphasized this point, Bousset still writes in the second edition of his work, p. 208, the following : ' There can be no doubt that it was a custom in the times of the New Testament to collect alms in the synagogue on Sabbath (Matt. vi. 2). Some have adduced against this the fact that already according to Philo (Legatio ad Caium, 23), the handling of money on the Sabbath was prohibited. But I cannot consider this objection cogent, see my essay, Volksfrommigkeit und Schrift- gelehrsamkeit, 30.' Bousset obviously had no knowledge of the general custom of merely promising contributions in the synagogue ; this accounts for his persistence. Besides, the meaning of Matt. vi. 2 has not been properly understood, see my note in the Journal of Theol. Studies, 1909, X, 266 ff. 2 Ta'aniih, 8 b. In jer. Ta'anith, III, 4, 66 c, 29, Kiddush., IV, 1, 65 b, 76, in a similar but anonymous statement, the same failing is put side by side with the greatest sins : rain fails to come down for four kinds of sins : for idolatry, unchastity, bloodshed and for not paying contri- butions promised in public. R. Joshua b. Levi refers Eccl. v. 1 : ' Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin,' to the same class of people, (Lev. rab., xvi. 5, Kohel. rab., v. 5). 38 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF veterate sin and a part of the more comprehensive failure of the Gralilean Jews to keep their vows, too often and too hastily uttered. For a Baraitha, remarkable for several details, levels the same reproach against an earlier genera- tion. 1 It runs : ' For four reasons are the properties of landowners handed over to the Roman government : because they retain for a long time bonds which have been paid, because they lend money on interest, because they did not prevent things to prevent which they had the means, and because they promise contributions to charity in public and do not pay them. And for four reasons the properties of landowners pass to the Roman treasury : because they defer paying the wages to hired people, because they withhold their wages of hired people, because they remove the yoke from their own necks and shift it on to their fellow men, and for haughti- ness ; and this last sin is the heaviest of all.' Here the persons neglecting to pay their contributions to charity, promised in synagogues, are explicitly called landowners (DTD ^yn). As will be shown presently, those of the two great cities of Galilee, of Sepphoris and Tiberias, are meant in the first instance. The preachers of the synagogues, who had no means whatever to exact from them the money promised to charity, accounted, in the usual way of the prophets and the Agadists, for the con- fiscations of the property of the landowners by their failure to fulfil their promises. 2 1 Sukka, 29a.b, Tos., II, 5 : to? jTOtob jnoea ova ^n 'D32 cnn rrynN tawai □7D1DHJ ton irpo vbi mrrab dti pED rrrro toi rva-a nVn ton d^i-ib nrnow ttoo tM? hjiid to? ^veje 1 ? pre? D»ni *to?i , D33 onn nyrw tonsni .pm: ppm o*ru np-12 nroai rmn noa ton frrnan to? fwra\ pn»is to?o Vw pjrntHJ ton tdw iqid *pimy to?i raw jVtt 1333 rmn. The editions of the Talmud give as author of the second series of sins, Rabh ; but all the literary witnesses adduced by Rabbinowicz and in addition Yalkut Mekhiri on Ps. xxxvii, p. 114 b, § 16, contain no name whatever, but give the second part as a continuation of the Baraitha. In Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXI, 34 a, the last sentence reads : vm arrton ,D*V : own pwawm C"ttn to? ooni \vn pnw orrtora ^r pjniBB ton dto >to?i ** ,n«m ntm toi rw D>p> n 1 ? ton -ma -iov. 1 This had not yet changed in the course of the third century ; for THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 39 3. To exonerate partly at least the rich landowners of Sepphoris, we must point out the heavy burdens which the Eoman system of taxes imposed upon them. They were one of the two sections of wealthy citizens who were held responsible by the Eoman government in the second and third centuries for the full amount of the different public burdens. 1 These two classes were known in Palestine as the Boule and Strategia (corresponding to the Curiae elsewhere in the Eoman empire), and are mentioned incidentally in connexion with an extraordin- ary levy in Tiberias about the year 200. 2 Crown money was once imposed by the emperor upon the Boule and the Strategia ; and Eabbi decided that each section had to pay a half of the amount required. Such taxes had to be raised by the members of the constituted body of the wealthy citizens among themselves and among the people of some, though lesser, means. The taxes must have been very heavy, especially in the middle of the third century, when E. Johanan advised people to flee when nominated for the Boule 3 ; because it was intended R. Eleazar b. Pedath of Sepphoris said (Baba bathra, 9 a) : When the Temple stood, the Jew contributed his shekel to the Temple and was atoned for (through the sacrifices paid out of the shekels) ; now that the Temple does not stand, if people give alms, it is well, if not, the non-Jews come and take the money by force. Here the confiscations are still explained as punishments for not giving alms. An anonymous statement in Lev. rab., xxxiv. 13, interprets Isa. lviii. 7, TO N'ln dhtid D"2yi, to refer to the landowners who had lost their honourable position and their property, because they had not supported the poor and not fulfilled God's will. Note that the landowners are men of high standing. x See Seeck, Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt, II, 182 ff., 186, Pauly-Wissowa Realencyclopadie, 2343 ff. 2 Baba bathra, 143 a, report brought by R. Isaac b. Joseph from Palestine to the Babylonian schools ; (the different forms of the two foreign words see in Rabbinowicz). In jer. Joma, I, 2, 39 a, 8, we find : The Boule and the Strategia had a difference of opinion and brought the matter before Rabbi ; he decided that the Boule" was not included in the Strategia. It is not quite clear what the point was ; perhaps the crown money was imposed by the local government upon the Strategia and they claimed that the Boule should participate in the burden, whereas the Boule protested that the tax was not imposed upon them. 3 Jer. Moed Katan, II, 3, 81 b, 33 : &i pnwi HTT» 'Vi2b -|W3irr QM pnv »m "ion 40 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF by the Romans not as an honour, but as the means to make its bearer undertake duties for the empire involving heavy costs. 1 It was the emperors Septimius Severus (193-21 1) and Caracalla (211-217) who bestowed upon the Jews the right and at the same time the duty of holding honorary offices, as far as their religious life was not interfered with. 2 The complaints of the Jewish scholars therefore belong to the third century. 3 'Van l&srti mim pfcip }ir\v "an "io» >"pOi$ People get permission to be exempt from serving on the Boule". Pauly-Wissowa, RE., 2347 ff. The Strategia denoted the whole body of the officials of the city. 1 R. Johanan, in Genes, rab., lxxvi. 6 says of the Roman rule that it casts an envious eye upon man's property and says : A. is rich, let us make him Archon, B. is rich, let us make him Bouleutes. Already Bacher (Pal&st. Amoraer, I, 232, 2) remarks on this : ' It refers to the costly offices of the magistracy to which wealthy citizens were appointed by force.' In jer. Taanith, IV, 8, 69 a, 27, Threni rab., ii. 2, the same procedure is attributed to the councillors of Jerusalem before the destruction, probably by R. Johanan himself ; when a man came on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they told him : We have heard that you would like to become Archon or Bouleutes. 2 Ulpian, Be off. procons., Ill, 3 ; Bigesta, XXVII, 1, 15, 6 ; L, 2, 3, 3. 3 The date is important in connexion with what actually occurred to R. Eliezer b. Hyrkanos in Tanhuma, B. (-r? "T<, 10). R. Eliezer b. Hyrkanos was the son of a tdVvd and his father was charged with a duty by the government and with matters of jnainofrlDDKn. Once the father moved to another place, and when he noticed that they (the government) had found him, he fled with all his servants, his household and his family on asses and camels. The foreign word tqVvd is explained to be a shorter form of Politeuomenos = Decurio. The present wording of the story must belong to the third century at the earliest. When brothers lived on the undivided estate left to them by their deceased father, only one of them had to serve on the Boule, and then the question arose whether the expenses incurred by the office should not be paid from the common estate. R. Nahman b. Samuel b. Nahman was caught by the Boule (had to serve on it) after his father's death and R. 'Ammi decided (Jer. Baba bathra, IX, 6, 17 a, 15), that, if he had private means, he had to defray all expenses involved from his own property ; otherwise the common estate of all brothers should be burdened with the costs. The same rule prevailed already in the second century in case of another public burden (Baba bathra, IX, 4) : If one of brothers living on the common inherited estate fell to m:oiN of the government, the expenses have to be borne by all ; cf. the Baraitha in^'er. Baba bathra, IX, 6, 17 a, 13, b. 144 b, Tos., X, 5 : yrn*n p inn "ins:sr? toss r.nno dk pro* 1 ? pro* norm c« dycdiqtib in "nn^ "irumw if one of the brothers was appointed tax collector or Polemostos ( = Politeuomenos = THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 41 The Roman officials living among the Jews of Sep- phoris, Tiberias and other towns of Galilee 1 soon found out the wealthy, and were unscrupulous in laying hold on them. People did their utmost not to betray their wealth, and the preachers cautioned their audience not to draw the attention of the Soman officials to other people's means. 2 Fines of every kind were imposed and sudden raids were made 3 on some pretext or other, and there was no way of escaping them ; and all this was done Decurio), as one of the brothers, all of them have to contribute ; if as an individual, he alone has to pay the expenses. In cases of this kind the patriarch R. Jehuda I had to decide when the burden should be divided among members of a family, jer. Kethub., X, 5, 34 a, 14, n:i2"i*« ui VRX* 1 The difference between the past and the present time as to the hard- ships of the Roman rule is very forcibly expressed by R. Simon b. Gamaliel in the middle of the second century (Cant, rab., iii. 4) : Our ancestors only smelled the hardships from the heathen powers and yet lost courage ; we who have been swallowed in their bellies for many years and periods, how much more should we lose courage. The Romans were by now actually living on Jewish soil. 2 An anonymous scholar explained Shema'ya's warning in Aboth, I, 10 : Do not make thyself known to the ruling power {Aboth R. Nathan, XI, 23 b), or Hillel's sentence in Aboth, I, 13 : He who increases his name, his name perishes (Aboth R. Nathan, XII, 28 b), by the following words : One's name should not be known to the government, else they cast an envious eye upon him and kill him and take away all his property. And XI, 24 a : One should not boast of his being the first or the second leader in the city, else his property is endangered. 3 In Lev. rab., xxxiv. 12 R. Simon b. Johai dreamt that his nephews would be ordered by the Roman government to give them 600 denars ; (the reading quoted by Levy in Neuhebr. Worterbuch, s. v. >Ol that it happened to R. Johanan b. Zakkai, matters nothing as to the point at issue). R. Joshua b. Levi in Lev. rab., xix. 6, picturing King Jehoiakim with the colours of a Roman emperor, said : He set up an official (?) who killed the wealthy landowners, violated their wives and confiscated their properties. The patriarch in Sepphoris asked R. Simon b. Lakish to pray for him that the Roman rulers should not take away all that they liked at his house (Genes, rab., lxxviii. 12). R. Gamaliel b. R. Hanina in Sepphoris asked R. Mana the interpretation of Eccl. v. 12, ' riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt,' and R. Mana replied : When the government imposes a fine upon a man, he may have to pay any amount (Kohel. rab., v. 12 ; Bacher, Palasl. Amor., Ill, 444). R. Hanina of Sepphoris in Megilla, 1 1 a, explains the name Ahasuerus to be derived from the fact that in the times of this king everybody was reduced to poverty by taxes. 42 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF in the form of strict justice. 1 Bribes were offered by the Jews and accepted by the officials without hesitation, but proved of no avail. 2 And when taxes, regular or extraordinary, were imposed, the representatives of the government were merciless in exacting them from the landowners 3 ; and the members of the Boule who were held responsible for the amount fixed, had to fear for their property and also for their lives. In order to lighten their own share, the wealthy landowners, when apportioning these burdens to each of the taxpayers, put more than a fair share on the less wealthy inhabitants and even on the poor, as the Baraitha quoted explicitly states and the parallel passage clearly extends their wrongdoing to the most wretched poor. 4 Nobody had the power to check 1 R. Simon b. Pazzi in Genes, rab., Ixv. i said : The Roman government robs, takes by violence and at the same time pretends to do justice. In Pesiktha rab., xliv. 183 a, a man is tried by a Roman court and his property is confiscated. 2 R. Johanan in Pesah., 118 b interpreted Ps. lxviii. 31 to be applic- able to the Roman government : The beast of the reed (calamus) is Rome, that writes all its documents with the same pen ; it stretches out its hand to take money, but does not fulfil the request of the giver (see Midr. Cant, ed. Grtinhut, p. 3 a). 3 Num. rab., xvii. 5, Tanhuma, nV© 15, Yelammdenu to Num. xv. 37 ('Arukh., s. v. -jen) : »n van 1 1 ? in** ,nvac« amai nroiyw Vpro miro rvin brab Swa ;ru pre yrw nvaDM vm nn, This is like the case of a landowner who is weighing annona and writing receipts ; his father tells him : Be care- ful with the receipts, for your life depends upon them (cf. Seeck in Beitrage zur alten Geschichte, I, 185). bp'w seems to be a technical term for delivering taxes ; in Mekhiltha, 61 b, R. Johanan b. Zakkai said of the Jews of his times : You were not willing to pay (bipiub) a beka for each head, now you have to pay (e^pw) fifteen shekels under the rule of your enemies. In Tos. Dammai, VI, 3 : He who hires a field from a Samaritan, gives him his hire in kind after having separated the tithes n^wS Vpvi'i 1*5 jmai ten jtlCffc bpiir, he pays the taxes in kind to the imperial stores, to the centurio, after having separated the tithes. VI, 4 : A Jew must not ask a heathen or a Samaritan or any Jew who is not trustworthy as to tithes, to receive from him 200 Zuz and to pay the taxes for him (cf. 'Aboda zara, 71 a). 4 The Jewish authorities imposed public work even upon scholars, as can be derived from the very characteristic statement of R. Eleazar b. Pedath in Nedar., 32 a : Why was our father Abraham punished and why were his descendants enslaved for 210 years? For he made scholars do Angaria (Gen. xiv. 14). Cf. Raba's statement in Sota, 10 a : King 'Asa THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 43 the arbitrary allotting of the taxes, and whosoever had the courage to offer resistance was threatened with denunciation to the Roman authorities. 1 The preachers only had the courage to denounce these unjust dealings in the synagogues and openly called the wealthy ' men of the arm', i.e. of violence. 2 They tried to relieve by their strong words the burden of the poor, but succeeded only in incurring the hatred of the landowners and the other leaders of the community. 4. We find that the rabbis of the second century in several instances speak of robbers and violent men (pjoenm pjinan). They disqualify them for judges and witnesses, 3 and institute special laws in order to guard the property of the weaker against their violence. 4 was punished for he had made scholars do Angaria ; and the story about Eleazar b. Harsom in Joma, 35 b. 1 The wealthy landowners as pillars of the Roman system of taxes had naturally access to the high officials and sometimes availed themselves of this privilege to the detriment of the other people. Thus Tos. Baba mesi'a, XI, 23 says : The members of the town may decide that whoever is seen at A.'s house or at the government, shall be fined a certain sum. 2 In a Baraitha, jer. Nedar., Ill, 4, 38 a, 37, Tos. II, 7 : One should not, for the purpose of rescuing goods from the hands of unscrupulous, violent people (i. e. tax farmers), say that the goods belonged to Jews of high standing, for jm %3 are apt to fall and (the Talmud adds) perchance drag others with them, and the duties saved by attributing the ownership of the goods to them would be collected from the deceiver. R. Pinhas b. Ja'ir in Sota, 49 a complained : Since the destruction of the Temple pir? ^m ym >?ri roai mryn *V3M Vnbin dwi icm Dmn mi nnan wu, the scholars and nobles are put to shame and cover their heads, the men of (pious) deeds have gone down and the people of the arm and of the tongue prevail. In Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXV, 43 a, Derekh'eres, II : Those who terrify others and the presumptuous, the insolent and the violent (mi ,! ?yn) will be crushed. In Gems, rab., xiii. 9, R. Samuel b. Nahman of Tiberias said : For four reasons God decided that the earth should get water only from above : ... on account of the violent men (who would, if they could, withhold the water from the weaker). R. Eleazar b. Pedath in Synh., 58 b said : Fields are given only to the men of the arm. It implies that only such could hold them safely ; the landowners using their power, not against the Romans, but against the weaker of their own nation. 3 Synh., 25 b, Mekhiltha on Exod. xxiii. 1, p. 98 b. 4 Gittin, 49 b. It is especially R. Simon b. Johai who deals with them. 'Alfasi and 'Asheri read here R. Simon b. Eleazar; in Tos. Kethub., XII, 2, and jer. Gittin, V, 1, 46 c, 38, the statement is anonymous. 44 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF Nothing was safe from them and they intruded even into the privacy of the family, as a very characteristic statement of R. Meir implies : God has given to each individual a different face and voice and different thoughts in order to protect his wife and his property from violent men and from robbers. 1 An anonymous Baraitha says : Why was only one man created first and not two? Because of the violent men and the robbers (Tos. JSynh., VIII, 4). Who these men were can be gathered from the power attributed to them in the passages quoted ; but also from the fact that robbers of this kind are mentioned together with moneylenders, 2 which proves them to have been wealthy people. 3 R Simon b. Rabbi in the beginning of the third century in Sepphoris once preached about the robbers and explained that the re- ward for abstaining from robbery extends over several generations. 4 This exaggeration clearly shows that the vice was frequently practised, and the prospects of great reward were considered by the preacher to be an induce- ment for those concerned to give up the practice. What the Rabbis denounced in Sepphoris as violence (Don) can be inferred from their comments on the violence of the generation of the flood. R. Hanina said 5 : 'The earth was full of violence' (Gen. vi. 13) 1 Tos. Synh., VIII, 6, b. 38 a, jer., IV, 13, 22 b, 74, see Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 14 ff. 2 Baba Kamma, 94 b. R. Simon b. Johai in Mekiltha R. Simon, p. 152, 26 said : Lovers of money like each other, robbers, violent men and those who lend money on interest like each other. 3 R. Isaac of Tiberias about the year 300 said (Pesiktha, 95 b, Tanh., nKi, 10, B. 6, Exod. rab., xxxi. n) : the envious man in Prov. xxviii. 22 is he who does not lend money without interest ; poverty will come upon him. He who increases his wealth by interest, collects it for him who favours the poor (v. 8). This refers to the Roman government whose Epitropoi go out to the country and rob the farmers, and on their return to the city assemble the poor and distribute alms derived from robbery. Cf. Lev. rab., iii. 1. 4 Si/re Deut, 286, p. 125 a, Makkoth, III, 15 : If man is rewarded for abstaining from eating blood, which he loathes, how much more will ab- staining from robbery and unchastity, for which he has a desire, bring him a reward for many generations. 5 Genes, rab., xxxi. 5, jer. Baba men a, IV, 2, 9 c, 60. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 45 means, they committed no real robbery, but were guilty of cunning illegal appropriation of other people's property in small quantities, which could not be qualified as robbery and therefore not be punished by the courts. This full description of imaginary dealings indicates that R. Hanina thereby fought against similar abuses in Sepphoris. His colleague R. Johanan dealt with the same points with very great emphasis. He said : Come and see how heavy a sin violence is ; although the generation of the flood had committed all kinds of sins, the sentence was passed on them only after they had stretched out their hands after robbery (Synh., 108 a). When God punishes, he punishes in the first instance for the violent appropriation of other people's property. Imagine a vessel full of sin, robbery in it is the one which causes the accusation. 1 The prophet Ezekiel enumerated 24 sins, but he selected robbery to conclude therewith his strictures. 2 And the same point is em- phasized by R. Simon b. Johai of the middle of the second century. He blamed the robbers and the violent men in several of his sayings, as shown above, and in another statement of his : How particular the Torah was as to robbery, can be gauged from the fact that Deut. xxiii. 26 found it necessary to condemn people for ' moving the sickle ' ; for the generation of the flood perished only on 1 Lev. rab., xxxiii. 3, Kohel. rab., i. 13. 2 It is noteworthy that in the last two passages dishonest gain is interpreted as robbery. In Baba Kamma, 1 19 a, Lev. rab., xxii. 6, R. Johanan said : He who deprives a man by violence only of one farthing, will be punished as though he had taken his life. K. 'Abahu in Baba mesi'a, 59 a said : There are three sins before which God's curtain never closes : cheating, robbery and idolatry. Here the extraordinary emphasis shows that he had to fight sins prevalent in some sections of the population of Caesarea or Tiberias. R. 'Ammi of Tiberias in Ta'anith, 7 b, said : Rain is withheld by God only for the sin of robbery. R. 'Abba b. Kahana in Midrash Samuel, xiv. g, said : The sin of robbery is a very heavy one, since two great men, Moses and Samuel, found it necessary in their self- justification to declare themselves free from it. Cf. the anonymous statement in Lev. rab., iii. 1 : Better is he who works and gives alms, than he who robs and uses violence and gives alms from them. Hullin, 91 a. 46 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF account of robbery. 1 And lie makes God say : My chil- dren should learn from me to refrain from robbery (SukJca, 30 a). It was naturally only the weak and poorer class that suffered from the dishonest dealings of the wealthy; they were powerless when confronted with the selfishness of the powerful and had to refrain from reproaches or complaints. And again the rabbis stepped in, fearlessly denouncing .the moral sin of dis- honesty coupled with violence and abuse of power, and exposing themselves to the hatred of the ruling class in Sepphoris. 5. But a much more serious charge was brought by the scholars against the same people, 2 viz. immoral life. It was mainly the population of Sepphoris which was censured on account of their unchastity. When once a plague killed many people in Sepphoris and the Jewish inhabitants complained about it to E. Hanina, he ex- plained to them that the pestilence was due to their sins, there being in their midst many Zimris. 3 That he referred to their immorality, may be concluded from another statement of his about a pestilence : Once in 60 or 70 years God sends a plague which carries off from Israel all bastards ; but along with them also some blame- less persons, in order that the disgrace of the bastards should not be revealed. 4 E. Simlai, a disciple of E. Hanina, perhaps with reference to the same pestilence in Sepphoris, said : "Where there is immorality, a plague comes upon people, carrying off good and bad. 5 That such was the moral state of Sepphoris, is confirmed by earlier reports concerning some changes introduced by E. Jose b. Halaftha when settling shortly after the 1 Jer. Ma'aser sheni, II, 6, 50 a, 23. 2 See R. Meir's statement, p. 44, that God gives to each individual a different face and voice and different thoughts, in order to protect his wife and his property from violent people and robbers. 8 Jer. Ta'anith, III, 4, 66 c, 45, Num. xxv. 6, 14. 4 Jer. Jebam., VIII, 3, 9 c, 64. Cf. Lev. rab., xxxii. 7. 6 Jer. Sota, I, 5, 17 a, 11, Genes, rab., xxvi. 5, Lev. rab., xxiii. 9. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 47 year 135 in Sepphoris as a rabbi. 1 His colleague B,. Simon b. Gamaliel, who for a time at least lived in Sepphoris, states that (even the observant) Jews observe only unwillingly such commandments as they have once accepted under protest; for instance, the laws of chastity (Sabb., 130 a). Several scholars of Sepphoris, all belonging to the school of B,. Jehuda I about the year 200, discuss the importance of the prohibition of lewd- ness. R. Ishmael b. B. Jose said : When the Israelites indulge in lewdness, God's presence leaves them. 2 Bar- Kappara said : God forgives everything except lewdness. 3 In a sermon dealing with several weak points of his generation he declared: Four merits made Israel in Egypt worthy of redemption : they had not changed their names or their language, they were not informers or lewd. 4 An anonymous Baraitha says: God praises every day in a loud voice the single man who, in spite of his living in a city, is not lewd. 5 B. Simon b. Babbi 1 In Synh.j 19 a, Rami b. 'Abba reported : Owing to an occurrence, R. Jose instituted in Sepphoris that no woman should allow her son to walk behind her in the street, but in front of her, and that women should talk to each other when in a privy, in order that no man should enter it. The occurrence is described by Rashi, no doubt, from an early source : scoundrels had kidnapped a boy walking behind his mother and taken him to a house. When the mother, not seeing her child, cried, a man offered to show her the house, she entered it and the scoundrels denied her. In jer. Berakh., Ill, 4, 6 c, 54, a personal experience of R. Jose gives evidence of cases of adultery in the lower sections of the population. In Kethub., I, 10, R. JosS reported that a girl was violated when descend- ing to the well to draw water. That this happened in Sepphoris, is expressly stated by Rabh in Kethub., 15 a, jer. I, 10, 25 d, 37. 2 Abofh R. Nathan, XXXVIII, 58 a, Num. rab., vii. 9 ; Si/re Deut, 254, 258. 3 Tank., NTi, B. 14 ; Genes, rab., xxvi. 5. * Pesiktha, 83 b ; Lev. rab., xxxii. 5; Cant, rab., iv. 12 ; Mekhiltha, p. 5 a. In the caso of the last Mekhiltha reads: They were not suspicious of lewdness. In Baba mesi'a, 85 a, Rabbi inquired about a son of R. Eleazar b. R. Simon and a grandson of R. Tarfon and learnt that they lived an immoral life (cf. Pesiktha, 97 a). R. Eleazar b. R. Simon in his capacity of a Roman official had an insolent Jew put in prison (Baba mesi'a, 83 b). When he felt pangs of conscience over it, people told him that he should not worry, as the man DniDOT Dt*a nDTiND my: ttfca 1:21 wn. 5 InPesah., 113 a, according to Rabbinowicz, a Baraitha ; in our editions 48 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF explained in a sermon that abstaining from robbery and lewdness will be rewarded for many generations. 1 Several sayings indicate that the rabbis had to fight even adultery. 2 6. None of all these references points conclusively to the higher classes in Sepphoris and it may be that they concern the lower strata of the population only ; although bar-Kappara's reproaches concerning the changes of names and language tend to prove that the censure for lewdness in the same sentence aims at the wealthy and not at the poor. And in this connexion it must be pointed out that the non-Jewish population of Sepphoris exhibited instances of extreme licentiousness and in- cest. 3 And their low state of morality hardly tended to raise the standard of Jewish life in those sections attributed to R. Johanan, in Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXV, 39 b, to R. Re'uben b. 'Istrobulos. 1 Sifre Deut, 286, p. 125 a ; Makkoth, III, 15. 2 R. Simon b. Menasya in Hagiga, I, 7, b. 9b; Kohel. rob., i. 15, 2, interpreting Eccl. i. 15 said : ' The crooked that cannot be made straight ' applies to a man who had incestuous intercourse with a woman from which a child proceeded. R. Joshua b. Levi in the name of the men of Jerusalem quoted the warning (Pesah. } 113 a) : Be not too often on the roofs considering what happened there ; when thy daughter is mature, free thy slave and give her to him, and guard thy wife against her first son-in-law. The men of Jerusalem were very probably members of a union in Sepphoris identical with the Holy Congregation (see my Priester und Cultus, p. 40). R. Hanina said (Baba mesi'a, 58 b) : for three sins people go down to hell and cannot ascend from it: for adultery, for putting to shame a man in public and for using offensive names. Rabh who lived for many years in Sepphoris, said (Sota, 4 b): He who commits adultery will not escape hell, even if he has the merits of Abraham ; (but see Rashi's reading and Rabbinowicz). 3 R. Ishmael b. R. Jose was asked by a non- Jew (Berakh., 56 b, jer. Ma'aser sheni, IV, 9, 55 b, 58, Threni rab. } i. 1, 14) to interpret a dream and he saw in it -[ruBN . . . nD-naan my: to ns . . torwr rro» to mi . . imnM to » . . ion to hi una DnMMD nm incest and adultery. R. Eliezer the son of R. Jose the Galilean in Tos. Sota, VI, 6, says, Abraham's son, Ishmael, nuan mm ©nan D'TOrr n« n;?oi, took possession of the roofs and defiled women, and thus applies to a biblical person his observations of the lives of some non- Jews in Galilee. In the same way R. Johanan (Baba bathra, 16 b, and parallels) says of Esau, the representative of Rome and of the violent, merciless non- Jews, that he violated a betrothed girl. An actual case of the lowest THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHOKIS 49 of the population to which our material refers. 1 Up to the year 136 there was hardly anybody in Sepphoris who would care to give his attention to the task of raising the low morality of the average man. There were indeed very few teachers at all in Galilee before 135 ; and even as to these it is not reported that they attended to this matter, nor is any statement of theirs preserved from which it might be concluded that they did so. Only after the year 136, when R. Jose b. Halaftha returned from the school in Jamnia to his home in Sepphoris and a school was founded there, did the state of morality force itself upon the attention of E-. Jose and his colleagues. They had to do their utmost to protect the schools from the poison ; and we may assume that, by constantly censuring immorality and praising a pure life, they succeeded in many cases in educating the moral sense. But their un- ceasing fight contributed little towards their winning the sympathy and friendship of the influential and wealthy people of Sepphoris. bestiality and human depravity is reported by R. Hanina in 'Aboda zara j 22 b ; see also jer. Synh., VI, 6, 23 b, 75. 1 R. Hanina, in Synh., 58 b, explained that the laws of chastity of married life, especially the prohibition of adultery, are binding also on the non-Jew. The object of the statement is to impress upon the Jew the fact that even their non-Jewish neighbours will be punished for lewdness, how much more the Jews. CHAPTER IV THE POPULATION OF SEPPHOEIS AND THE SCHOLAES. i. The accusations brought against the leaders and the wealthy people of Sepphoris by scholars were, naturally, not left without answer. Not that they were simply denied, this was probably quite impossible; but they were, as far as the circumstances allowed, turned upon the scholars. First, all doings of the rabbis were criti- cized, 1 and they were suspected of the same vices of which they accused others, viz. of immorality and dishonesty. This is implied by a statement of 'Isi b. Jehuda of the second century in Galilee who said : Why do scholars die young ? Not for adultery, nor for robbery, but because they do not regard themselves, or (according to the parallel) because they interrupt the study of the Torah and occupy themselves with talk. 2 That the same aspersions were made in Sepphoris also, follows with great probability from complaints attributed by E. Jona- than b. Eleazar to Moses in an Agadic interpretation of Numb. xvi. 4 : ' When Moses heard it, he fell upon his 1 In Si/re Deut, xii, an anonymous Tanna puts into the mouths of Moses' contemporaries, whom he calls epicureans, disparaging utterances about Moses ; and no doubt only pictures his own times. He says : When Moses left his tent earlier than usual, the Israelites said: Why does 'Amram's son come out earlier ? Perhaps he feels uneasy at home. If Moses came out later than usual, they said : Why does 'Amram's son come out later ? You know, he is planning all kinds of plans against you ; he would be much worse, if he were of 'On's family, because then his wife would advise him. This characterizes them as epicureans. 2 Aboth E. Nathan, XXIX, 44 b. In XXVI, 41 b, in a sentence intro- duced by noiN mn Kin, and thus, obviously without any foundation, ascribed to K. 'Akiba. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 5 1 face,' for he heard himself suspected of adultery. 1 And E. Eleazar b. Pedath reads into Jer. xviii. 22, * they have dug a pit to catch me,' the complaints of the prophet that he was suspected of adultery. 2 The interpretation was in neither case suggested by the wording of the verses, since in the second instance there is not even the ambiguity of expression as in Ps. cvi. 16 a about Moses. It was suggested by actual charges against scholars by people of Sepphoris and of Galilee in general. There may have been some younger scholars who, for- getting for a moment their position and their moral obligations, yielded to their sensual passions, as is im- plied by the warning of the school of R. Ishmael. 3 A member of this said : "When you see "a scholar committing a sin at night, do not think badly of him next day, as he may have repented in the meantime. But it is necessary and only fair to add that such students were rare exceptions. 4 There were temptations lurking on all sides, especially from non-Jewish women of high standing, 5 and an anonymous Baraitha praises those who prevail over temptations. 6 The same school of R. Ishmael recommended to the scholars continuous study of the Torah as remedy for lust. 7 To satisfy sensuous desires, was considered a desecration of God's name, as R. Hanina of Sepphoris said with reference to immorality: 8 It is better to commit a sin in secret than desecrate the name of God in public. The school of E. Jannai taught 9 that desecration of God's name is caused by a scholar who is ill reputed, so that his fellow students have to be 1 Synh., 1 10 a. 2 Baba Kamma, 16 b. 3 Berakh., 19 a, Midrash Psalm, cxxv. 5. * See the case of the rich scholar in Si/re Num., 115, end, MenaJi., 44 a. 6 Kiddush., 39 b, 40 a. 6 Kiddush., 40 a : He who meets with immorality and saves himself from it, will be vouchsafed a miracle. 7 Sukka, 52 b, Kiddush. , 30 b, in a Baraitha : My son, if that ugly man (evil spirit) should meet you, drag him to the school ; if he is of stone, he will melt, if he is of iron, he will split into pieces. 8 Kiddush., 40 a. 9 Joma, 86 a, see Rabbinowicz. D 2 52 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF ashamed of him. And a prayer recommended by the same school for the morning after awakening 1 refers to the same kind of scholars. It runs : Give us a humble mind and a humble spirit; may thy name not become' desecrated by us and make us not the talk of all. On account of such occurrences of immorality R. Hanina taught 2 : ' The fear of God is pure ' (Ps. xix. 10) refers to one who studies the Torah in purity, having married first and studying afterwards. And his colleague in Sepphoris, R. Jonathan b. Eleazar, explained the pure offering of Mai. i. n in the same sense. 3 In order to remove every occasion for suspicion of immorality, a teacher in an anonymous Baraitha 4 strongly advised the students, among other rules of conduct, to refrain from several minor points in everyday life. He said: Six things are considered a disgrace in the case of a scholar : he should not go in the street perfumed, nor go out alone at night, nor go out in patched shoes, nor speak in the street to a woman, 5 nor take part in the meal of an ' Amha'ares and not come last to the school ; some added : not walk with an erect stature. Such pre- cautions were necessary, because if a case of immoral 1 Jer.Berakh., IV, 2, 7 d, 52. a Joma> 72 b. 3 Menah. , 1 10 a. Cf. Tosafoth to Kiddush. , 29 b. The school of E. Ishmael, probably mainly with reference to scholars, taught (Kiddush., 29 b) : To remain unmarried is allowed only till twenty years of age ; he who does not marry then, provokes God's anger. In Aboth, V, 21, the age of eighteen years is fixed as the age of marriage for scholars. K. Jehuda b. 'Il'ai in Tos. Bekhor., VI, 10, Kiddush. , 29 b, said : The duty to study the Torah precedes that of taking a wife ; but if a man cannot live unmarried, let him first marry and study afterwards. 4 Berakh.f 43 b. Several of these points are emphasized by E. Johanan in Sabb., 114 a, and by E. 'Abahu in Hullin, 91 a.b. ? For the same reason a Baraitha in 'Erub., 18 b, enjoins that a scholar should not walk behind a woman in the street, not even if she is his wife ; if one meets a woman on a bridge, he should let her pass on the side ; one who crosses a river behind a woman will have no share in the world to come. Another Baraitha there says : He who counts money into the hand of a woman, or receives from her money in the same way in order to behold her, will not escape hell, even if he were like our teacher Moses who received the Torah on Sinai. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 53 conduct of a scholar became known, the people of Sep- phoris were eager to spread the news and to generalize as to the character of the scholars. 2. The attitude of the Jewish population of Sepphoris towards the scholars betrayed itself on a very sad occa- sion. 1 There was once about the middle of the third century a pestilence in this city which caused a great loss of life, but did not invade the street where E. Hanina lived. The people of Sepphoris said : What is the matter with this scholar ? Although he lives among us, he and his neighbourhood are well, whilst the town is suffering. E. Hanina came out and addressed them : One single Zimri lived in his generation and yet he caused the death of twenty thousand people ; how many Zimris are there in our generation and yet you complain? E. Hanina was a native of Sepphoris and, being probably one of the very few scholars born here, was already in the times of the patriarch E. Jehuda I called the man of Sepphoris by his own people. 2 There could therefore be no sus- picion of strained personal relations between the Jewish population and E. Hanina, and the tone which they adopted towards him clearly shows their general feeling towards the scholars. The same is shown by another incident reported in the same place where they implied that the rabbi was either an egotist in protecting only himself against the plague, or incapable of obtaining mercy for his city by his prayer. Once a drought pre- vailed and a fast for rain was necessitated ; E. Hanina ordered a public fast (and prayed), but rain failed to come down. E. Joshua b. Levi's fast in the Darom was successful. Hearing of this the people of Sepphoris said : E. Joshua b. Levi brings rain to the men of the Darom, but E. Hanina keeps it off the men of Sepphoris. When 1 Jer. Ta'anith, III, 4, 66 c, 45, see p. 46. 2 He was refused ordination by this patriarch (according to R. Derosa) because the people of the city cried out against him in Sepphoris (jer. Ta'anith, IV, 2, 68 a, 29). <• 54 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF another occasion arose for a public fast, the people of Sepphoris invited E. Joshua b. Levi to pray for them ; but he asked E. Hanina to join him. "When even the joint prayers of both scholars proved of no avail, E. Joshua stepped forth and said to the assembly : ' It is not E. Joshua who brought down rain to the people of the Darom, nor has E. Hanina kept off the rain from the people of Sepphoris ; but the hearts of the men of the Darom are tender and, on hearing words of the Torah, 1 they humiliate themselves, whereas the hearts of the men of Sepphoris are hard and, on hearing the words of the Torah, they do not humiliate themselves.' It was only in times of distress that they thought of the rabbi in their midst, expecting him to relieve them from their troubles; and if he disappointed them in their hopes, they abused him. They were not concerned at or grieved by the death of a scholar and had no tears for him, as can be seen from some observations of teachers of Sepphoris. Bar- Kappara said : God counts and accumulates in his stores 1 It means words of reprimand based on interpretation of the Bible, such as we find in Ta'anith, II, in both Talmuds. They are here not reproached with having no sense for the sometimes very imaginative and bold Agadas of the preachers ; this would have been quite pardonable. In Pesiktha, 136 b, we find that R. Johanan once preached in the great synagogue of Sepphoris that God will once make the Eastern gate of the Temple and its two side doors of one pearl. There happened to be present ync *irb or DrfljpW who interposed that the words of the rabbi contained an impossibility, since there were no pearls even of the size of a turtle-dove's egg. This sceptic once travelled by boat and, on being shipwrecked, was shown in a miraculous way, in the depth of the sea, a pearl of that size prepared by the angels for the gate of the Temple. When he again attended K. Johanan's lecture and the preacher repeated his former statement, the sceptic said the characteristic words : Eabbi, you may now talk as much as you like and glorify as much as you can ; if my eyes had not seen it, I would not have believed it. (In Baba bathra, 75 a, in the same story, it is told of a disciple of R. Johanan.) In Seder 'Olam, III, the Baraitha in Bosh haShana, 17 a, Tos. Synh., XIII, 5, on apostates and traitors is enlarged by the addition, among other persons, of those who scorn the words of the scholars ; cf. Ratner's edition, p. 9 a, note 40. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 55 the tears of him who sheds them for a pious man. And an anonymous Baraitha said : Why do the sons and daughters of some die young? In order that they should weep and mourn for a righteous man (who dies at the same time) ; whoever weeps for a righteous man will be forgiven all his sins on account of the honour which he has paid. E. Johanan said : All who show neglect at the mourning for a scholar do not live long. 1 E. Joshua b. Levi in a sermon emphasized the same duty. 2 He said : We do not find elsewhere in the Bible the name Har-Ga'ash where, according to Joshua xxiv. 30, Joshua was buried. The name indicates that the Israelites proved neglectful in paying due honour to the deceased leader ; every one was engaged in his work and had no time for taking part in Joshua's funeral. Therefore God decided to shake the earth over its inhabitants. When Samuel died, the whole of Israel gathered together to mourn for him (1 Sam. xxv. 1) in accordance with the proverb : He who was bitten by a serpent, is afraid even of a rope. This forcible bit of imaginative Agada proves that the Jews of Galilee, and especially those of Sepphoris, had no respect for the scholars in their midst. An anonymous Baraitha 3 indicates a case of neglect in paying due honour even to a leading member of the central Beth-din in Galilee at his funeral ; and an eclipse of the sun coin- ciding with this occurrence is accounted for by the lack of esteem for the great man. And even if the Jews came to join in the funeral of a scholar, they always found something for which to blame the deceased ; for E. Joshua b. Levi said : 4 Whoever speaks evil behind the bier of a scholar will fall into hell. What they were saying of the teachers is not mentioned, but will be sug- gested by some passages to be quoted later on, 1 Sabb. f 105 b. 3 Midrash Samuel, xxiii, § 7. 3 Sukka, 29 a : On account of four things the sun is smitten (eclipsed), on account of an 'Abh-beth-din not being duly mourned for, &c. Gratz in his Monatsschrift, 1884, XXXIII, 542, suggests that it refers to R. Jehuda b. Babha, the martyr. * Berakh., 19 a. 56 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF 3. These people not only slighted, but also felt con- tempt and even hatred for the scholars; and again it is in the first instance Sepphoris where the rabbis were treated in that way, as an utterance of R. Hanina and Rabh proves. They define an epicurean as one who contemns a scholar. 1 A private prayer said every morn- ing by R. Eleazar b. Pedath of Sepphoris 2 reflects the feeling prevailing in this place between the Jewish population and the scholars. It runs : ' May it be thy will, Lord, my God and God of my fathers, that hatred against us may not enter anybody's heart, nor hatred against anybody our hearts, and that envy of us may not enter anybody's heart, nor envy of others our hearts, and that thy Torah may be our occupation through all our lives, and that our words may be prayers before thee.' And a contemporary of R. Eleazar in Sepphoris, R. Isaac b. Marion, 8 said : He who is insolent to scholars and to great men of the generation, is like him who is insolent to a king (2 Sam. xx. 21). This statement can be fully understood only as the reflection of not unfrequent occurrences which the rabbis denounced in their sermons, since they had no other means to meet them. It must have been soon after the settling of the schools in Galilee that the teachers experienced such treatment ; for we find that the great assembly of scholars in 'Usha discussed and adopted a law as to the fine of one who offends a scholar and strikes him. 4 1 Synh., 99 b : >r\ .D3n T©Vn nnnrr m lmnn now wun *yn an omp'DM can I'd'jd *3B3 run n^yon n HOM *ti ]2 tovv *3"ii japr. In jer. Synh.,X, 1, 2 7 d, 65, R. Johanan and R. Eleazar, both disciples of R. Hanina, discuss the same point ; one says, an epicurean is he who says : look at this teacher ; according to the othei'j it is he who says : look at these scholars. The expression implies contempt. 2 Jer. Berakh., IV, 2, 7 d, 43. 3 Kohel. rob., ix. 18, § 2. 4 Jer. Kethub., IV, 8, 28 d, 60, Baba kamma, VIII, 8, 6 c, 13 : R. Simon b. Lakish in the name of R. Jehuda b. Hanina said : It was decided by taking votes that he who offends a scholar (}pt) and strikes him, should pay him as fine the full amount for having put him to shame. Once a man offended a scholar and struck him and had by the judgment THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 57 Also E. Meir, a leading scholar of the Beth-din of 'Usha, had, when temporarily staying in Sepphoris, to experience the slighting criticism of the people. The reason for it is nowhere suggested 1 ; only the defence of E. Meir by E. Jose b. Halaftha of Sepphoris that he was a great, saint and chaste man, implies serious allegations or suspicions advanced against him and his character. Also E. Jose's other statement 2 that those who hate the scholars and their disciples, the false prophets and the calumniators will have no share in the world to come, indicates very strong feelings against the teachers of his town. And an anonymous saying of the second century 3 reads freely into the wording of the Bible experiences of the time of the author, and derives from the sequence of verses the principle : he who does not learn (the Torah) or practise it and despises others (who do so), will in the end hate the scholars. It also seems very probable that the urgent warnings by rabbis of the 1 second century in Galilee concerning un- founded hatred mean the hatred against scholars. 4 of R. Simon b. Lakish to pay the full amount ; it is reported that it was R. Jehuda b. Hanina (see Bacher, Pal. Amor., I, 420, 3, who suggests R. Jose b. Hanina). Such experiences probably account for R. Hanina' s insisting that everybody should stand up before him when passing, jer. Bikkur., Ill, 3, 65 c, 64. 1 For the offence which he gave by once greeting mourners on a Sabbath against the rule prevailing in Sepphoris, can hardly have been more than the occasion for criticizing, jer. Berakh., II, 7,5 b, 56, Genes. rob., c. 7. 2 Derekh Ves, XI. s In Sifra, p. in b, II, 3, on Lev. xxvi. 14, 15. 4 For instance, R. Nehemia's sentence in Sabb., 32 b, in the Baraitha : For the sin of unfounded hatred, quarrel prevails in a man's house, his wife miscarries and his sons and daughters die very young. Or the anonymous Baraitha in Sabb., 33 a : There are four kinds of indications : dropsy shows immorality ; jaundice indicates gratuitous hatred ; poverty, haughtiness ; croup, calumny. And in Joma, 9 b, about the reasons of the destruction of Jerusalem : it was destroyed because gratuitous hatred was to be found in it. Hence one can learn that gratuitous hatred is the greatest sin. In Aboth R. Nathan, XVI, 32 b, an anonymous warning addressed to scholars and non-scholars alike similarly shows the mutual hatred of both sections : We should not say, love the scholars and hate the disciples, love the disciples and hate the ignorant 58 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF 4. The people of Sepphoris who exhibited contempt and hatred of the scholars, were undoubtedly the un- learned, the same whom the rabbis of Galilee called 'Amha'ares. Of these an anonymous Baraitha of the second century expressly states * that they hate the scholars more than the non- Jews hate the Jews, and that their wives' hatred is even greater than theirs. Natur- ally the rabbis reciprocated the feeling ; but it found expression only in burlesque exaggerations addressed to scholars, which betrayed their incapacity of doing harm and, I think, the insincerity of their hatred. E. Johanan of Sepphoris said 1 : An 'Amha'ares may be rent like a fish. Similarly his colleague E. Eleazar b. Pedath : An 'Amha'ares may be stabbed on the day of Atonement which falls on a Sabbath. Do not travel in the company of an 'Amha'ares; he takes no care of his own life, how much less of the life of somebody else. E. Eleazar further said 2 : Upon one who has no knowledge, you must have no compassion ; whoever gives his bread to a man of no knowledge, will be visited by chastisement. The 'Amha'ares 3 will not participate in the resurrection (Isa. xxvi. 14). When E. Eleazar noticed that E. Johanan was grieved by this statement, he added : Master, I have found in the Bible a remedy for the 'Amha'ares, that they should support the scholars. About sixty years before these two teachers, the patriarch E. Jehuda I in Sepphoris said : 4 God's punishment comes upon the world only on account of the 'Amha'ares. Only such as study Torah should eat meat ; but it is forbidden to those who do not study it. 5 There was once a famine, and the patriarch when opening all his stores of victuals to the people announced : Those who know Bible or Mishna or Talmud or Halakha or Haggada, may enter, but the 'Amha'ares people ; but love all of them and hate the Minim, the apostates and the informers. 1 Pesah., 49 b. a Synh., 92a 3 Kethub., nib. 4 Baba bathra, 8 a. 6 Pesak., 49 b. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 59 shall not enter. One of his disciples, pretending to be an 'Amha'ares, asked for assistance, in order to prove to his master the injustice of this measure. 1 And his contemporary bar-Kappara, who studied, preached and lived in Sepphoris for a time, said : Prohibit to thyself, by vow, intercourse with him who has no share in the study of Bible, or Mishna or culture, for to him apply the words in Psalm i. 1, ' Happy is he who does not sit in the seats of scoffers.' 2 5. The strained relations between the Jewish popula- tion and the scholars account for two occurrences of haughty and harsh demeanour on the part of two scholars. R. Simon b. Eleazar 8 came slowly riding on an ass along the sea-shore from Migdal-'Eder from his teacher's school ; he was in high spirits and very proud of his learning. A very ugly man met him and saluted him ; but the scholar did not return the greeting, but said instead : Beka, how ugly are you ! Are all the inhabitants of your town as ugly as you ? The man replied : I do not know, but go and tell the Master who formed me how ugly the vessel is which he made. The scholar, now aware of his sin, alighted from the ass, fell down at the man's feet and begged him to pardon and to forgive him. Yet the man said : I will not forgive you, unless you go to the Master who made me, and tell him how ugly the vessel is 1 Baba bathra, 8 a. 2 Kiddush., 40 b, ft*. The same statement is quoted in Aboth R. Nathan, and version, XXXV, 44 a, in the name of R. Eliezer b. Jacob of the second century in Galilee in a slightly varied form : Have two handles, one of learning Thora and another of culture, for he who is not possessed of Bible, or Mishna, or culture, does not belong to human society (Mishna Kiddush., I, 10 b). The meaning of culture is not quite clear in the context. Were there Jews in Galilee, especially in Sepphoris, who had no knowledge of the Hebrew literature whatever and no culture, and therefore had too much time for scoffing at the scholars? There were probably even men who did not observe the Jewish law at all ; for R. Eleazar b. Pedath explains in Sota, 46 b, Hagiga, 14 a, cnr: in 2 Kings ii. 23, and Isa. iii. 4, to mean people who were void of all religious deeds and were of poor faith. 3 Ta'anith, 20 a (see Rabbinowicz), in a Baraitha, Aboth R. Nathan, XLl, 66 a, Derekh 'eres, IV. 60 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF which he made. He followed the scholar to his town, where the people came out to meet E. Simon b. Eleazar, and they greeted him : Peace be with you, Rabbi, master, master ! The man interposed : If this is a master, may such not increase in Israel ! When he told his case, the people asked him to forgive the scholar ; and he did so only for the sake of the people. R. Simon then went to the school and taught : one should always be soft like the reed and not unbending like the cedar ; that is why the reed was distinguished and used for a pen to write therewith scrolls of the Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzas. R. Jannai of Sepphoris * once met in the street a man whom on account of his neat dress he thought a scholar and invited him to his house ; the man accepted the invitation. After dinner R. Jannai tested his knowledge of Bible, Mishna, Agada, Talmud, all in vain, for the stranger had no knowledge whatever. When asked to say grace and he refused to do so, R. Jannai called him a dog. The man got up, seized the scholar and said: You withhold my inheritance ! When the scholar inquired what it was, the stranger said : According to Deut. xxxiii. 4, a verse which I have heard children say in a school, the Torah is not Jannai's, but every Jew's property. And then he went on explaining to R. Jannai that he had never repeated to the slandered man any calumny he heard, and never had seen people quarrelling without having made peace between them. Then R. Jannai said : You have so high a moral sense and I called you dog ; great is your merit ! In both cases the man, although ignorant, has a sound, moral mind and insists on his superiority of character, and after persisting is acknowledged to be in the right. The scholars admit the wrong which they have inflicted upon common, ignorant men, and willingly recognize the good qualities of their opponents. The attitude of the rabbis suggests that such qualities were, as a rule, not 1 Lev. rab., ix. 3. , THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 6 1 expected to exist in the average man of Sepphoris and other parts of Galilee. And the first stage of the conflict clearly shows that there was no intercourse between rabbis and the people, and that the scholars despised the 'Amha'ares, obviously in return for the hatred ex- hibited by the wealthy against them. 6. There were to the minds of the scholars themselves other reasons why they were criticized, why little respect was felt for them and why they failed to win the people at large for scholarship and religious observance. Several incidental sentences of leading scholars indicate that there were in Sepphoris members of the schools who gave offence by not observing the . laws taught or learnt by them. The patriarch E. Jehuda I asked E. Besal'el : Did Hosea, in ii. 7, mean to say that our mother Sarah was a harlot ? E. Besal'el replied : God forbid ; it only implies that the words of the Torah become despicable like a harlot in the eyes of an 'Amha'ares, when their possessors (i. e. the scholars) despise the Torah. 1 A friend of the same patriarch, E. Simon b. Halaftha, said : The punishment of one who has learnt the Torah and does not observe it, is heavier than that of one who has not learnt anything. 2 Another colleague of E. Jehuda I, E. Hiyya, said : For him who learns without the intention to practise the law, it would have been better that he should not have been created. 3 And in the generation preceding that of 1 Ruth rab., i. 1. § 2. It would seem from R. Johanan's comment on this that the saying referred to unworthy judges, as R. Simlai in his interpretation of the same verse in Deut. rab., ii. 19, said : They put their own words to shame with the 'Amha'ares, when the scholar teaches in public not to lend money on interest but does so himself, not to steal or rob, but does so himself. But other passages show that the plain meaning of the statement refers to scholars generally and that R. Johanan only gave one striking instance from his own times. a Deut. rab., vii. 4, interpreting Isa. xxvi. 10. 3 Lev. rab., xxxv. 7, Sifra on Lev. xxvi. 3, p. 110 c, § 5, jer. Berakh., I, 3, 3 b, 25. Cf. the strong language used by R. Simon b. Eleazar (in Yalkut Mekhiri on Ps. xlix. § 18, quoted from the Si/re, now included in Hoffmann's Midrash TannaHm, p. 8, in his statement : nrsn ngvp 13 "ft jn* 'w tub 1 d'Mpt rjme »a to>*:» a:n^b nfra nanna m>sr bin Dirrfi n:oo p»w, There 62 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF the patriarch, E. Ishmael b. E. Johanan b. Beroka said : He who learns with the view to teach, to him the means will be vouchsafed both to learn and to teach ; but he who learns in order to practise, to him the means will be vouchsafed to learn and to teach, to observe and to practise. 1 And in the first half of the third century two teachers of Sepphoris point to the contradiction between study and practice in the lives of students. 2 E. Jonathan b. Eleazar called out: "Woe to the scholars who study the Torah and have no fear of God in them ! And E. Jannai said with reference to such students: "Woe to him who has no dwelling and makes a gate to a dwelling ! 3 The predominance of mere study of the Torah unattended by fear of G-od and pious deeds was the cause of E. Jannai's outburst ; it must have been occasioned by the actual state of affairs in the schools of his time. And his pupil E. Johanan said : For him who learns without practising the Torah, it would be better that he had died before his birth. 4 He who endangers his teaching by doing things which contradict it, is poor. 5 If the teacher (in his conduct) is like an angel of is no school in which there are none to go down to hell. It may have referred to the same anomaly in a scholar's religious practice. 1 Aboth, IV, 5 a. An earlier instance of the same criticism shows that this strange inconsistency was an evil of the Galilean schools. Apart from the singular behaviour of 'Elisha' b. 'Abuya of Tiberias, who in the end gave up the religious practice of the commandments, a saying of R. Hanina b. Dosa of 'Arab, near Sepphoris in the first century, reveals the same spirit in contemporary scholars. He said (Aboth, III, 9, cf. the identical sentence of R. Eleazar b. 'Azaria in Aboth, III, 17) : He in whom the fear of sin comes before wisdom, his wisdom shall endure ; but he in whom wisdom comes before the fear of sin, his wisdom will not endure. He whose works exceed his wisdom, his wisdom shall endure ; but he whose wisdom exceeds his works, his wisdom will not endure. In Aboth E. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXII, 35 a, in an anonymous application of an example illustrating Ps. 1. 16, God said to the wicked: You have no good deeds, and you want to study the Torah ! You do not observe my laws, how will you discuss them ? (In Hagiga, 15 b, this verse is applied to 'Elisha' b. 'Abuya.) 3 Joma, 72 b. 3 Sabb., 31 b ; Bacher, Pal. Amoraer, I, 37. 4 Lev. rab., xxxv. 7. 5 Kohel. rab., ix. 16. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 63 the Lord of hosts, then and only then seek the Torah from his mouth. 1 E. Simon b. Lakish said : A scholar must be well versed in all the twenty-four books of the Bible and be chaste and without blame. 2 A colleague of both in Sepphoris, R. Eleazar b. Pedath, in describing Doeg and 'Ahitofel's characters, said: Originally they were not observant, and they remained the same even after having acquired knowledge. 3 7. There were some scholars in Sepphoris who studied the Torah not for its own sake. For R. Benaya of this city about the year 200 said : The Torah proves a drug giving life to him who occupies himself with it for its own sake ; but it is a deadly drug to him who studies it not for its own sake. 4 The same can be inferred as to Tiberias or 'Usha in the middle of the second century from R. Meir's strong praise of a man who devotes himself to study for the sake of the Torah. 5 Of the teachers of the beginning of the third century, R. Alexander said : He who occupies himself with the Torah for its own sake, effects peace with the hosts in heaven and also on earth. R. Johanan adds : He who studies in that way, protects by this merit the whole world. 6 And the discussion of the healing and slaying power of the Torah, emphasized by R. Benaya and continued throughout the whole of the third century, clearly proves that some scholars were not actuated by pure motives in taking up the study of the Torah. So Jehuda, the son of R. Hiyya, said : God's ways are not like those of man ; man gives to his 1 Hagiga, 15 b ; MoM Kat., 17 a, on Malachi ii. 7. 2 Cant, rab., iv. n. 3 Num. rab., xviii. 17. * Baraitha in Ta'anith, 7 a. In Si/re Deut., 306, 131 b, the statement is reported in a different form, inasmuch as it deals with the practice and not the study of the Torah. 5 Aboth, VI, 1. In jer. Hagiga, II, 1, 77 c, 17, R. Jehuda I said with reference to 'Elisha' b. 'Abuya : Since this scholar who studied the Torah not for its own sake, produced a disciple of the greatness of R. Meir, how much more may we expect from a scholar who studies the Torah for its own sake. 6 Synh., 99 b. 64 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF fellow a drug which does good to one, but harm to another; but God gave the Torah as a drug of life to Israel. 1 E. Joshua b. Levi expressed the same idea in a different way: Deut. iv. 44 teaches that the Torah is a drug of life to him who proves good, but is a deadly drug to him who does not prove good. E. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris said : ! The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart* (Ps. xix. 8) means: if the student proves good, the Torah rejoices him, otherwise it burns him. E. Simon b. Lakish said : If he proves good, the Torah purifies him for life, otherwise for death. 2 All this was directed against those who in studying the Torah did not allow it to permeate their actions. The inconsistency between their scholarship and practice forced itself upon the attention of the haters of the teachers and counteracted the efforts of the rabbis to win the people for the Torah. What the purpose of their study was, it is difficult to state. If it was pure interest in study and nothing else, it testifies to the great attraction which the study of the Torah exercised even in Galilee. But it is also possible that it was the ambition to belong to the ranks of the scholars. For an anonymous rabbi of the second century says emphatically : One should not say, I will learn Bible to be called a scholar, I will learn Mishna to be called master, and I will study to become a member of the Beth-din ; but he should learn for love, and honour will come in the end. 3 It seems that such scholars only attended the lectures and discussions in the schools, but attached themselves to no individual scholar for the purpose of acquiring the practice of religion and culture. For E. Simon b. Johai of the middle of the second century states ; More impor- tant than study is intercourse (b^bs?) with a teacher, as 1 'Erub., 54 a ; Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 540, 3. See also Si/re Deut., 45; Kiddush., 30 b, in a Baraitha. 2 Joma, 72 b. 8 Baraitha in Nedar. f 62 a ; Si/re Deut, 48, p. 84 b. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 65 we find expressly stated of 'Elisha' that he poured water upon the hands of Elijah (2 Kings iii. n). 1 And E. Jacob of the same date said : Also he who has no intercourse with scholars, will have no share in the future world. 2 E. Jannai of Sepphoris declared : He who studies Bible and Mishna and has no intercourse with scholars, is like a Samaritan. 3 And E. Jose b. Hanina said : The sword will come upon those scholars who sit and study sepa- rately. 4 It was, therefore, natural that the rabbis had to be careful in admitting students. E. Simon b. Eleazar said: Prov. xxvi. 8 blames him who teaches a wicked disciple ; he is like him who adds a stone to the heap of Hermes, he is an idolater. 5 And E. Johanan taught : The two kinds of trees in Deut. xx. 19 ff. represent worthy and unworthy scholars ; eat of the first and do not cut it down, destroy the other and cut it down. E. Hanina b. Papa in reconciling Isa. xxi. 14, with lv, 1, said : ' Ho, every one that thirsteth, go ye to the waters ' refers to the unworthy disciple ; ' bring water to the thirsty ' refers to the worthy student. 6 "Whether they succeeded in keep- ing at a distance these zealous but irreligious disciples, is not reported ; but we may see in them representatives of the real Galilean Jews, obviously of the wealthier class, who were attracted by scholarship, but, owing to the negative spirit prevailing in Galilee, differed materially from the bulk of the students by their lax observance of the Torah. 1 Berakh., 7 b. 3 Aboth E. Nathan, XXXVI, 55 a. r'n can hardly mean E. 'Akiba after R. Meir, but, as in other passages quoted above (p. 27, note 1), R. Jacob. 3 Sota, 22 a. * Berakh., 63 b. 5 Tos. 'Abodazara, VI, 18. 6 Taanith, 7 a. CHAPTEE V THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SCHOLAES IN SEPPHOEIS. i. The great poverty of the teachers in Galilee in the second and third centuries has often been described, and it is not necessary to array the references here. But we must mention the very instructive example of Sabbath observance, which, if carried out according to the pre- scription of the rabbis since Shammai, would have involved considerable expense, but proved impossible in practice on account of poverty. A great exertion to honour the Sabbath by special garments and special meals 1 was a characteristic feature of strict Jews, and excited, as is well known, the taunts of Greek and Eoman writers. 2 E. Hanina of Sepphoris taught 3 : Two garments are required, one for every day, the other for the Sabbath, and this is also meant in Naomi's words in Euth iii. 3. This statement was directed against people in Sep- phoris failing to distinguish by special garments the Sabbath from the weekday, as is implied by the follow- ing incident. "When E. Simlai, a disciple of E. Hanina, in his sermon 4 quoted his teacher's rule, the audience wept, crying out : Master, we possess only one garment for both the Sabbath and weekdays. He then taught them to effect at least some change in the garment in such a case. In another passage scholars of the second half of the third century and the beginning 1 See Book of Jubilees, II, 91, 31, L, 9, 10. 2 Plutarch, Sympos., VI, 2 ; Persius Flaccus, Satir., V, 183. 3 Jer. Pea, VIII, 8, 21 b, 1 ; Ruth rab., iii. 3; Pesiktha rab., XXIII, 115b. 4 According to Pesiktha given in Tiberias. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 67 of the fourth complain that people sit without light on Sabbath night and lack the conveniences of life which were considered a proper preparation for receiving the Sabbath. 1 The scoffs of the mimes on the stage of the theatre in Caesarea, reported by R. 'Abahu, 2 that the Jews had no fuel to cook their food for the Sabbath, is very telling. To earn a living was declared by R. Eleazar b. Pedath of Sepphoris 3 as great a miracle as Israel's redemption from Egypt, and earlier, by R. Joshua b. Levi, a greater miracle than the division of the Red Sea. Great scarcity of money prevailed, 4 and people were compelled to reap green stalks of corn for want of food. 5 2. Scholars in great poverty continued devoting them- selves to the study of the Torah, while wealthy men cared little or nothing for it. This is evident from a Baraitha which for its peculiar style is worth quoting : 1 In Sabb., 25 b, Lam. iii. 17 is commented upon: 'And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace, I forget prosperity,' R. 'Abahu said : This refers to the lighting of a lamp on Sabbath ; ' I forget prosperity* refers, according to R. Jeremiah, to a bath ; according to R. Johanan, to washing hands and feet in warm water ; according to R. Isaac, to a nice couch and nice covers on it ; according to R. 'Abba, to the spread couch and the wife adorned for her husband who is a scholar. (The wording in Midr. Threni, iii. 17, is utterly corrupt.) Some of these things are explicitly required for the honour of the Sabbath in Sabb., 119 b, and 25 b ; cf. also Gittin, 38 b. 2 Threni rab., iii. 5. 3 Genes, rab., xx. 9. 4 R. Isaac in Pesiktha, 101 b, said : Formerly when a Peruta was always to be had, people liked to hear learned points (in the synagogue), but at present, when a Peruta is not always to be had, and especially as we have to suffer from the Romans, people prefer to hear Bible, Agada and consolations. Compare with this Si/re Deut., 326, p. 139 a, on Deut. xxxii. 36, ' when he seeth that their power is gone,' when the Peruta is at an end in the purse. It shows that extreme poverty prevailed also in the second century, and, as we know, as a sequel to the bar-Cochba war. R. Johanan reports in Ta'anith, 19 b, that he remembered the time when victuals were extremely dear and people died of starvation, caused by want of money, in Tiberias. He himself had suffered terribly, probably on that occasion, jer. Joma, VIII, 5, 45 b, 6. In the Gospel to the Hebrews (in Origen, ad Malth., XIX, 16) Jesus said to the rich : ' Et ecce multi fratres tui filii Abrahae amicti sunt stercore, morientes prae fame.' 5 R. Isaac in Genes, rab., xx. 10, said : God's curse upon the first man, 'Thou shalt eat the herb of the field' (Gen. iii. 18), applies to our own time, as people pluck out the stalks when yet green, for want of corn. E % 68 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OP God weeps daily over three classes of men : over him who could study the Torah and fails to do so, over him who cannot study the Torah and yet does so, and over a Parnas who behaves haughtily towards the congrega- tion. 1 Most of the students had no means, and only few were provided for. Wealthy young men were engaged in farming or exceptionally in business, and it did not occur to them to join a school for grown-up students. It is they whom the quoted Baraitha blames. The same reproach in the same words was advanced by E. Nehorai of Sepphoris in the middle of the second century in his interpretation of Num. xv. 31 : ( a despiser of the word of God ' is he who could occupy himself with the Torah but fails to do so. 2 Owing to the hard pres- sure of poverty enhanced by the persecutions under the emperor Hadrian, some scholars gave up partially the study of the Torah. R Jehu da b. 'Il'ai, who before the year 135 had been a disciple at the schools of Jamnia and Lydda and after the persecutions settled in 'Usha in Galilee as one of the leading teachers and members of the central school, stated the essential differences as to the time and care devoted to the study of the Torah in the two generations before and after the Hadrianic persecutions respectively. The former generation made study their fixed work and business a secondary occu- pation and they were successful in both. The present generation make business their fixed work and study a secondary occupation and they are successful in neither. 3 Accordingly his advice is : He who makes the words of the Torah his primary task and the worldly life secondary, will become important in the world to come ; but whoever makes the words of the Torah secondary to the worldly 1 Hagiga, 5 b. Note the popular tone of the statement ; its extreme anthropomorphism proves it to have been a part of a sermon addressed to the people. a Synh., 99 a. In Si/re Num., 112, it is quoted in the name of R. Nathan of the same date differently : he who could learn and does not learn. 3 Berakh., 35 b. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 69 life, will become of minor weight in the world to come. 1 And therefore he advised his contemporaries to take the middle course. His friend R. Meir had a more uncom- promising view on the matter ; he taught : Do little business and occupy thyself in the Torah and be of humble spirit to every one. If you give up the Torah, there will come many diversions against you (even in your business), whereas if you study continually Torah, there is great reward for you. 2 3. A colleague of E,. Jehuda and B,. Meir, E. Simon b. Johai, held that the proper thing ought to be for every- body to devote all his time to the study of the Torah. But on account of Israel's neglect in fulfilling the will of God, we have to do our own agricultural work ourselves and even that of others, and this occupies our time all the year round, and no time is left for study. 3 Only the Israelites supplied with manna were able to study the Torah ; but how can he do it who whilst sitting and learning does not know from where he can get food, drink, linen and clothes 4 ? Besides the Israelites pro- vided with manna, only the descendants of Aaron, the priests, who receive priestly dues, could study. In fact, the priests in Galilee were as a rule wealthy, 5 and they were justly expected to add to their birthright some knowledge of the Torah in its comprehensive sense. Yet most of them only claimed and received their various dues, without exhibiting great zeal in joining the ranks of the scholars or the schools. E-. Jehuda said with 1 Aboih R. Nathan, XXVIII, 43 b, Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 196, 4. 2 Aboth, IV, 10. Cf. R. Meir's other sentence reported by R. Simon b. Eleazar in Aboth R. Nathan, XXIX, 44 a, on the same subject. 3 Si/re Deut., 42, Berakh., 35 b. 4 Mekhiltha on Exod. xvi. 4, p. 47 b, and on xiii. 17, p. 23 b. 5 Sifre Deut, 352 : citra .en q*y«» twnq 3fn nos }*oo .D'casa ,Vrn * -pi prw to xm rn om irpio trw aisi p'ix w*o rfn ^rapt ca *n»n iy: wdn qnyi nun Deut. xxxiii. n, 'Bless, O Lord, his substance/ with property; from here it has been inferred that most priests are rich. In the name of 'Abba Doresh, it was reported that Ps. xxxvii. 25, refers to Aaron's descendants. 70 TEE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF reference to such Aaronites : Every priest who eats his dues without being a scholar, will be no priest in the mes- sianic times. 1 And two scholars of Sepphoris of the third century confirm the general impeachment. One of them, himself a descendant of Aaron, R,. Jannai, said : On the grave of every priest who is no scholar, one may eat priestly dues. And E. Johanan, interpreting ' Her priests have violated my law and have profaned mine holy things ' (Ezek. xxii. 26), said : If a priest is no scholar, he does not know how to distinguish between holy and common things. 2 Jose of Ma* on near Tiberias of the third century preached in the synagogue of his place: G-od will once call the Aaronites to account and ask them why they did not devote themselves to the study of the Torah, since they were receiving the dues of the priests. 3 And R. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris deduced from the Bible the prohibition to give priestly dues to an ignorant priest, and R. Johanan added that he who gives them to such a man, causes his death. 4 4. Neither the wealthy landowners, nor the descendants of Aaron with a fair income, devoted, as a rule, their sons to the study of the Torah ; only poor young men joined the schools in Gralilee. Before the catastrophe in the year 135, several men of Galilee had studied for years and up to full manhood in Jamnia and Lydda ; but it is not reported whether it was their own means which had enabled them to devote themselves exclusively to study. Incidentally reference is made to the great poverty of two very able scholars at the school of Jamnia, Eleazar Hisma 1 Exod. rab., xxxviii. 3. In an anonymous statement in Si/re Num., 119, p. 39 b, it is said that a priest is like an angel of God (Mai. ii. 7), if Torah comes forth from his mouth, otherwise he is like a beast and cattle which do not know their master. The school of R. Eliezer b. Jacob in Sepphoris or Tiberias taught (Synh., 90 b) that he who gives dues to an ignorant priest, burdens him with the great sin involved in the improper handling of the priestly dues. 1 Tanhuma, nrrnn 1. The commentator emends amiri *mp bv binb -imn into Von 1 ? wb. 8 Jer. Synh., II, fin., 20 d, 2, Genes, rab., lxxx. 1. 4 Synh., 90 b. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 7 1 and Johanan b. Nuri, one a mathematician, the other an astronomer, and E. Joshua b. Hananya expected the head of the school, E. Gamaliel, to provide for them. 1 Again we hear of the support given to poor students by a wealthy scholar of priestly descent, E. Tarfon, through the inter- vention of E. 'Akiba, 2 of a collection of money by E. Eliezer, E. 'Akiba and E. Joshua for the students, 3 and of the constant support of the scholars by Theodos, a wealthy Jew in Eome. 4 Some of the young scholars in Judaea may have been maintained by their parents living in Galilee who were ready to make sacrifices for the religious study of their sons. The war of bar-Cochba, however, wrought a terrible change in this, and even the better situated, deprived by the war of support from home, had to give up studying and to look for some kind of living. Even those who, in spite of these changes, remained faithful to their study, in many cases required encourage- ment to persevere. So E. Simon b. Johai said to his disciples: When you see that the Torah is greatly neglected, keep to it all the more steadfastly, and you will receive the reward of all. 5 The teachers did their utmost to strengthen the wavering, of whom there were, no doubt, not few. E. Joshi'a and E. Matthia were study- ing together ; when E. Joshi'a decided to turn to business, E. Matthia told him : Why do you abandon the words of the living God and indulge in worldly affairs ? Although you are my teacher and I am your disciple, I still reproach you with this. 6 E. Simon b. Johai said : ' The crooked which cannot be made straight' (Eccl. i. 15) applies to 1 Homy., 10 a. b, Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 2nd edition, 368, 4. 2 Lev. rab., xxxiv. 16, Pesiktha rab., XXV, 126 b. 3 Jer. Horay., Ill, 7, 48 a, 44. 4 Jer. Pesah., VII, 1, 34 a, 59, b. 53 b, Vogelstein in Gratz Monatsschri/t, XLIX, 1905, 440. 5 Jer. Berakh., IX, 8, 14 d, 3. '' Aboth R. Nathan, I, 1 a ; about the chronological difficulties in the alleged relation between the two teachers, see Bacher, Tannaiten, I, 2nd edition, 380, 6. 72 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF a scholar who abandons the study of the Torah. 1 B,. Simon b. Gamalielll, the head of the central school in'Usha, said 2 : To a scholar who abandons the study of the Torah, Pro v. xxvii. 8 applies : ' Like a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.' An anonymous scholar brought very strong pressure to bear upon his disciples by telling them : A scholar who has studied Mishna and abandons it will have no share in the world to come, in accordance with Jer. ii. 5 : What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone from me ? 3 All these sayings referred to scholars of Galilee at large and to the first half of the second century. In Sepphoris there was in the second half of the second century a society called The Holy Congregation, the learned members of which divided their time between study of the Torah, prayers and work. One of their principles, as the patriarch R. Jehuda I in Sepphoris reported it, was : Learn a craft along with the Torah. 4 And one of their rules, quoted by E.. Johanan in Sepphoris, was : Make thy Sab- bath (in food and drink) a weekday and do not depend on other people. 5 The full independence at which they were aiming, could only be realized by adopting a regular 1 Hagiga, I, 7. 2 Kohel. rab., i. 15, 2 ; cf. Hagiga, 9 b, Tos. Hagiga, I, 8, where R. Jehuda b. Lakish is quoted as author, but probably was only the scholar who reported the statement of R. Simon b. Gamaliel, as elsewhere. 3 Aboth B. Nathan, XXXVI, 55 a, onma DTMm, It is possibly the same Baraitha as is quoted by R. Eleazar b. Pedath of Sepphoris in Kethub., nib: Scholars who give up studying will not share in the resurrection ; see also the Baraitha in Pesah., 49 b, that he who studies and gives it up, is the worst of all, and Si/re Deut, 343, p. 143 a bottom. * Kohel. rab., ix. 9 ; according to another tradition given there, they studied in winter and worked in summer. The seat of the society is not reported ; but it was undoubtedly Sepphoris, since R. Jehuda I and R. Johanan were in communication with its members, and since R. Jose b. Meshullam and R. Simon b. Menasya (Jer. Ma'aser sheni, II, 10, 53 d, 4, Kohel. rab., ix. 9), the heads of the society about the year 200, were members of the school of R. Jehuda I, which was in Sepphoris {Tos. Synh., XI, 8 ; jer., XI, 4, p. 30 a, 55 ; Aboth, VI, 8, Bacher, Tannaiten, II, 85, 7 ff.). 5 Pesah., 113 a. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 73 handicraft. On the same grounds the patriarch himself urged the necessity of a worldly occupation. He said : Of a man who has no occupation, people speak unfavourably and ask : Whence has this man his food ? * And before his times R. Jose b. Halaftha of Sepphoris quoted the same sentence of R. Gamaliel II, emphasizing the impor- tance of a handicraft which enables a man to be in all circumstances free from suspicion. 2 5. Yet most of the young scholars who joined the schools had no occupation ; and even if they had, yet to earn a living, as R. Jose b. Halaftha of Sepphoris put it, was twice as difficult as giving birth. 3 Without support it would have been impossible for those who came from other places to study. An anonymous statement reports that R. Meir gave a third of his small income, earned by copying scrolls of the Torah, to support poor scholars. 4 The patriarch R. Jehuda I, who was very wealthy, invited his disciples, as it seems, frequently to his house. 6 But the means of the scholars would scarcely have been sufficient to support the teachers and their disciples. The only possible way out of the difficulty would have been the offer of the wealthy Jews in Galilee to contribute to the maintenance of the students. As the demand was quite new to the people in Galilee, the mere fact of the starving of the scholars did not suggest to the wealthy to offer assistance ; it required a clear suggestion from 1 Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XXI, 22 b. 2 Tos. Kiddush., I, 11. The assembly of the scholars in 'Usha discussed the duty of a father to have his son trained for a handicraft (Kiddush,, 29 a), and K. Jehuda b. 'Il'ai, one of those scholars, said : He who teaches his son no handicraft, teaches him to become a highwayman. He and R. Meir discussed (Kiddush., IV, 14, b. 82 b) the kinds of arts and crafts which a father should preferably teach his son ; and bar-Kappara, who studied and preached in Sepphoris, also dealt with the question (Kiddush., 82 a). 8 Genes, rab., xcvii. 3. 4 Kohel. rab., ii. 18. 5 Lev. rab., xxxiii. 1 : When at a dinner given by Eabbi to his disciples some of them selected the softest of the tongues set before them, the patriarch made a remark on the disciples using their tongues about one another. See also 'Erub., 73 a, and Sabb., 66 b. 74 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF the rabbis. In fact, the preachers availed themselves of their opportunities in the synagogues and explained to the public not directly, but by way of interpretation of the Bible, the merit of supporting the scholars. R. Nehemia of the first half of the second century dealt with King Saul, whom the daughters of Israel mourned (2 Sam. i. 24), and interpreted the latter to mean the members of the Synedrion. "Whenever Saul observed a group of scholars he gave them to eat and to drink, and whenever he heard a learned saying from a scholar he expressed his appreciation. 1 It sounds as a suggestion offered to the patriarch of the time, R. Simon b. Gama- liel II, to treat the members of the central Beth-din in this way. But another statement by R. Simon b. Johai addresses itself clearly to everybody; he said: The main- tenance (of scholars) is a great thing, since it brings the resurrection of the dead before its time. The woman of Sareptha by feeding Elijah had her son revived ; the woman of Shunem by feeding 'Elisha' had her son revived. 2 R. Eliezer b. Jacob said: He who entertains a scholar in his house as guest and gives him a share of his wealth, has the same merit as if he brought the daily sacrifice. 3 And an anonymous Baraitha teaches that 2 Kings iv. 4a tells us that he who brings a present to a scholar has the same merit as he who offers up first- fruits. 4 And later on in Sepphoris we find R. Jehuda I stating : He who supports the scholars, God guards him to the thousandth generation. 5 And several decades later his disciple R. Johanan said in a sermon : The prophecies of salvation in the prophets refer to him who marries his daughter to a scholar, does business for a scholar and gives him a share of his wealth. 6 He who puts goods 1 Jer. Nedar., IX, fin., 41 c, 65; Midrash Samuel, xxv. I. As to the last point, compare the anonymous statement in Makk., 24 a : King Jehoshaphat when he saw a scholar, rose from his throne and embraced and kissed him and called him father and master. 2 Cant, rab., ii. 5, § 3. 3 Berakh., 10 b. 4 Kethub., 105 b. 5 Midrash Tanna'im on Deut. xv. 8, p. 82. 6 Berakh., 34 b. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 75 into the bag of (i. e. does business for) a scholar, will have a seat in the heavenly assembly. 1 And R. Eleazar b, Pedath in Sepphoris said : He who does not give to a scholar a share in his wealth will never see a sign of blessing. 2 Furthering the business transaction of a righteous man is as meritorious as observing the ten commandments. 3 6. But, it seems, the people of Sepphoris were little inclined to support the scholars. E. Hanina of Sepphoris spoke of the people ' narrow-hearted to scholars ' who will be punished for it in the future world. 4 And his friend in Sepphoris, R. Jonathan b. Eleazar, in accounting for the leprosy of some people by seven kinds of sins, men- tions narrow-heartedness as the last of them. 5 R. Joshua b. Levi, the friend of both these teachers of Sepphoris, said : Even the birds recognize the narrow-hearted ; anybody accepting anything from such a person trans- gresses a prohibition ; the heifer in Deut. xxi. 1 had to be brought only on account of the narrow-hearted. 6 Of course, all the three rabbis had only in mind the mean- ness of people to scholars. And it must be pointed out that it is expressly stated of women that they hated the scholars more than their husbands did. 7 In com- paring St. Jerome's remark that Jewish women in Palestine at the end of the fourth century^ in accordance with Jewish custom, gave of their own means to scholars, 8 we have to assume that this was the general attitude towards the rabbis in Judaea, and probably even in Galilee in the times of the church-father. It is true, 1 Pesah., 53 b. Similarly R. Simon b. Lakish in Sabb., 63 a : It is better to lend money to a needy man than to give him a donation ; but he affords even greater help who puts goods into his bag. 2 Synh., 92 a. 3 Genes, rab., lviii. 8 ; cf. Levit. rab., xxxiv. 13 ; Aboth R. Nathan, 2nd version, XIV, 17 b. * Baba bathra, 75 a. 5 'Arakhin, 16 a. 6 Sota, 38 b. 7 Baraitha in Pesah., 49 b. 9 Liber I, adv. Iovin., ch. xxv (II, 277) : Mulieribus quae iuxta morem Iudaicum magistris de sua substantia ministrabant. 76 THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF we find women in Tiberias regularly attending the lectures of R. Meir in a synagogue of Tiberias on Friday night 1 about the middle of the second century ; and in Sepphoris an old woman told R. Jose b. Halaftha, the colleague of R. Meir, that she used to go every morning to his synagogue. 2 Another regularly visited the syna- gogue of R. Johanan in the second half of the third century. 3 But these women may have belonged to the poorer class, whereas the wealthier women in their hatred against the scholars refused to contribute to the main- tenance of the students. And since the hospitality and the support expected by the teachers depended largely on the mistress of the house, the scholars must have felt their hatred very much. 7. To depend on the goodwill of such people must have been very painful to many of the scholars. Even those who contributed to the support of the schools gave their contribution without love or goodwill. A preacher of the end of the third century in Tiberias, R. Isaac, using Exod. xxxiii. 8, as a text, put the following words into the mouths of the Israelites in the wilderness against Moses : Look at his thigh, look at his legs, he eats and drinks at the expense of the Jews ; everything that he possesses comes from the Jews. 4 Obviously this is taken from the people's talk in the times of R. Isaac when men abused their teachers in those terms. Several teachers, there- fore, from the very beginning of the settlement of the schools in Galilee, opposed the depending on the hos- pitality of non-scholars. R. Jehuda b. 'IFai said : The prophet Elijah carried with him on his journeys even lamps and wicks, in order that he should not trouble anybody. 5 The school of R. Jannai introduced a prayer 1 Jer. Sota, I, 4, 16 d, 45, Levit.rab., ix. 9, Num. rab., ix. 20, Deut. rab., v. 15. 2 Yelammdenu in Yalkut, I, 871, Grunhut, onffrpb "WG V, 131 a. 3 Sota, 22 a. 4 Jer. Bikkur., Ill, 3, 65 c, 45, Exod. rab., li. 6, Kiddush., 33 b, Tanhuma, B. >TpE, 4, Bacher, Pal. Amor., II, 259, 8. 5 Cant, rab., ii. 5, § 3. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF SEPPHORIS 77 to be said every morning, including the sentence : Let us not depend upon the gift of men and give not our maintenance into the hands of men ; because what they give is little, and great is the shame felt on account of it. 1 E-. Eleazar b. Pedath in Sepphoris said : How does the scholar impress the ordinary man ? First he appears to him as a vessel of gold ; after he has spoken to him, he is like a vessel of silver ; when he has had any benefit from him, he appears to him like an earthenware vessel which, once broken, has no remedy. 2 R. Johanan and R,. Eleazar said : As soon as one has to depend on other people's assistance, his face changes like a worm. 3 Such were the feelings of the scholars towards the population of Galilee, caused by the repulsive and forbidding manner in which everbody and everything connected with the rabbis were received by the wealthy people of Sepphoris and the whole of Galilee. The trend of Jewish thought which the rabbis represented, taught and inculcated, was clearly foreign to the leaders and the wealthy men of Galilee, and the scholars had to suffer for the Torah which they represented. The main results of these lengthy investigations into the community of Sepphoris are the following. The Jews of this city in the second and third centuries were ruled by a number of wealthy and noble Jews, called for their power in the Hebrew sources the great ones and heads-, while, in their official capacity as representatives of the Jews before the Roman government, they were called Parnasim. They were members of the town council which consisted of Jews and non- Jews, and were as such responsible for the full collection of regular and extra- ordinary taxes and impositions. Of these heavy burdens, 1 Jer. Berakh., IV, 2, 7 d, 54. 2 Synh., 52 a. b. In Aboth E. Nathan, 2nd version, XXXI, 34 b, some variants read : if he eats and drinks with him, he is like an earthenware vessel. 3 Berakh., 6 b. 78 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LEADERS OF SEPPHORIS due to the Roman system of taxes, they shifted a part 011 shoulders too weak to carry them, and made the ordinary people feel their power and their position. But they themselves also felt severely the drain of the taxes. They were also the born judges of the Jews and, in basing their decisions on some non-rabbinic law or other and on the consideration of their own interests, were sometimes guilty of injustice and corruption. By whom they were appointed is not evident from the reports. In their private dealings, the wealtlry and the land- owning middle class were charged by the rabbis with violence, dishonesty and immorality and with promising but not paying charitable contributions. The leading and the land-owning class received the great number of scholars and disciples, who after the war of bar-Cochba settled in Galilee, with little sympathy. This soon grew into hatred -and contempt, owing to their persistent and justi- fied criticism of the official and private dealings of the wealthy part of the population. The latter not only refused to support the mostly poor scholars and students, but in return spread all kinds of slander about the teachers. There were in Sepphoris scholars whose con- duct afforded a basis for such generalizations and whose religious practice was not in agreement with their know- ledge of the Torah. The discussion of all these points affords a fairly clear insight into the life of all the sections of the Jewish population in Sepphoris and in the whole of Galilee in the second and third centuries. INDEX It. 'Abahu on conduct of scholars 52, 4 ; on dishonest dealings 45, 2 ; on Sabbath lamps and poverty 67, 1 ; on scoffs of mimes of Caesarea at the Sabbath 67. It. 'Abba on enjoying and honour- ing the Sabbath 67, 1. 'Abba Doresh on wealthy priests 69,5. B. 'Abba b. Kahana on dishonest dealings 45, 2. 'Aboth : 1 10 : 41, 2 ; 1 13 : 41, 2 ; II 10rl2,4; 1119:62,1; III 17: 62, 1 ; IV 5 : 62, 1 ; IV 7 : 23, 2 ; IV 10 : 69, 2 ; V 21 : 52, 3 ; VI 1 : 63, 5 ; VI 8 : 72, 4. 'Aboth E. Nathan: I i a : 71, 6; IX 21 a. b : 19, 1 ; XI 23 b : 19 2. 3 ; 41, 2 ; XI 24 a : 41, 2 ; XI 28 b : 41, 2; XVI 32 b : 57, 4 XXVI 41 b : 50, 2 ; XXVIII 43 b 69,l;XXIX44 a : 69, 2; 44 b : 50, 2 XXXVI 55 a : 65, 2 ; 72, 3 XXXVIII 58 a : 47, 2 ; XLI 66 a 59, 3. 'Aboth It. Nathan, 2nd version XIV 17 b : 75, 3 ; XXI 22 b : 73, 1 XXXI 34 a : 38, 1 ; XXXII 35 a 62, 1 ; XXXIV 38 b : 23, 2 ; XXXV 39 b : 47, 5 ; 43 a : 19, 1 ; 43, 2 ; 44 59, 2. Abraham imposed Angaria upon scholars 42, 4. 'Abshalom, 17. 'Abtalyon, a great of his genera- tion 10, 2. Addresses of scholars at a public fast in Sepphoris 53. 54 ; criticized 54, 1. Adultery 18, 1 ; 47, 1 ; 48, 2. Agada, Haggada, anthropomorph- isms 68, 1; exaggerations criti- cized 54, 1; liked by the people as consolation 67, 4. Agriculture interferes with study of the Torah 69. Agrippa II, his children or relatives in Sepphoris 17 ; 17, 1. It. 'Aha 12, 1. 'Ahitofel a non-observant scholar 63. It. 'Akiba blames haughty scholars 19 ; 19, 2 ; on early death of scholars 50, 2 ; 'Eshkol 14, 1 ; on intercourse with scholars 65, 2 ; intermediary in supporting scho- lars 71 ; on judges 27 ; Parnas 14, 1 ; principles in judging non-Jews 24, 2 ; on a scholar as head of a city 13, 2 ; 15, 3. e Akk6 34. K. Alexander on haughtiness 18, 1 ; study of Torah for its own sake 63. Alms of dishonest people 45, 2 ; not collected, but only promised in synagogue on Sabbath 37, 1. 'Amha'ares despises the Torah on account of non-observant scholars 61 ; brings punishment upon others 58 ; farmer 35, 3 ; good moral qualities 60 ; hates scholars 58 ; how impressed by scholars 77 ; intercourse 59 ; to be loved 57, 4 ; low character 59 ; his meals not to be attended by scholars 52 ; remedy for his sins support of scholars 58 ; refused support 58 ; in Sepphoris and Galilee 58 ; their wives hate scholars most 58. It. 'Ammi, decision in matters of taxes 40, 3 ; on dishonest dealings 45, 2. 'Amram, Moses' father, a great of his generation 9. Angaria done by scholars 42, 4. Annona 42, 3. anthropomorphism in popular Agada 68, 1. apostates to be hated 54, 1 ; 57, 4. 'Arab in Galilee, place of E. Ha- nina b. Dosa 62, 1. Archon 40, 1. arm, men of the arm = violent Jews, unsafe position 43, 2. 8o INDEX King 'Asa imposed Angaria upon scholars 42, 4. Ashkalon, Patroboule 8, 3. assembly of scholars in 'Usha fines for offending a scholar 56. B. Assi on the great men of the generation 10. autonomous Jewish courts 21 ff. ; 30, 3. □\-Q 'bjn landowners selfish 31 ; 38. B. Banna'a of Sepphoris, judge 31, 2, = Benaya, on study of Torah for its own sake 63. bar-Cochba war caused great poverty 67, 4 ; 71. bar-Kappara : see Eleazar haKap- par. bar-Levianus, noble family in Sep- phoris 8 ; 35, 4. bar-Lufiani of Sepphoris 34 ; 35, 4. bar- Selene, family of Tiberias 35, 4 ; 36, 3. bastards in Sepphoris 46. bath before Sabbath 67, 1. ben-Sisith haKeseth councillor of Jerusalem 8, 1. B. Berekhya, appeals for charity in the school of Tiberias 36, 3. B. Besal'el in Sepphoris on non- observant scholars 61. Beth-din, central body of rabbis, decrees a fast 10, 3 ; members entitled elders or great of the generation 10 ; members learned 64 ; deceased member not mourned by people 55. Beth-She'arim, seat of K. Jehuda I 22, 2. bloodshed 18, 1 ; 37, 2. bonds, paid, retained 38. Bonyas, foreign name of a wealthy Jew in Sepphoris 34 ; 35 ; 35, 4. Boule", Roman honorary office a heavy burden 39 ; 40, 3 ; duties connected with taxes 40, 3 ; 42. Bouleutes, of Jerusalem 8, 1 ; of Sepphoris 8 ; 16, 3 ; etiquette in Sepphoris 16, 3 ; of Sepphoris or Tiberias 40, 1 ; supports the poor 16. bribes accepted by Roman officials in Galilee 42. business of scholars before and after the year 135, 68 ; taken up by scholars 71 ; for scholars 74. 75. Caesarea, Jewish unworthy judges 29, 1 ; mimes scoffing at Sabbath observance, 67 : poverty of Jews 67. calumniators 57. calumny indicated by poverty 57, 4 ; sin 60. charity, appealed for on Sabbath in synagogues 36 ; not collected on Sabbath 36. 37 ; collectors praised 28 ; contributions to all kinds of charity 35 ; 36, 1 ; not paid at once 37; promised and not paid 37. chastity applies also to non-Jews 49, 1. Chilion, Khilion, a great of hia generation and Parnas 9, 3. civil court of rabbis 31, 1. collection of money for students of Jamnia 71. community, autonomous govern- ment, decisions 43, 1 ; dignitaries 9 ; community judged by God according to its majority 10. compromise, whether admissible 28, 1. conduct of scholars in the street, rules 52. confiscation of property by Roman officials 41, 2. 3 ; 42, 1 ; punish- ment for neglect of religious duties 38 ff. contempt for scholars 56. corn plucked out before ripe 67, 5. courts, Jewish autonomous 21 ; officials 25. croup indicates sin of calumny 57,4. crown money imposed upon Tiberias 39. culture pH -pi 59 ; acquired by in- tercourse with one scholar 64 ff. Dama b. Nethina, Patroboulos of Ashkalon, a non-Jew 8, 8. Daniel, a great of his generation 9, 3. Darom = Lydda, character of the Jews better than of those of Sep- phoris 54 ; R. Joshua b. Levi prayed for rain in, 53. David, a great of his generation 9, 3 ; 14, 3 ; Parnas of Israel 14 ; 14, 3. death of children punishment of unfounded hatred 57, 4 ; of neg- lect in mourning a scholar 55. denunciation 18, 1 ; 19, 1. INDEX 81 depending on other people for living 76. fDA Tn culture 59. Derekh 'eres : II : 19, 1 ; 43, 2 ; IV : 59,3; XI*: 57, 2. despiser of observant people 57 ; of God's word 68. dignity inherited 18. disciples worthy and unworthy 65. dishonest dealings denounced 45, 2, as great sin 45, 2 ; of scholars 61, 1. Doeg a non-observant scholar 63. dreams interpreted by scholars 48, 3. dropsy indicates sin of immorality 57, 4 drought, God's punishment 37, 2 ; in Sepphoris 53. earthquake punishment for neglect of mourning for a scholar 55. eclipse of sun punishment for neg- lect to mourn for a scholar 55. elders entitled great of the genera- tion 10, 3 ; precedence before the heads 13, 1 ; to observe the Torah 12. Eleazar the high priest a great of his generation 9. R. Eleazar b. 'Azarya on fear of sin of scholars 62, 1. Eleazar b. Harsom, high priest 34, 2 ; forced to do Angaria 42, 4. Eleazar Hisma, mathematician, very poor scholar in Jamnia 70 ff . R. Eleazar haKappar on failing to mourn for a pious man 54 ff. ; on preferable handicrafts 73, 2 ; on ignorant men 59 ; on worthy judges 23, 2 ; 26, 1 ; on lewdness 47 ; in Sepphoris 73, 2. R. Eleazar b. Parta in Sepphoris 7,4. R. Eleazar b. Pedath on Angaria done by scholars 42, 4 ; appeals for charity on Sabbath 36, 2 ; dependence on others makes blush 77 ; difficulty to earn a living 67 ; Jeremiah suspected of adultery 51 ; on unworthy judges 29, 1 ; neglect in giving alms 38, 2 ; non-observant people 59, 2 ; Parnas of charity 14 ; his prayers 56 ; scholars give up study 72, 3 ; scholars and 'Amha'ares 58. 77 ; non-observant scholars 63 ; sup- port of scholars 75. 77 ; scoffing at scholars 56, 1 ; on violent men 43, 2. R. Eleazar b. R. Simon denounces judges 25 ; his son immoral 47, 4 ; Roman official 22 ; 47, 4. 'Eli Parnas of Israel 14. R. Eliezer b. Hyrkanos denounces scholars 12, 4 ; Roman imposi- tions 40, 3. R. Eliezer b. Jacob appeals for charity in synagogue 36, 3 ; no intercourse with the ignorant 59, 2 ; support of scholars 74 ; his school on dues to ignorant priests 70, 1. R. Eliezer haKappar on refraining from judging 23, 2. R. Eliezer son of R. Jose the Gali- lean on scholars 10, 2; immor- ality of non-Jews 48, 3 ; com- promise of judges 28, 1. Elijah supported by the woman of Sareptha 74 ; teacher of 'Elisha' 65 ; avoided being supported 76. 'Elimelekh, a great of his city, 8, 1; 15, 4; of his generation 9, 3 ; Par- nas of his generation 9, 3 ; 15, 4. 'Elisha', intercourse with Elijah to acquire culture 64 ff. ; supported by the woman of Shunem 74. R. 'Elisha b. 'Abuya non-observant 62, 1 ; R. Meir his disciple 63, 5. empty ones of Galilee 35, 3. enmity on account of judgment 23, 2. 'En-T'ena, R. Simon of, 7, 2. epicurean criticizes R. Johanan's Haggadah in Sepphoris 54, 1 ; criticize Moses 50, 1. equity in judgment 32, 2. Esau, adulterer 48, 3. 'Eshkol, title of scholars 12, 4; 14, 1. evil spirit = temptation, resisted by study 51, 7. executions of Jews by Roman officials 41, 2. 3. faith, poor 59, 2. famine in Sepphoris 58 ; in Tiberias 67, 4. farmers in Galilee, wealthy 68. fast of leaders of the community 10, 3 ; in Sepphoris for rain 53 ; R. Hanina and R. Joshua b. Levi address the congregation at a public fast 53. father, title of scholar 74, 1. F 82 INDEX fear of God and of sin not prevail- ing in some scholars 62 ; 62, 1. fine, for offending a scholar 56 ; im- posed by Roman officials without reason 41. flattering denounced 26. flight from Roman honorary offices 39 ff. food scarce in Galilee 67. Friday night sermon in a synagogue of Tiberias 76. Galilee, the great men of, 8 ; know- ledge of Rabbinical law 31; organi- zation of communities 7 ; priests ignorant 70, and violent 27 ; scholars and disciples non-obser- vant 62 ff. ; students in Judaean schools before the year 135 70. R. Gamaliel b. Hanina in Sepphoris 41,3. R. Gamaliel II of Jamnia head of the school 71 ; emphasizes handi- craft for living 73 ; Parnas of his generation 14 ff. garments in honour of Sabbath 66. Gnostics in Sepphoris 18, 1. God, name desecrated by immoral scholars 51. 52 ; weeps over poor scholars 68. Gospel to the Hebrews on famine 67, 4. great men (D^Tun), of Jerusalem 8 ; of Sepphoris 7 ; blamed as poison 12 ff. ; fail to consult the people 11,2; neglect duties 11, 3 ; non-observant 12 ; rela- tions to people of Sepphoris 11; reproached by teachers 11 ; re- sponsibilities 11, 3. 5; suffer voluntarily with their people 12, 1 ; great men of the city = 84tea irpuiToi 8, non-Jews meet at the house of a non-Jewish lady 8, 2 ; representatives in matter of taxes 8, 3. Great of the country in Sep- phoris 8. Great of the generation, civil leaders 9 ; insolence to 9, 2 ; intermarry with people of doubt- ful descent 9, 2 ; 18, 1 ; members of Beth-din 10; no scholars 9. 18 ; title given to biblical persons 9, to officials of the Temple 10; non- Jewish 9. Great of Israel, respon- sible for their nation 14 ; 14, 4 ; title given to David and Moses 14, 3, to scholars 10, 2. Great of the Torah, scholars 10, 2. Greek writers on Sabbath obser- vance 66. grudging 18, 1. Hadrianic persecutions 68. haircutting, frequent in Sepphoris and Tiberias 17, 1. R. Hama b. Hanina on haughtiness 18, 1. handicraft, necessary for living 73 ; along with study 72 ; principle of the Holy Congregation in Sep- phoris 72 ; preferable crafts 73, 2. R. Hanina b. Dosa, fear of sin and religious observance of scholars 62, 1. R. Hanina b. Hama, of Sepphoris 17 ; native of Sepphoris 53 ; blamed by the people of the town 10. 53 ; on adultery 48, 2 ; bestiality in Sepphoris 48, 3 ; blames elders 13, 1 ; blames haughty leaders 17 ff., and scholars 19, 3 ; blames people of Sepphoris for immor- ality 53 ; on chastity of non-Jews, 49, 1 ; defended before the accus- ing people of Sepphoris by R. Joshua b. Levi 10. 53 ; on gar- ments in honour of Sabbath 66 ; on the great of the generation 9, 3 ; 14, 3 ; immorality in Sep- phoris 46. 51 ; insists on being honoured 56, 4 ; marriage of scholars before studying 52 ; nar- row-heartedness to scholars 75 ; he a pupil of R. Jehuda I, 53, who refused him ordination 53, 2 ; on offensive names 48, 2 ; pa- triarch's ships, 35, 2 ; on putting to shame 48, 2 ; on Roman con- fiscations and impositions 41, 3 ; robbery and violence 44 ff. R. Hanina b. 'Idi blames haughty scholars 19, 3. R. Hanina b. Papa on leaders 9, 4 ; unworthy disciples 65. hatred of scholars 57 ff. haughtiness and haughty 17 ff. ; denounced 17. 18. 38 ; indicated by poverty 57, 4 ; of scholars 19 ; in Sepphoris 18 ; 43, 2. heads (d^ni) of community 13. heifer in Deut. xxi brought on ac- count of narrow-hearted men 75. R. Helbo 16, 2. hell, predicted to men of lust 52, 5 ; to men speaking evil of deceased INDEX 83 scholars 55 ; to unworthy scholars 61,3. Hillel, Parnas 14, 1 ; on increasing one's name 41, 2. R. Hillel b. Aulus of Sepphoris 35, 1. R. Hiyya of Sepphoris on judges 26, 5 ; on non- Jewish civil law 24 ; non-observant scholars 61. R. Hiyya b. 'Abba appealed for charity in the school of Tiberias 36, 3. Holy Congregation in Sepphoris 48, 2 ; 72, 4 ; on work and im- portance of handicraft 72. R. Hosha'ya on great men 11, 3. 6 ; experience with Jewish judges in Caesarea 29, 1 ; on non-Jewish civil law 24. humiliation, self-, on fasts 54 ; of a scholar in repentance 59. humility, everyday prayer for, 52 ; required of scholars 19. 60. idolatry 37, 2 ; 45, 2. ignorant, see 'Amha'ares. immorality, great sin 51 ; indicated by dropsy 57, 4 ; in Sepphoris 46, 47. 53. incest in Sepphoris 48, 3. informers 47. injustice of judges 25. 26. insolent people 9, 2 ; 19, 1 ; 43, 2 ; 47, 4 ; to scholars 56. intercourse with a scholar impor- tant for religious practice and culture 64 ff. interest on money 3? ; 44, 2. R. Isaac of Tiberias on confisca- tions 44, 3 ; grudging support of scholars 76 ; prevailing poverty 67, 4. 5 ; honouring and enjoying Sabbath 67, 1. R. Isaac b. Joseph on taxes 39, 2. R. Isaac b. Maryon on insolence to scholars 9, 2 ; 56. Ishmael, Abraham's son, adulterer 48, 3. R. Ishmael b. 'Elisha' judges by non-Jewish law 24 ; his school on immoral scholars 51 ; early mar- riage of scholars 52, 3. R. Ishmael b. R. Johanan on ob- serving scholars 62. R. Ishmael b. R. Jose, duties of judges 23, 2; 25 ; interprets dreams 48, 3; he a judge 22; 25, 1; judges by non-Jewish law 23 ff. ; very particular 22 ; on lewdness 47 ; he a member of the school of R. Jehuda I, 23, 1 ; Roman official 22. 23 ; scholar 23 ; son of R. Jose b. Halaftha 23; on a rich man of Sepphoris 34, and the rich men of Galilee 35, 3. 'Isi b. Jehuda on early death of scholars 50. R. Jacob on importance of inter- course with scholars 65 ; on judges 27, 1. R. Jacob b. 'Aha, a great of his generation 10. Jamnia, Galilean students in its school 70 ff. ; haughty scholars 19 ; poor scholars 68 ; 70 ff. ; school transferred to 'Usha 5. 22. 31. R. Jannai of Sepphoris, blames haughty scholars 19, 3, and ig- norant priests 70 ; treats haugh- tily an 'Amha'ares 60 ; on impor- tance of intercourse with scholars 65 ; he a priest 70 ; on scholars without fear of God 62 ; his school on immoral scholars 51 ; its prayer for independence of grudging people 76 ff., for humility and to be saved from shameful actions 52. jaundice indicates unfounded hat- red 57, 4. Jehoiakim, King, pictured a Roman emperor 41, 3. Jehoshaphat, King, honoured scho- lars 74, 1. R. Jehuda I the patriarch on 'Amha'ares 58ff.; in beth- She'arim 22, 2 ; on Hosea 2, 7 : 61 ; Holy Congregation of Sepphoris 72 ; appoints a judge for Simonia 30, 4 ; judgment on alimony of a woman 22, 2 ; on merit of sup- porting scholars 74 ; necessity of a worldly occupation 73 ; opens his stores to all learned in a famine 58 ff. ; his scholars invited to meals 73 ; his school in Sep- phoris 72, 4 ; on study of Torah for its own sake 63, 5; wealthy 35. R. Jehuda b. Baba not mourned duly 55, 3. R. Jehuda b. Hanina on fine for offending a scholar 56, 4. Jehuda, son of R. Hiyya on heal- ing and slaying power of Torah 63 ff. R. Jehuda b. 'Il'ai, blames judges F 2 8 4 INDEX 26 ff. ; 26. 5 ; on leaders 12 ; on difference between past and pre- sent in study and worldly occupa- tion 68 ; ignorant priests 69 ff. ; he studies in Jamnia and Lydda 68 ; on marriage of scholars 52 , 3 ; necessity of handicraft for living 73, 2 ; against scholars de- pending on support of others 76 ; in 'Usha 10, 2 ; 68. B. Jehuda b. Lakish, on scholars who give up study 72, 2. K. Jehuda b. Shammu'a, interven- tion for the Jews in the Hadrianic persecutions 8, 2. B. Jehuda b. Simon on public fasts 10, 3. B. Jeremiah on bath before Sab- bath 67, 1. Jerome on scholars supported by Jewish women 75. Jerusalem, councillors 8 ; 40, 1 ; destroyed for unfounded hatred 57, 4 ; the great of the city 8, 1, and of the generation 10, 1 ; judges unworthy 29, 1 ; judgment by the law of Torah 32, 2 ; men of J. in Sepphoris 48, 2. B. Johanan, his Agada criticized 54, 1 j on 'Amha'ares 58 ; advice to escape from Boule - 39 ; con- duct of scholars 52, 4 ; confisca- tions by Roman officials 40, 1 ; contributions to charity promised and not paid 37 ; dependence on others makes blush 77 ; disciples unworthy 65 ; dishonest dealing 45; famine in Tiberias 67, 4; the great and the people 11, 4 ; honour not paid to deceased scholars 55 ; ignorant priests 70 ; independence of support, a principle of the Holy Congregation in Sepphoris 72 ; R. Ishmael b. R. Jose as judge 22, 2 ; Joshua as leader 16, 4 ; judges in Jerusalem 32, 2 ; judges unjust 28, unworthy 29, 1 ; 61, 1; merit of supporting scholars 74 ; morality of youths 47, 5 ; Parnas 15, 1 ; preparations for Sabbath 67, 1 ; he preached in the great Synagogue of Sepphoris 54, 1; public affairs on Sabbath 36, 2 ; robbery 45 ; Roman officials bribed 42, 2 ; scholars scorned at 56, 1 ; non-observant 62 ; study for its own sake 63 ; his syna- gogue attended by women 76 ; violation of women by non- Jews 48,3. B. Johanan b. Nuri, a poor scholar in Jamnia 71. B. Johanan b. Zakkai, Parnas 14, 1 ; Roman impositions and taxes 41, 3 ; 42, 3. B. Jonathan of beth-Gubrin calls scholars the great of Israel 10, 2. B. Jonathan b. Eleazar of Sepphoris on 'Amha'ares 35, 3 ; early mar- riage of scholars 52 ; the great men and the people 11, 2 ; haughty leaders 18, 1 ; 19, 1 ; ignorant priests unworthy of dues 70 ; unworthy judges 28 ; narrow- hearted people 75 ; public affairs on Sabbath 36, 2 ; scholars sus- pected of immorality 50 ff., with- out fear of God 62 ; Torah rejoices or burns scholars 64. B. Jose b. 'Elisha' on judges 26. B. Jose b. Halaftha of Sepphoris 4. 49 ; his institutions against im- morality in Sepphoris 46 ff. ; de- fends R. Meir against the criticism of people of Sepphoris 57; as judge 32 ; on calumniators 57 ; the diffi- culty of earning a living 73 ; false prophets 57; frequent hair-cutting of nobles in Sepphoris and Tiberias 17, 1 ; hatred against scholars 57 ; haughty scholars 19, 3 ; he and R. Jacob 27, 1 ; necessity of handi- craft for living 73 ; population and scholars 57 ; a woman visiting daily his synagogue 76. B. Jos§ b. Hanina on scholars who study by themselves 65. B. Jose b. Saul probably identical with R. Jose b. 'Elisha' 26, 2. Jose of Ma'on on ignorant priests 70. B. Jos§ b. Meshullam in Sepphoris head of the Holy Congregation 72,4. Josephus, Vita 13. 33. 57. 68 ; Wars II 21, 9 : 8, 4 ; Antiquit. XX 8, 8 ; 9, 2 : 27, 2. B. Joshi'a blamed for giving up study 71. Joshua, a great of the generation 9 ; leader 36, 4 ; Parnas of the com- munity 14, 1 ; Parnas of Israel 14 ; not properly mourned 55. B. Joshua b. Hananya calls R. Gamaliel II Parnas of the genera- tion 14 ff. ; on poor scholars in Jamnia 71 ; on princes 17, 1. INDEX 85 K. Joshua b. Karha on judges 28, 1. R. Joshua b. Levi, great of the gene- ration 10; on leaders 11, 5 ; 13, 1; defends R. Hanina before the people of Sepphoris 10 ; on adul- tery and immorality 48, 2 ; criti- cizing deceased scholars 55 ; diffi- culty of earning aliving 67; honour not paid to deceased scholars 55 ; narrow-hearted people 75 ; when invited to pray for rain, he ad- dressed at a public fast the people of Sepphoris 53. 54 ; on promising and not paying contributions to charity 37, 2 ; Roman unscrupu- lous officials 41, 3 ; Torah healing or killing the student 64. Jubilees, book of, on Sabbath meals 66,1. Judges, Aaronites extort dues 27 ; appointed by some authority 30 ff., on unworthy considera- tions 30, 1, by patriarchs 30 ff. ; corrupt 26, 3 ; decisions based on non-Rabbinical law 21 ff. 23. 24 ; depend on their officials 26. 28 ; duties 25. 28 ; force their business upon people 27 ; gifts accepted 25 ; in Jerusalem they made parties work 29, 1 ; ignorant 25 ff. ; in- justice 25. 29 ft; leaders 12, 3; nobles 21; no scholars 21 ; officials of judges 26. 28 ; one judge judges 23, 2 ; payment accepted for judg- ing 32, 3 ; power 31 ; private dealings 27 ff. 29 ; to be punished by God 28 ; they are in Roman service 22 ; unworthy judges 61, 1, in Caesarea 29, 1 ; wealthy 27 ; scholars as judges, limited power 31, 1 ; imprisoned by Roman official 31, 2. judgment in the market 23 ; advice to refrain from judgment 23, 2. Julius Africanus 30, 4. justice, civil, Jews deprived by Romans of, 24, 1 ; justice and peace compatible 28, 1 ; justice required of scholars 19, 3. Kabul in Galilee, the great men of, 7,3. kidnapping in Sepphoris 47, 1. landowners, apportion public bur- dens unjustly 38. 42 ; denounce disobedient Jews to the Govern- ment 43 ; denounced for selfish- ness 38 ; executed or fined by Ro- mans 41, 2. 3 ; heavily taxed 39 ; important part of population 35, 3 ; pillars of Roman government 43, 1 ; property confiscated 38 ; 41, 2 ; responsible for taxes 39. 42. language changed 47. law, applied in court of Sepphoris non-Rabbinical 23. 24 ; civil law of Torah 32 ; scholars know non- Jewish law 24, 1. 2. 3. leaders, see great, heads, judges, Parnas ; denounced by scholars 43 ; of doubtful descent 18, 1 ; haughty 17 ff. ; impose public work upon scholars 42, 4 ; sepa- rate in distress from the people 12, 1 ; violent 43. learned addresses of rabbis not liked in times of distress 67, 4. leprosy, punishment for moral failings 18, 1 ; 19, 1 ; for narrow- heartedness 75. R. Levi 9, 5 ; 10 ; 13, 1. lewdness in Sepphoris 47. light and lamps, none on Sabbath 67. living to earn, very difficult 67. 73. love of everybody demanded 57, 4. Lydda, Galilean students 68. 70; haughty scholars 19; poor scholars 68. Mahlon, a great and Parnas of the generation 9, 3. R. Mana of Sepphoris on Roman fines 41, 3. market, place of judging 23. marriage, age at and duty to study 52, 3 ; early marriage recom- mended to scholars 52 ; marriage feast in Sepphoris 34. master, rabbi, title of scholars 74, 1. Matthew 6, 2 : 37, 1. R. Matthia gives up study for business 71. meals in honour of Sabbath 66. meanness to scholars 75. meat prohibited to 'Amha'ares 58. R. Meir, on business and study 69 ; character 57 ; copyist 73 ; with R. Jacob 27, 1 ; on judges 26 ff. ; poor 73 ; preached every Friday night in a synagogue in Tiberias 76 ; preferable handicrafts 73, 2 ; princes 17, 2 ; slighted by people of Sepphoris 57 ; supported scho- lars 73 ; on study of Torah for its 86 INDEX own sake 63 ; 65, 2 ; on unchastity 46, 2 ; on violent men 44. Mekhiltha 2 a : 14, 3 ; 5 a : 47, 4 ; 23 b : 69, 4 ; 36 a : 17, 1 ; 47 b : 69, 4 ; 54 b : 12, 1 ; 61 b : 42, 3 ; 66 b : 14, 4 ; 98 b : 43,3; 100 a : 27,4. Mekhiltha R. Simon 83 : 12, 1 ; 90 : 28, 1 ; 152, 26 : 44, 2. Messiah 17. 25. Midrash Genesis rabba 8, 8 : 11, 2 ; 13, 9 : 43, 2 ; 20, 9 : 67, 3 ; 20, 10 : 67, 5 ; 26, 5 : 12, 3 ; 46, 5 ; 47, 3 ; 31, 5 : 44, 5 ; 32, 10 : 35, 3 ; 42, 1 : 8, 1 ; 58, 8 : 75, 3 ; 65, 1 : 42, 1 ; 76, 6 : 40, 1 ; 78, 12 : 41, 3 ; 80, 1 : 70, 3 ; 81, 2 : 30, 4 ; 97, 3 : 73, 3 ; 100, 7 : 57, 1. Midrash Exodus rabba 31, 11 : 44, 3 ; 38, 3 : 70, 1 ; 51, 6 : 76, 4. Midrash Leviticus rabba 3, 1 : 44, 3 ; 45, 2 ; 7, 3 : 17, 2 ; 9, 3 : 60, 1 ; 9, 9 : 76, 1 ; 16, 5 : 37, 2 ; 17, 5: 10,2; 18,4: 11,6; 19,6: 41, 3 ; 20, 3 : 7, 3 ; 22, 6 : 45, 2 ; 23, 9 : 46, 5 ; 30, 7 : 8, 3 ; 10, 3 ; 32, 5: 47, 4 ; 32, 7 : 36, 3 ; 46, 4; 33, 1 : 73, 5 ; 33, 3 : 45, 1 ; 34, 12 : 41, 3 ; 34, 13 : 38, 2 ; 75, 3 ; 34, 16 : 71, 2 ; 35, 7 : 61, 3 ; 62, 4. Midrash Numeri rabba 7, 9 : 47, 2 ; 9, 20 : 76, 1 ; 17, 5 : 42, 3 ; 18, 17 : 63, 3 ; 23, 1 : 7, 4. Midrash Deut. rabba 1, 10 : 11, 3. 5 ; 2, 19 : 11, 7 ; 61, 1 ; 3, 6 : 35, 3 ; 5, 15 : 76, 1 ; 7, 4 : 61, 2 ; 8, 6 : 19, 3. Midrash Cant, rabba 2, 5, 3 : 10, 2 ; 74, 2 ; 76, 5 ; 3, 4 : 41, 1 ; 4, 2 : 35, 3; 4, 4: 35, 3; 4, 11: 63, 2; 4, 12: 47, 4 ; 6, 5 : 10, 3 ; editio Griinhut 3 a : 42, 2. Midrash Kuth rabba, Prooem. 6 : 11, 4; 1, 1, 2: 61, 1 ; 1, 1, 4: 8, 1 ; 15, 4 ; 16, 1 ; 3, 3 : 66, 3. Midrash Threni rabba 1, 1, 14 : 48, 3 ; 1, 5 : 8, 1 ; 1, 6 : 10, 1 ; 2, 2: 40, 1; 3, 5: 67, 2; 3, 17: 67,1. Midrash Kohel. rabba 1, 7, 9 : 23, 1 ; 1, 13 : 45, 1 ; 1, 15, 2 : 48, 2 ; 72, 2 ; 2, 17 : 29, 1 ; 2, 18 : 73, 4 ; 3, 2, 3 : 7, 2 ; 5, 5 : 37, 2 ; 5, 12 : 41, 3 ; 7, 11 : 8, 1 ; 9, 9 : 72, 4 ; 9, 16 : 29, 1 ; 62, 5 ; 9, 18, 2 : 9, 2 ; 56,3. Midrash 'Esther rabba 1, 5 : 9, 4 ; 2, 4, 3 : 34, 1 ; 35, 4. Midrash Samuel 14, 9 : 45. 2 ; 23, 7 : 55, 2 ; 25, 1 : 74, 1. Midrash Psalms 5, 1 : 19, 3 ; 125, 5 : 51, 3. Midrash Pesiktha 83 b : 47, 4 ; 88 a : 10 ; 95 b : 44, 3 ; 97 a : 47, 4 ; 101 b : 67, 4 ; 123 a : 29, 1 ; 136 a : 10 ; 136 b : 54, 1 ; 182 b : 8, 3 ; 183 a : 10, 3. Midrash Pesiktha rab. XII 50 b : 12, 1 ; XXIII 115 b : 66, 3 ; XXV 126 b : 71, 2; XLIV 183 a : 42, 1. Midrash Tanhuma dtobido 6 : 21, 1 ; iTOTin 1 : 70, 2 ; -nnx 22 : 8, 3 ; nto 15 : 42, 3 ; >?do 1 : 7, 4 ; mo 10 : 44, 3 ; editio Buber, -\b i«j 10 : 40, 3 ; *m 14 : 47, 3 ; »TpB 4 : 76, 4 ; jrnsn 8 : 19, 1 ; tim 6 : 44, 3. Midrash Tanna'im ed. Hoffmann 8 : 12, 3 ; 9 : 30, 1 ; 82 : 74, 5 ; 96 : 21, 1 ; 97 : 28, 1. M. YalkutMekhiri¥37,114 b : 38,1. Midrash Yelammdenu 42, 3 ; 76, 2. mimes in Caesarea scoffing at the poverty and observance of Sab- bath of the Jews 67. Min in Sepphoris 54, 1 ; Minim to be hated 57, 4. miscarriage, punishment for un- founded hatred 57, 4. Mishna Berakh. 12: 17, 1 ; Sabb. VI 9 : 17, 1 ; XIV 4 : 17, 2 ; Ha- giga I 7 : 48, 2 ; 72, 1 ; Ta'anith II : 54, 1 ; Kethub. I 10 : 47, 1 ; Kiddush. 1 10 : 59, 2 ; IV 14 : 73, 2 ; Baba bathra VI 7 : 25, 2 ; IX 4 : 40, 3 ; Makkoth III 15 : 44, 4 ; 48, 1 ; Bekhor. IV 6 : 32, 3. modesty required of scholars 19, 3. money, lenders on interest 38 ; 44, 2, scholars 61, 1; lovers of money 44, 2 ; money scarce 67. Moses criticized by epicureans 50, 1 ; grudged by Israelites 76 ; Par- nas of Israel 14 ; 14,3; suspected of adultery 50 ff. mourning, for scholars neglected 55 ; on Sabbath in Sepphoris 57. B. Nahman b. Samuel member of Boul\s 40, 3. Nakdimon b. Goryon, Bouleutes and leader in Jerusalem 8, 1. names, calling offensive n. 48, 2 ; change of n. 47. 48 ; foreign n. of nobles 35, 4. narrow-hearted to scholars in Sep- phoris 75 ; their support to be refused 75. INDEX 8 7 B. Nathan on judges 27 ff. ; wealthy who do not study 68, 2. B. Nehemia, and R. Jacob 27, 1 ; on merit of supporting scholars 74 ; unfounded hatred 57, 4. B. Wehoraiof Sepphoris on wealthy who do not study Torah 68. nobles,foreign names 35,4 ; haughty to scholars 17 ff. ; put to shame 43,2. non- Jewish, lady's intercession for Jews in Hadrianic persecutions 8, 2 ; women tempting scholars 51 ; non-Jews hate the Jews 58 ; immoral 48 ; 49, 1 ; and scholars 48,3. non- observant, men in Sepphoris 59, 2 ; leaders 12 ; scholars 61 ff. ; non-observance denounced 57. oath, false, denounced 18, 1 ; 23, 2. Origen on power of Jewish pa- triarch 30, 4. overbearing, see haughty. Parnas, councillor of city 16 ; de- fends his people 14, 3 ; haughty, God weeps over such 68 ; mean- ing and position 14 ; the patri- arch 15, 2 ; P. and people 15, 2 ; title of scholars 14, 1 ; Parnasim from Moses to Messianic times 14, 1 ; Parnas of community 14, 1 ; descent 18, 1 ; overbearing 18, 1. P. of the generation 9, 3 ; ex- pected to assist the people in famine 15 ff. ; not connected with charity institutions 13, but poli- tical affairs 15 ; wealthy 15 ff. P. of Israel, dignity hereditary 15 ; title given to Moses, Joshua, 'Eli, David 14. Patriarch, appoints judges 30. 30,3 ; court reception 16 ; Parnas 15, 2 ; official representative of Jews in Sepphoris 16; position hereditary 18 ff., and in Origen's account 30, 4 ; strictures on him for ap- pointing unworthy judges 30 ff. ; seats of sons in school 15, 1 ; Patriarch Gamaliel II, official position 15 ff. ; Parnas of the generation 14 ff. ; Simon b. Gama- liel II Parnas of the community 15, 1 ; Jehuda I appoints judges 30 ; decides disputes about taxes in Tiberias 39 ; in Sepphoris 40, 3 ; great of the generation 10 ; honoured wealthy men 34 ; judge 23 ; on immoral life 47, 4 ; Par- nas 16 ; rich 35 ; his scholars 47 ; supports scholars in famine 15 ff. ; his ships 35, 2 ; Jehuda II ap- points unworthy judges 30 ; dig- nity hereditary 15 ; neglect of duty 11 ; Parnas 15 ; Roman officials vex him 41, 3 ; sided with wealthy men 11 ff. peace making great merit 60 ; peace brought about by judgment 28, 1 ; by study for its own sake 63. peasants of Galilee 35, 3. perfume prohibited to scholars 52. Persius Flaccus on Sabbath meals 66,2. pestilence in Sepphoris 46. 53. Philo on handling money on Sab- bath, 37, 1. B. Pinhas b. Ja'ir denounces vio- lent men 43, 2. pious men go down after the year 70 : 43, 2. plague in Sepphoris 46. 53. Plutarch on Sabbath meals 66, 2. politeuomenos, Roman official, a Jew 40, 3. poor, bear public burdens 38. 42 ; cannot study 68 ff. ; only poor study 70 ff. population of Galilee, sections 35,3. bn-v&> wid 35, 3. poverty 66 ; caused by bar-Cochba war 67, 4 ; by Roman impositions 41, 3 ; indicates haughtiness 57, 4 ; influence on subjects of ser- mons 67, 4, on Sabbath obser- vance 66 ; prevents study 69 ; scholars and students 67 ff. practice of religious law, is the aim of its study 62 ; acquired by intercourse with one scholar 64 ; its healing power 63, 4 ; neglected by scholars 61 ff., and contra- dicting their teachings 62. prayer, every day for a humble mind, to be saved from desecra- tion of God's name and from shame 52 ; for independence of grudging supporters 77; to be saved from hatred and envy 56. preaching, subjects vary 67, 4. priests, dues given to ignorant p. 69. 70 ; denounced by rabbis 70 ; take dues not due to them 27, 2 ; landowners 27 ; numerous in Galilee 27 ; do not study Torah 88 INDEX 69 ff. ; scholarly p. praised 70, 1 ; wealthy 69. princes in Sepphoris, their private life 17, 1 ; "in the Halakha 17, 1.2. property in constant danger from Roman officials 41. prophets, false, denounced by R. Jose 57. public work imposed upon scholars 42,4. punishment by God due to 'Amha- 'ares 58. quarrel in the house a punishment for unfounded hatred 57, 4. Raba on Angaria imposed upon scholars 42, 4. Rabbinical law, civil, not known in Galilee and opposed 31. 32. rabbis see scholars. Rabh in Sepphoris 17, 2 ; 38, 1 ; on adultery 48, 2 ; on violation of a girl in Sepphoris 47, 1. Rami b. 'Abba on an incident in Sepphoris 47, 1. results of essay 77 ff. resurrection, denied to 'Amha'ares 58, to scholars who give up study 72 ; hastened by support- ing scholars 74. R. Re'uben b. 'Istrobulos on mora- lity of single men 47, 5. robbers and violent men = leaders 43 ff. ; disqualified for judges and witnesses 44 ; robbery by judg- ment 23, 2 ; of scholars 61, 1. Roman, centurio for tax collecting 42, 3 ; confiscations of property 38. 41 ; courts 25, 1 ; 28, 1 ; 42, 1 ; decurio 40, 3 ; epitropoi rob 42, 1, and distribute alms 44, 3 ; executions and confiscations 41, 2 ; fines 41 ; 41, 3 ; honours a burden 39ff.40 ; impositions 11 ff., distributed by Jewish leaders unjustly 38 ; not prevented 38 ; Jews deprived of autonomous justice 24, 1 ; Jewish justice re- stored 30, 3 ; Jewish Roman judges appointed by non-Jews 22 ; rabbis judges 31, 2 ; Roman jus- tice a sham 41 ff. ; Roman offi- cials accept bribes 42 ; Jews 22, appointed to be taxed 40, 1 ; politeuomenos 40, 3 ; R. Eleazar b. R. Simon and R. Ishmael b. R. Jose 22 ; 47, 4 ; patriarch's property taken away 41, 3 ; Ro- man rule, hardships 41 ; 67, 4 ; threats in letters to the great men 7, 4 ; served and supported by Jews 43, 1 ; stores in Palestine 42, 3 ; Roman writers on Sabbath observance 66. wi, D^fcO political heads, charged with cruelty 12 ff . ; of a town 13, 2. royal family in Sepphoris 16 ff. Sabbath, appeals, no collections for charity made in synagogues on Sabbath 36 ff. ; honoured by special garments, light and meals 66 ; to make in this respect S. a weekday and not depend on others 72 ; mourning on S. in Sepphoris 57, 1 ; poverty and S. observance 66 ff. ; scoffs of mimes at S. in Caesarea 67. Sadducees in Galilee 32. Samaritans 35, 3 ; 42, 3. Samuel deeply mourned 55 ; his sons as judges 26. 28 ff. R. Samuel b. Isaac, great of the generation 10, 2. R. Samuel b. Nahman on the great men 11, 7 ; on violent men 43, 2. sanctification of God's name 24, 2. D'-nn leaders 13, 1. Saul,King, honoured and supported scholars 74. scholars, admit mistakes towards 'Amha'ares 60 ; ambition 64 ; 'Amha'ares abused, exaggerations 58 ; he to support scholars as a- tonement 58 ; s. appointed judges by patriarch 30, 4 ; blamed 12, 4 ; business to be done for s. 74 ; conduct in street, rules 52 ; contempt for s. in Sepphoris 58 ; criticized, reason 61, even after death 55 ; degrees 64 ; de- nounce dishonesty, immorality, 44-47 ; dependence for living felt hard 77 ; descendants of s. immoral 47, 4 ; deserve hell 61, 3 ; die young 50 ; dishonest dealings 61, 1 ; dreams interpreted by s. 48, 3; dress neat 60; 'Eshkol, title 12, 4 ; 14, 1 : no fear of God 62 ; give up study in poverty 68, for business 71. 72 ; blamed for it 72 ; harsh to 'Amha'ares 59 ff.; hated by and hate 'Amha'ares 58 ; INDEX 89 hated by leaders 33. 56 ; haughti- ness 19. 59 ; honoured by people 60 ; immoral 51 ; impression on ' Amha'ares 77 ; insolence to s. 9, 2 ; intercourse with other scholars neglected 65 ; invited to meals 60; judges 21; 23, 2 ; 31, 1; limit- ed power 31, 1 ; assisting judges 25 ; forced to be official judges 23, 2; 24, 1; knowledge 58-60, of non-Jewish law 24, 2. 3 ; leaders 14, 1 ; to love scholars, disciples, 'Amha'ares 57, 4 ; maintenance difficult 15, 1 ; early marriage 52 ; wealthy to marry his daughter to scholar 74, or to marry scho- lar's daughter 9, 1 ; at meals of 'Amha'ares 52 ; merits of support- ing s. emphasized in synagogue 74 ; money-lending 61, 1 ; not to go out at night 52 ; apply in judg- ing non-Jewish law 24, 2. 3 ; non- observant 61 ; not mourned 55 ; offended and struck, fines 56 ; offices held in town 30, 4 ; Parna- sim 14, 1 ; s. and people 32 ; blame patriarch for appointing unworthy judges 30; perfume pro- hibited to s. 52 ; poverty 67 ff. ; pray and preach at public fasts 53 ; forced to do public work 42, 4 ; put to shame 43, 2 ; recognize good qualities of 'Amha'ares 60 ; requirements 63 ; rich 51, 4 ; shoes 52 ; side with people against wealthy 12 ; slighted by nobles 20. 31. 56 ; students attending lec- tures, but not attaching them- selves to individual scholar 64 ; supported by whom 71 ; sup- port suggested by s. 74 ; suspected of dishonesty and immorality 50 ; titles, father and rabbi 74, 1 ; 60. 64 ; great of the generation, of TorahlO, 2 ; tongues used for slan- der 73, 5 ; tempted by non-Jewish ladies 51 ; wavering in study 71 ; ways of study, 50 ; worldly occu- pation and study 68. 72. 73. school, appeal for charity in, 36, 3 ; dignitaries 9 ; of Jamnia trans- ferred to 'Usha 31 ; of R. Jehuda I in Sepphoris 72, 4 ; seats for dis- tinguished visitors 36, 3 ; seats for sons of Parnas 15, 1. scorn at words of scholars 54, 1. Seder 'Olam III : 54, 1 ; XIII : 14, 1 . 2. Sepphoris 'Amha'ares 58 ff. ; bar- Kappara 59 ; bar-Levianus, noble family 8 ; bar-Lufiani 34 ; Bonias, rich man 34 ; Bouleutai, council- lors 16 ; calumniators 57 ; com- munity, organization 7 ; contribu- tions to charity promised but not paid 37 ; courts 23 ; drought 53 ; epicureans 54, 1 ; 56 ; famine 16. 58 ; fast, public, for rain 53 ff. ; forum 23 ; Gnostics 18, 1 ; great men 7. 11, of generation 9, abused 11 ; haircutting frequent 17, 1 ; R. Hanina abused 10. 53 ; haughty leaders 17 ff. ; R. Hillel b. Aulus 35, 1; Holy Congregation 48, 2 ; immorality of population 46. 53 ; judges, Jewish, of the city 23; 25, 2 ; 28 ; landowners 35 ; leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish 10 ; luxury of rich 34 ; market 22, 2; 23 ; marriage feast 34 ; R. Meir abused 57 ; men of Jerusa- lem 48, 2 ; Min 54, 1 ; mourning on Sabbath 57, 1 ; noble families 16; 16,3; non- Jews immoral 48 ; 49, 1 ; non-observant men 59, 2 ; plague 10. 46. 53 ; population 34. 35. 53 ; its character 54 ; its lower sections 48, and scholars 53 ; poverty and Sabbath 66 ; privy 47, 1; prophets, false 57; rich men contribute to charity 34. 35 ; Ro- man officials 41 ; royal family 16 ff. ; scholars accused of immo- rality 50 ff. 57, their death not noticed 54, no fear of God 62, study Torah not for its own sake 63 ; students 16, condemned 56 ff., and hated 57 ; school of R. Jehuda 1 : 72. 74 ; great synagogue 54, 1 ; violation of women 47, 1 ; women 47. Septimius Severus and Caracalla emperors grant the Jews right of holding offices 40. shame, putting to, heavy offence 48,2. Shammai on Sabbath observance 66 ; Shammaiites forbid applying for charity on Sabbath 36, 1. 2. Shema'ya warns people not to be- come known to the ruling power 41, 2 ; great of generation 10, 2. ships owned by Jews of Sepphoris 34; 35, 2. Sifra 73 a 9 : 19, 1 ; 110' 5 : 61, 3 ; 11 l b II 3 : 57, 3. 9° INDEX Sifre Numbers 112 : 68, 2 ; 115 : 51, 4 ; 119 p. 39 b : 70, 1 ; 137. 138. 139. 141 : 14, 1. Deuter. 12 : 50, 1 ; 13 : 12, 3 ; 16 : 24, 2 ; 17 : 30, 1;26: 14, 1 ; 42 : 69, 3 ; 45: 64, 1 ; 48 b , 84 b : 12, 2 ; 64, 3 ; 144 : 27, 4 ; 162 : 15, 3 ; 254. 258 : 47, 2 ; 256, 125 a : 44, 4 ; 48, 1 ; 306, 131 b : 63, 4 ; 323 : 12, 4 ; 326, 139 a : 67, 4 ; 334 : 14, 1 ; 343, 143 a : 72, 3 ; 344 : 14, 3. 4 ; 352 : 69, 5 ; 357, 150 a : 14, 1. R. Simai of Sepphoris on judges 28, 1. B. Simlai on garments in honour of Sabbath 66 ; immorality and plague in Sepphoris 46 ; leaders 12, 3 ; unworthy scholars 61, 1. Simon Bouleuta in Sepphoris 16, 3. R. Simon b. Eleazar on appeals for charity on Sabbath 36 ; treats harshly an 'Amha'ares 59 ; on haughty men 19, 1 ; unworthy scholars 61, 3, and disciples 65 ; giving up study 69, 2 ; violent men 43, 4. R. Simon b. Gamaliel II on hard- ships of Roman rule 41, 1 ; head of school in 'Usha 72 ; on judges 28, 1 ; Parnas 15 ; princesses 17, 2 ; principles in judging non- Jews 24 ; scholars giving up study 72 ; to treat scholars better 74 ; on unchastity 47. R. Simon b. Halaftha of 'En-T'ena 7, 2 ; on judges 26 ff. ; non-obser- vant scholars 61. R. Simon b. Jehosadak on Parnas 18, 1. R. Simon b. Johai blames dis- honesty 45 ; encourages students to persevere 71 ; on great men of the generation 9 ; haughty men 18, 1 ; importance of intercourse with a teacher 64 ff. ; he and R. Jacob 27, 1 ; Jews in law all princes 17, 1 ; he cannot judge 24 ; lawlessness of the great 12, 3 ; maintenance of scholars em- phasized as duty 74 ; priests ought to study Torah 69 ; Roman fines 41, 3, and justice 24, 1 ; scholars giving up study blamed 71 ; study of Torah every one's duty 69 ; on violent men 43, 4 ; 44, 2. R. Simon b. Lakish blames ap- pointer of unworthy judges 30 ff.; fine for offending a scholar 56, 4 ; the great men and people 11, 4 ; Jehuda II : 41, 3 ; he as judge, 56, 4 ; landowners and other sections of population 35, 3 ; requirements of scholars 63 ; on ways of sup- porting scholars and the poor 75, 1; purifying and slaying power of Torah 64. R. Simon b. Menasya on bastards 48, 2 ; head of Holy Congregation in Sepphoris 72, 4. R. Simon b. Pazzi on Roman vio- lence 42, 1. R. Simon b. Rabbi in Sepphoris on lewdness 47 ff.; robbers and moneylenders 44. Simonia in Galilee, R. Jehuda I appointed Levi rabbi to S. 30, 4. single man's morality praised 47. slander 60; 73,5. straightforwardness required of scholars 19, 3. Strategia and taxes 39. study of Torah, its aim is teaching and observing 61 ff. ; attraction and ambition 64 ; everybody's duty 69 ; for its own sake a great merit, its effects 63 ff. ; s. and marriage 52, 3 ; only occupation 56, and worldly occupation before and after the year 135 : 68 ; prac- tice or non-practice 62. 64 ; pre- vented by agriculture 69 ; remedy of temptations 51 ; non-study de- nounced 57. Synagogue, appeals for charity, collections made on Sabbath 35. 36 ff ; on weekdays 36, 3 ; digni- taries 9 ; R. Johanan's in Sep- phoris 76, visited by women 76 ; R. Meir preached every Friday night in s. of Tiberias 76 ; sermons in s. of Ma'on near Tiberias 70 ; in great s. of Sepphoris 54, 1. Synhedrion, members supported by Saul 74. Talmud, Berakh. 7 b : 65, 1; 10 b : 74,3; 19 a : 51; 55,4; 28 a : 15, 1; 34 b : 74, 6 ; 35 b : 68, 3 ; 69, 3 ; 43 b : 19, 3 ; 52, 4 ; 56 b : 48, 3 ; 63 b : 65, 4. Sabbath 25 b : 67, 1 ; 31 b : 62, 3 ; 32 b : 57, 4 ; 33 a : 57, 4 ; 54 b . 55 a : 13, 1 ; 56 a : 26. 28 ; 66 b : 73, 5 ; 80 b : 17, 2 ; 105 b : 55, 1 ; 113 b : 35, 2 ; 114 a : 15, 3 ; 52, 4 ; 119 a : 35, 3 : 119 b : 67, 1 ; 130 a : 47; 150* : 36,2. 'Erubinl8 b : INDEX 9 1 52, 5 ; 19 a : 35, 3 ; 54 a : 64, 1 ; 55 a : 19, 3 ; 73* : 73, 5 ; 85 b . 86 a : 34, 2 ; 35, 4. Pesahim 49 b : 9, 1 ; 58 ; 72, 3; 75, 7; 53 b : 71,4; 75,1; 112 a : 13,2; 15,3;113 a :47,5;48,2;72, 5; 118 b : 42, 2. Moed Katan 17 a : 63, 1 ; 22 a : 26, 2; 22 b : 10. Hagiga 5 b : 18, 1 ; 68, 1 ; 9 b : 48, 2 ; 72, 2 ; 14 a : 59, 2 ; 15 b : 62, 1 ; 63, 1. Eosh haShana 17 a : 54, 1. Joma 9 b : 57, 4 ; 22 b : 18, 1 ; 35 b : 34, 2; 42, 4; 72 b : 52; 62, 2; 64,2; 86 a : 51, 9; 86 b : 14, 1. Sukka 29 a : 55, 3 ; 29 ab : 38, 1 ; 30 a : 46 ; 52 b : 51, 7. Ta'anith 7 a : 19, 3 ; 63, 4 ; 65, 6 ; 7 b : 45, 2 ; 8 b : 37, 2 j 10 ab : 10, 3; ll a : 12, 1; 18 a : 8,2; 19 b : 67,4; 20 a : 59,3. Megilla ll a : 41, 3 ; 15 a : 14, 3. Kethuboth 15 a : 47, 1 ; 105 b : 25; 32, 3; 74, 4; lll b : 72, 3; 74, 4. Kiddushin 29 a : 73, 2 ; 29 b : 52, 3 ; 30 b : 51, 7 ; 64, 1 ; 33 b : 76, 4 ; 39 b , 40 a : 51,5; 40 b : 59,2; 71 a : 18, 1; 82 ab : 73, 2. Gittin 23 b : 10, 2 ; 38 b : 67, 1 ; 49 b : 43, 4 ; 59 a : 35, 1 ; 60 a : 9, 1 ; 88 b : 21, 1. Nedarim 32 a : 42, 4 ; 62 a : 64, 3. Nazir 5 a : 17, 1. Sota 4 b : 18, 1 ; 48, 2 ; 5 a : 18, 1 ; 10* : 42, 4 ; 12 a : 9; 22 a : 65, 3 ; 76, 3; 38 b : 75, 6 ; 41 b : 26; 46 b : 59, 2 ; 47 ab : 12, 4 ; 47 b : 26, 3 ; 27, 3 ; 49 a : 43, 2. Baba kamma 16 b : 51, 2 ; 94 b : 44, 2; 113 a : 24, 2; 119 a : 45, 2. Baba mesi'a 30 b : 32, 2 ; 58 b : 48, 2 ; 59 a : 45, 2 ; 83 b : 22 ; 47, 4; 85 a : 47, 4; 87 a : 9, 5. Baba bathra 8 a : 16. 58. 59 ; 8 b : 28, 1 ; 9 a : 38, 2 ; 15 b : 29, 1 ; 16 b : 48,3; 58 ab : 31,2; 75 a : 54, 1; 75, 4; 78 b : 18, 1 ; 91 a : 9, 3 ; 13; 143 a : 39, 2; 144 b : 40, 3. 'Aboda zara 22 b : 48, 3 ; 52 a : 30, 2 ; 71* : 42, 3. Synhedrin 3 b : 9 ; 6 ab : 28, 1 ; 7 a : 28 ; 7 b : 26, 1;30, 2. 3;8 a : 12, 3; 16,4; 19 a : 47, 1 ; 24 a : 23, 1 ; 25 b : 43, 3 ; 38 a : 44, 1 ; 58 b : 43, 2 ; 90 b : 70, 1.4; 92 a : 58,2; 75, 2; 98 a : 17. 25 ; 99 a : 68, 2 ; 99 b : 56, 1 ; 63, 6 ; 108 a : 45 ; 110 a : 51, 1. Mak- koth24 a : 22; 74,1. Horayothl0 ab : 71, 1 ; 13 b : 15, 1. Zebahim 102 a : 18. Menahoth 44 a : 51, 4 ; 110 a : 52, 3. Bekhoroth 13* : 24, 3. Hullin 87 a : 8, 5 ; 34, 1 ; 35, 4 ; 9i a : 45, 2 ; 91 ab : 52, 3 ; 92 a : 35, 3. 'Arakhin 16 a : 18, 1 ; 75, 5 ; 17 a : 15, 2. Nidda 20 a : 27, 1 ; 26 b : 26, 2. Talmud Jerushalmi : Berakhoth I 3, 3 b 25 : 61, 3 ; II 7, 5 b 56 : 57, I ; III 4, 6 C 54 : 47, 1 ; IV 2, 7 d 43 : 56, 2 ; 7 d 52 : 52, 1 ; 1X8, 14 d 3 : 71, 5. Pe'a I 1, 15 c 18 : 8, 3 ; 16 a 34 : 16, 3 ; VIII 7, 21 a 28 : 10 ; VIII 8, 21 b 1 : 66, 3. Dam- mai III 1, 23 b 33 : 36, 1. Kil'ayim IX 1, 32 a 8 : 35, 1. Ma'aser sheni II 6, 50 a 23 : 46, 1 ; II 10, 53 d 4 : 72, 4 ; IV 9, 55 b 58 : 48, 3. Bik- kuriin III 3, 65 c 45 : 76, 4 ; 65 c 64 : 56, 4 ; 65 d 14 : 30, 3. Sab- bath XII 3, 13 c 69 : 8, 5 ; 16, 3 ; XVIII fin. 16 c 70 : 17, 2. Pesa- him IV 1, 30 c 69 : 16, 3 ; VII 1, 34* 59 : 71, 4. Joma I 2, 39 a 8 : 39, 2 ; VIII 5, 45 b 6 : 67, 4. Shekalim V, 6, 49 b 27 : 36, 3. Eosh haShana II 5, 58 b 58 : 11, 4. Ta'anith III 4, 66 c 29 : 37, 2 ; 66 c 45 : 46, 3 ; 53, 1 ; 66 c 61 : 10, 1 ; IV 2, 68 a 29 : 53, 2 ; IV 8, 69 a 26 : 8, 1 ; 69 a 27 : 40, 1. Hagiga 11 1, 77° 17: 63, 5. 'Moed Katan II 3, 81 b 33 : 39, 3: Jeba- moth VIII 3, 9 C 64 : 46, 4 ; XII 13 a 15: 30, 4. Sota I 4, 16 d 45 : 76, 1 ; 16 d 75 : 26, 5 ; I 5, 17* 11 : 46, 5 ; IX 10, 24 a 27 : 14, 1. Kethuboth I 10, 25 d 37 : 47, 1 ; IV 8, 28 d 60 : 56, 4 ; X 5, 34 a 14 : 40, 3; XIII 1, 35 d 3 : 22, 2. Nedarim III 4, 38 a 37 : 43, 2 ; VI 13, 40 a 53 : 16, 2 ; IX fin. 41 c 65 : 74, 1. Gittin V 1, 46° 38 : 43, 4. Kiddushin IV 1, 65 b 76 : 37, 2 ; 65 d 47 : 9, 2 ; 18, 1. Baba kamma IV 3, 4 b 26 : 24, 3 ; VIII 8, 6° 13 : 56, 4. Baba mesi'a IV 2, 9 C 60 : 44. 5. Baba bathra IX 6, 17 a 13. 15 : 40, 3. Synhed- rin I 1, 18 a 37 : 32, 2 ; 18 b 11 : 28, 1 ; II 20 fin, 20 d 2 : 70, 3 ; IV 13, 22 b 74 : 44, 1 ; VI 6, 23 b 75 : 48, 3 ; VII 2, 24 b 56 : 24, 1 ; X 1, 27 d 65 : 56, 1 ; XI 4, 30 a 55 : 72, 4. 'Aboda zara II 10, 42 a 35: 35, 2. Horayoth III 7, 48 a 44 : 71, 3;48 a 62: 35, 4; 36, 3. Ill 9, 48 b 71; 48 c 4: 13, 1. K. Tarfon on autonomous courts 21, 1 ; his grandson immoral 47, 4 ; the priest and rich, support scholars 71. 9 2 INDEX Taxes, amount 42, 3 ; arrears col- lected 8, 3 ; collected by centurio in kind 42, 3 ; Jewish collectors, cruel 13 ; 40, 3 ; exacted merci- lessly 42 ; farmers unscrupulous 43, 2; landowners responsible for taxes 39 ; questions on t. decided by R. Jehuda 1 : 40, 3. Temple of Jerusalem, future gates miraculous 54, 1 ; officials en- titled great of the generation 10. temptations of scholars by non- Jewish ladies, resistance praised 51. terrifiers of the community 19, 1 ; 43,2. Theodos of Rome supports scholars in Palestine 71. Tiberias, bar-Selend a noble family 35, 4 ; Boule and Strategia 39 ; crown money imposed 39 ; great men of the city = the first ten 8 ; great men of the generation 9 ff. ; haircutting of princes frequent 17, 1 ; poverty and Sabbath 66, 4 ; Roman officials 41 ; scholars study Torah not for its own sake 63 ; school 35, 4 ; 36, 3 ; synagogue where R. Meir preached every Friday night 76. tithes, given by rich men 35, 3 ; of Samaritan produce 42, 3. Torah despised by 'Amha'ares 61 ; drug of life or poison 63 ; every- body's property 60. Tosiftha Pe'a IV 16 : 36, 1 ; Dammai VI 3. 4 : 42, 3; Shebi'ith VII 9 : 36, 1 ; Sabbath XV 3 : 17, 2 ; XVI 22 : 36, 1 ; Hagiga I 8 : 72, 2 ; Sukkall 5 : 38, 1 ; Megilla III 4 : 36, 1 ; Kethub. XII 2 : 43, 4 ; Kiddush. I 11 : 73, 2 ; Nedar. II 7 : 43, 2 ; Sota III 16 : 17, 1 ; VI 6 : 48, 3 ; XIV 5 : 27, 3 ; XIV 6 26, 4 ; Baba mesi'a XI 23 : 43, 1 Baba bathra VIII 4 : 36, 1 ; X 5 40, 3 ; 'Abodazara IV 4 : 9, 3 ; 13 VI 18: 65, 5; Synh. I 2 : 28, 1 VII 9 : 15, 1 ; VIII 4, 6 : 44 ; XI 8 : 72, 4 ; XIII 5 : 54, 1 ; Zebahim XII 8 : 27, 1 ; Themura I 17 : 27, 1 ; Bekhor.VIlO: 52, 3; Theruma I 10 : 36, 1. traitors 54, 1. Ulpian on right of holding offices 40. unchastity, abstaining praised 44, 4 ; punished by drought 37, 2 ; in Sepphoris 46 ff. 'Usha, assembly of scholars decides fine for offending a scholar 56 ; discusses duty of father to train son for handicraft 73, 2 ; scholars study Torah not for its own sake 63 ; school transferred from Jam- nia to U. 5. 22. 31 ; R. Simon b. Gamaliel II head of the central school 72. violation of women by Roman officials 41, 3 ; in Sepphoris 47, 1 ; by violent men 44. violent men = leaders 43. 44 ff. 19, 1 ; intrude in families 44. visitations accounted for by moral sins 26. vowing in Galilee 38. wages deferred and withheld 38. washing hands and feet before Sabbath 67, 1. wealth, consists of property and cattle 35 ff. ; kept secret before Roman officials 41. wealthy contribute to charity 35 ; farmers and business men 68 ; God weeps over w. who do not study Torah 67. 68; lewd 48; narrow-hearted to scholars 75 ; to support scholars in different ways 74 ; taxed and exploited 41. woman's alimony case before offi- cial Jewish judge in Sepphoris and a rabbi 22 ff. ; adorned for Sabbath 67, 1 ; attends regularly synagogue in Sepphoris and Ti- berias 76 ; hates scholars 58. 75 ; supports scholars in Judaea 75 ; in Sepphoris 47, 1 ; wife of 'Am- ha'ares 58. world, no share in future, calum- niators, false prophets, haters of scholars 57 ; he who has no inter- course with scholars 65 ; who crosses a river behind a woman 52,5. worldly occupation, necessity of urged upon scholars 73 ; before and after bar-Cochba war 68. 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