The relationship between ritual and physical activity was known in the ancient cultures and the Israeli-Jewish society was not at all different from this phenomenon. The priesthood had to, to a certain extent, demonstrate in front of the public an impressive physical appearance as an integral part of the superhuman image it equated to itself.
And again, as a sort of digression, I would like to address a topic that has already been discussed in at least two lists before, and that is the sporting context of the status of the priesthood. And why am I planting this list right now? For the reason that this is a custom that began somewhere in the Herodian period, continued throughout the days of the Second Temple and ended, obviously, in our destruction.
The relationship between ritual and physical activity was known in the ancient cultures and the Israeli-Jewish society did not differ at all from this phenomenon. The priesthood had to, to a certain extent, demonstrate in front of the public an impressive physical appearance as an integral part of the superhuman image it equated to itself. During the period of Hellenic and Hellenistic influence, when the visual-physical element took an important place in the human being, it did not overlook the priesthood in the Jewish temple.
The priests had a "strange" custom which is documented in the literature of the Sages: they would pick up parts of the sacrifice and throw them in the air and then catch them in their arms. These parts were heavy and this action was intended to demonstrate the physical strength of the priests and convey at the same time that they are elevated from the people, in terms of God's chosen ones.
The Yoma mishna discussing Yom Kippur testifies to an important mitzvah in the temple called the donation of fertilizer for the preparation of the altar for the sacrifice and the sacrifice itself, when only famous priests would receive it. Over time the number of contributing priests grew and therefore they decided to regulate the determination of the contributing priests in a strange, almost bizarre, sporting way, and how? Listen to the words of the Mishnah: "First of all, anyone who wants to donate to the altar, donates, and while there are many (of the priests who asked to donate), serious and mournful in the lamb (of the altar), and the one who precedes his friend by four cubits is allowed (to donate), and if there were both A difference of four cubits, that is a little more than one meter), the supervisor tells them vote! (That is, draw fingers behind the back and the one with the highest number of drawn fingers is the winner between the two)" (Yuma XNUMX XNUMX).
Running competition in the temple? indeed-indeed. Not a competition concerning knowledge of the Torah or Halacha, not a competition of testing professional skills and not even a competition of attributing nursing homes. A real physical competition, in the temple and in connection with one of the most obvious holy days - Yom Kippur. Sound bizarre? Probably, and where did the idea come from? It is impossible to know, although we know from ancient customs, that various questions were cut by some kind of competition, say a debate regarding the ownership of an object or property, and later the "ordeal" in the Middle Ages and even the "pull" in the wild west of America. The assumption that can come a little closer to understanding the event in question involves the Greek mythological practice of lighting the fire in the Olympic torch, long before the established ritual, when the multitude of visitors were invited to compete in running to the altar and the torch, and the first to touch it won the sacred honor of lighting the fire. And let's not forget the extent of the Hellenic-Hellenistic influence on Jewish society and especially on the priesthood in the Temple (and it is hard not to recall the Hellenistic reform of the High Priest Jason in Hellenistic Jerusalem from 175 BC onwards).
And what happened in the temple? Apparently, the group of priests would line up at the starting line at Shaar Shoshan, which is about 120 meters from the altar. At the starting signal the priests would roll up their robes and go on their way. They would climb the XNUMX degrees, pass the Nicanor gate, break into the temple and rush to the altar. Whoever touched the altar first was honored by fulfilling the mitzvot of donating the fertilizer. And why four deaths, in the "photo-finish" of old, to ensure that the victory would be clear and certain, and the judge was the "supervisor".
So why, in any case, was the physical competition established between the priests, beyond that Hellenic-Hellenistic influence (allegedly, of course)? The sporting success was absorbed, so it seems, as the will of God, a kind of other way of sanctifying the casting of fate. In any case, the priests had to practice before the competition, one that apparently attracted quite a crowd, both to avoid embarrassment and to gain fame.
What happened inside the temple, in the last section of the run? The Mishnah says about this: "An act in which both of them were shy (the difference between them was less than four cubits) and serious and were crying for the lamb (of the altar), and one of them pushed his friend and fell and his leg was broken" (Yuma XNUMX:XNUMX). The atmosphere was therefore very tense and the desire to win was so high that there was a kind of violent, one-sided struggle between the two, as we witness for example in sporting activities here and there to this day.
The Tosefta even worsens its testimony and says that the priest-runner who was attacked "took the knife (which was available for the sacrificial work) (and) stuck it (to his friend who testified) in his heart..." (Tosefta Yom Kippur 12:XNUMX).
As a result, a special court convened and determined that from here on out the list of contributing priests will be determined in a lottery that will be conducted among them.
The series of articles "The Priesthood You Didn't Know" by Dr. Yehiam Sorek
- Part I - the end of the First Temple and the exile in Babylon
- Part II - Return to Zion
- Part III - The Hellenistic period
- Part XNUMX - The priesthood in Marumiya
- Part XNUMX - The priesthood makes muscles
- Part XNUMX - Matthew turns over in his grave
- Part XNUMX - The priesthood begins to lose height
- Part VIII - The reign of Hyrcanus
- Part IX - Herod stirs up the priesthood
- Part XNUMX - The Priesthood and the Christian Jesus
- Part XNUMX - There is life after Herod
- Part XNUMX - The priesthood deals with clothes
- Part XNUMX - Bureau for Exposing Corruption
- Chapter XNUMX - The priesthood in Mim Bemol
- Chapter XNUMX - The priesthood in the worship of the sun and the war cheer
- Chapter XNUMX - Going to fight the Romans
- Chapter XNUMX - The Great Rebellion and the Priesthood
- Chapter XNUMX - A total mess in Jerusalem
18 תגובות
All that was said in response 15 above, based on serious events such as:
During the First Temple period, when the united kingdom of Israel was divided, a continuation of the massacre by Menachem ben Gadi of the residents of a city who did not open the city gate for him in order to welcome him as the king of Israel (after he murdered Shalom ben Yash)
And in the Hasmonean kingdom: such as the massacre by Alexander Yanai, of the rebels for the act of plunder and usurpation (civil war in the parlance of the day, about fifty thousand people were killed), by means of mercenaries, who did not follow the cruel Roman practice, and crucified hundreds of the leaders of the rebellion.
In fact, it can be summarized: if the priesthood had devoted some time to thinking and analyzing the changes taking place in other countries, such as the scientific, philosophical development, etc., during the Athenian democracy and the Roman Saints (where they also developed a scientific approach to law), it is likely that Jewish history would have been much better, but the priesthood at that time Not only did it fail in this omission, it behaved exactly as it happened in other nations that grew greatly, and at the same time an internal growth of usurpation and plunder developed, until they collapsed, and many examples are not lacking.
to think himself peace
Thank you for your original, smiling/sad and somewhat refreshing response (and there is no hint of cynicism in this)
Yehiam
Thanks again Dr. Sorek!
The more he learns and reads about our holy houses...the first and the second together...the more he feels that there is nothing to rush and build a third...
And perhaps we owe a historical apology and a belated thanks to Nebuchadnezzar...and Titus the elder?...who spared us from their punishment.
Just imagining our rabbinical "business" and various Shas lovers today...occupying senior positions in the management of this holy and glorious institution...and the budgets...the investigative committees...I am overwhelmed.
And all this when Rabbi Ovadia-Sheftaim Ishak, his ilk and his assistants and the rest of the "diplomatic staff of the Almighty"..., win the job... raised to the top of their throats, one hand engaged in preparing the sacrifices, the other deep in the public coffers... wow... wow...
Let's consider and discuss the idea again, eh? What's burning...?
I'm out!
Foy!
It is not just a sacrifice that Roman officials occasionally used to donate to the temple, as well as to other temples. This is, what to do, an obligation that Rome forced on all its subjects throughout the empire to make a regular sacrifice in their temples to the gods of Rome and the emperor.
The end of the sacrifice to the Roman Empire and to Rome: Joseph ben Mattathias - the wars of the Jews XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX onwards. The literature of Chazal Gitin no XNUMX-XNUMX; The myth of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza and the XNUMXth decree by the students of Beit Shamai.
Rambam's definitions are good and appropriate for his time - 12th and 13th centuries, which, by the way, are different from those of Rashi, the owners of the additions, and others, and are not related to the ancient era, which Mamari deals with. The diversity of opinions reflects the policy of "Make you a Rabbi".
Not fooling?! And how will you explain the word of you shall not make a statue and a mask... and the critical tones of the biblical prophecy, and the reformation attempts of those kings, and all that is written in the external literature of the days of the Second Temple. Everyone came out in an outpouring of foam against the sanctification of the symbols and statues and in fact also the literature of the Sages and beyond.
Put up as many interpretations as you like about the running of the priests, but if you deny its existence, you will effectively deny all Sage literature. This phenomenon in an age of Greek-Hellenistic influences and parallels from other places will have a hard time denying my arguments.
Running is not related to Yom Kippur. It did not take place every day, but once a week, in favor of making the fertilizer contribution of the priestly guard who was in charge that week of worshiping the temple.
tired? Did you watch TV late the night before? come on?!
The selection of the powerful priests is indeed the outworking of the procedure in question, and this is due to the influence of the Hellenistic culture and you simply have no idea how much it penetrated the veins of the Jewish aristocracy from one side and the priesthood from another.
Idol worship is well defined in the Rambam. But belief in the sanctity of objects and special matters is not idolatry at all and the Torah does not exclude them. The fact that there was a lot of idolatry in the First Temple does not need scholarly articles. The entire Bible is full of this and it is also written that there were only 7000 feet that did not kneel to the husband
For the running of the priests, anyone can come up with infinite interpretations according to their whims. Maybe they were tired (because it was before dawn) and wanted to wake them up? Or maybe they wanted to choose the strongest priests for the job? And maybe? And maybe?
In general, the article is full of twists. For example, running was done every day and not only on Yom Kippur and many more.
The copper snake was a ritual element that was brought, perhaps, from Egypt, and perhaps by an eponymous figure like Moses, or whoever, and was absorbed into the temple in Yoshelim. The Jews used to worship this snake, called Nushtan, and it is in the temple. Two great reformers such as Hezekiah and Josiah the kings of Judah sought to uproot the worship of the serpent but failed. I wonder why?
And everything is friends appears in biblical sources.
The sacrifices in honor of the emperor did not resemble those sacrifices that, according to Jewish tradition, were bought by Roman rulers in connection with special events such as the question of the transfer of the Roman forces by the commissioner Vitellius and the question of bringing the protome into Jerusalem. These are real sacrifices. The cancellation of the sacrifices by Hanina the deputy of the priests in 66 AD formally and symbolically expressed the outbreak of the rebellion.
Noah The snake was already in Israel's travels in the desert. Sages in the Mishnah already gave their opinion on what you brought up and they solved the problem by saying: "And why is a snake dead, or a snake alive? Rather, at the time when Israel looked up to God and enslaved their hearts to their Father in heaven, they were healed."
The sacrifices you quote from Sages, according to Sages, these are sacrifices that the emperor sent to be sacrificed to God like any other sacrifice. Please do not misrepresent.
Regarding the serpent snake, I didn't understand what it had to do with foreign work.
And what about the copper snake that was in the First Temple, idolatry without any doubt
Dr. Shurk,
I would be happy if you would bring the sources in Yosef ben Matthiyahu and the literature of sages about the sacrifice offered in honor of the Roman goddess. Thanks in advance.
I'm sorry for the glorified prosphora, you simply don't understand anything, your quotes are torn and disconnected from their real context, you pretend to understand but your conclusions are nonsense. Keep your Hellenism to yourself and don't brag about our holy teachings, which are far away from your concepts and those of the school you advocate. In the best case, this is a blatant lack of knowledge and in the worst case, a deliberate attempt to defile the holy place. of your shoes over your feet! Go study a little and then you'll understand!
Cheers, peace
Take another tip - in the Jewish Temple from the beginning of the Hellenistic period until the Great Revolt they sacrificed in the Temple, apart from public sacrifices and individual sacrifices two additional sacrifices - one for the peace of the emperor and the other in honor of dea roma - the goddess entrusted with the peace and security of the center of the empire. And how do we know this? Not only from the letters of Yosef ben Matthew but also from the books of sages. Food for thought.
And if that's not idolatry, then I'm a Kugelgar.