The priesthood as you did not know it - Chapter XNUMX: Bureau for Exposing Corruption

One of the two chambers in the temple - the "palahedrin" was used to expose corruption in the priesthood as a tool of struggle between the priesthood and the Sanhedrin

The second temple was shaped like an Aryan figure, according to the sources: wide at the head and narrow at the back. Beyond the hall was the hall and beyond it the outer altar, and at its feet was the help of priests, and at its feet was the help of Israel. Between Ezerat Yisrael and the large square that was observed by the public was the Nicanor Gate specially ordered from Alexandria and at its foot the 15 steps about half a threshing floor, on which the Levites stood and sang the virtues of the Psalms.

In Ezra there were six bureaus - three in the north and three in the south, and according to me from the Midod School: "... (the bureaus) in the north - the salt bureau, the fur bureau, the washermen's bureau. The salt chamber - where they would give salt to the sacrifice. The Fur Chamber - where sacred skins were processed, and on its roof was the baptismal font for a high priest on Yom Kippur. The Chamber of Judges - where the judges of the holy battles were held... (chambers) in the south: the Chamber of the Tree, the Chamber of the Gula, the Chamber of the Gazit. The Wood Chamber - said Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya'akov (with deliberate impudence): I forgot what it was used for? Abba Shaul says: The office of a high priest, and it was behind both of them (behind the office of the exile and the office of the gasit)..." (From Midods XNUMX:XNUMX-XNUMX).

In one event during the year of work in the temple, the high priest was removed from his house to another office, the Palahedrin office, and this is what our current list revolved around.

Before that, I will make an important note: Sage literature revolves around the matters related to this office in its discussions, and "does not pay attention" to the fact that a link is linked to a link and below the surface other images emerge that are not flattering to say the least to the High Priesthood.

In the Yoma Mishnah it is said: "Seven days before Yom Kippur, a high priest retires from his house to the office of the Palahedrin and installs another priest under him, lest something wrong happens to him." Rabbi Yehuda says: No other wife is given to him, lest his wife die, as it is said, 'And he shall atone for himself and for his house' (Vikrah 33:XNUMX). His house is his wife. They said to him: "Then there is no end to the conversation" (Yuma XNUMX:XNUMX). The Tosefta tries to explain as follows: "Why does a high priest leave his home for a Perhadrin's office (in the Mishnah it says "palhadrin" and the disruption probably originates from copying when the "dropping" of the linear initial of the letter Lamd turned it into the letter Rish). Rabbi Yehuda ben Batira interpreted - Lest his wife find a doubt Nida and come upon her and be found impure for seven days. Rabbi Yehuda would call her to the Pelovin court. All the chambers in the temple are exempt from the mezuzah except for the perahedrin chamber because it is an apartment for a high priest seven days a year..." (Tosefta Yom Kippur XNUMX:XNUMX-XNUMX). Before us, then, is a special procedure that highlights the uniqueness of the high priest and the importance of his purity, and especially on the holiest and most terrible day, Yom Kippur.

Later on from the year of Yoma it is said that the whole of that week the high priest is under test. The test is held by the elders of the court i.e. the Sanhedrin who test his knowledge of sacrificial animals such as cattle, rams and sheep. On the eve of Yom Kippur they get him used to little food and make sure he doesn't fall asleep. If he tends to fall asleep, they wake him up with a crooked finger and require him to walk barefoot on the cold floor. This source indicates a devaluation of the status of the high priest in view of the strengthening of the status of the Sanhedrin. However, the priesthood still radiated great public power.

The Jerusalem Talmud asserts as follows: "Abba Shaul used to call it the Bulvatin Chamber. At first they would have called it the Bulvatin Chamber and now they call it the Palahedrin Chamber" (Yerushalmi Talmud Yoma XNUMX XNUMX).
The Babylonian Talmud reports as follows: "Tanya Rabbi Yehuda said: And there was a Perhadrin office? And was not the Bulwati Bureau. But in the beginning they would have created the same chamber of Balawati, and by providing it with money for the priesthood and changing it every twelve months as these perahedrin who change them every twelve months, therefore they would have created the same chamber of perahedrin" (Talmud Babli Yoma XNUMX:XNUMX).

We have not yet dealt with the interpretation of the phrase "palahedrin" or "perahedrin", it is clear from the aforementioned texts that before the name of the chamber in the relevant, dim and vague phrase, it was called "Bulvotin Chamber", that is, from the Greek - the chamber of the leadership of the city, the city of the polis, when its heads were also judges, or "Pelotine Chamber" from the Greek and Latin, which means a palace, a magnificent house of measurements) and indeed during the Second Temple period the High Priesthood occupied the legal, juridical leadership, and the Sanhedrin in general, with its seats filled by the priestly stream as dominant.
Moreover, the texts reveal to us what appears only in allusion in Josephus, who speaks of the high priests (plural), because there were pairs of high priests, with each of them changing once a year. This is a new procedure that developed during the Second Temple period, probably after the end of the Hasmonean dynasty, when until then one high priest would serve all his life and upon his death bequeath the throne to his son after him. It may be that the sort of partnership between the high priests, and especially their election/appointment to the position for only one year, was due to the influence of the Hellenistic city, where public officials served for only one year, including the "archhiaros" - the high priest. And it is alluded to in the New Testament about the Jewish high priest who said something or prophesied something in his year. It is known, for example, that during the six years of Agrippa II's reign, six high priests served in the temple.
What's more, according to the Babylonian Talmud, the high priestly office was bought with money (and in his language - "and from giving her money for the priesthood").
A perusal of the above-mentioned Tosefta reveals the veil of the problem, and in its language: "From his seat the kings decreed that lay priests should be appointed and transferred every year" (Tosefta Yoma XNUMX:XNUMX). That is, as confirmed by Josephus ben Mattathias - the priesthood "loses height" when the rulers of the House of Herod and even the Roman commissioners enthroned and dismissed high priests as they pleased in order to rule through them the public and of course the temple and its wealth.

The Jerusalem Talmud focuses on the issue, comparing the first house to the second house. In the First Temple, 18 high priests served in the temple, leaving the office to their sons and serving in the sanctuary all their lives, while in the days of the Second Temple, the Talmud lists 80 high priests. And regarding the purchase of the office with money, he stings as follows: "And because there were (the priests) renting it (the office of the high priesthood) with blood (with money), their years began to shorten" and the Berita in the book of Midrash (Parashat Belk, KLA) sharpens its blade and rebukes those corrupt priests: "An act of one (a priest) who sent in his son's hand two measures of silver full of silver and their bases silver. Again an act of one who sent in the hand of his son two measures of gold full of gold and their rules of gold (to acquire the office of the high priesthood). They said: "Forge a colt for the menorah (that is, for the price of a fine colt, buy the priestly office and a symbol - the temple menorah)." Try to imagine where the money and gold were taken from?! And perhaps in this context it is worth noting that the mishna speaks of a status title called "sons of great priests". These used to, to protect everyone's heart, interfere in legal and legislative matters and even boasted about receiving packages from overseas.
The Jerusalem Talmud is much more extreme in this matter, when it claims that the high priests shortened the term of office with their own hands as a result of their use of sorcerers.

See how from that innocent Mishna that follows to single out the purity of the high priest, the sages of the Sanhedrin erupt, many years after the destruction, when the status of the priesthood has completely lost its height, and they reckon "without calculation" with the apparently pure status of the priesthood, but saturated with corruption that unfolded throughout the Second Temple period.

We are therefore left with the necessity of clarifying the meaning of the name of the bureau - "Felhadrin" - "Perhadrin". Some claim that the word in question originates from the Greek - "proairtoi" which means chosen or appointed. Some believe that the name is derived from the Greek word "proadroi" which we are concerned with - the first ones, and perhaps from "plata" - a flat place to indicate the character of the office. In any case, the use of the Greek-Hellenistic sound and the connection to bulvatin point to the characterization of the senior class of the priesthood.

The Babylonian Talmud quotes Rabbi Papa who said: "He had two offices for the High Priest, one the Perhadrin office and one the Beit Avtons office. one in the north and one in the south" (Yuma XNUMX:XNUMX). Who is the "Beit Abtins Bureau"? Well, in the temple, incense was burned as an integral part of the worship, and one family of priests was an expert in preparing the incense and using it when the column of smoke was rising upwards and not spreading to the sides. It was the family of Beit Abtins, or in another wording - Beit Abtons.

In summary: In this list we dealt with the offices of the high priest and in particular the office of the "Philahedrin", whose affairs revealed corruption in the priesthood and a kind of struggle between the priesthood and the Sanhedrin.

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