The polls in the literature of the Sages

Why did sages refer negatively to wrestling but the term athlete was positive, and what caused the decision to ban wrestling on Shabbat

Wrestling occupied a central and unique place in the ancient Greek sport. It is equated to both art and craftsmanship, as it expresses the value of the "Eidos", that is, the classic combination of body and soul. The Greeks started two types of wrestling, one - elite, when the contestant who threw his opponent three clean throws on the ground is considered the winner, and the other - a rather brutal combination between boxing and wrestling, one called "pankration" (total fight), in terms of a free fight, except for injury In the facial organs (eyes, ears and nose), it was allowed to do anything to adorn the victory wreath.
The first type, the high, the clean, is the one that was revered by the Greek writers and won fame in their compositions.

The Greek sport, in its Hellenistic incarnation, was absorbed into almost every local society, especially the urban and aristocratic one, which was ruled by the Hellenistic Empire, and with ancient Israel was exposed to this physical culture, "looked-and was hit", and how else-how was "hit".

The Jewish external literature, such as was written during the Second Temple period, testifies, although still in allusion and in allegorical language, to the exposure of Jewish society to Greek-Hellenistic physical activity, as an integral part of what is called Hellenization, or Hellenization. The allegorical expressions embedded in the Sage literature, testify, as mentioned, to a positive mental assimilation of the Greek sport in the veins of the mainly Greek population. And this is worth noting, that allegorical linguistic phenomena are only used when they constitute an assemblage for the assimilation of the event or process (and in this case the physical activity).
And why is it similar, in the modern sense? For the borrowed use of terms and concepts from the world of sports, which are clear to the local public, mainly through the media, such as "the 90th minute", "timeout", "below the belt", "the derby has its own rules" and more. And when we are invited to sports expressions in the ancient era, when there was no press, no television, and no internet, then we can assume that the public reading, or listening to the words of the preacher, will be exposed to a sports expression, stronger than those who watched it and even took an active part in it.
In the book of Maccabim D. Bolt, from the selection of relevant metaphors, the description of the character of Elazar, whose mental and physical struggle against Menno, is presented as a scene taken from the world of wrestling, such as: "But he (Elazar) bore the agony and was tired of the pressure and endured the abuse, and as a fine athlete who fights, The old man overcame his menu."
Apparently, the verse in question, beyond the dramatic description of the struggle, does not teach anything important, but the use of the phrase "athlete" must be carefully examined. The word "athlete" in Greek means a wrestling athlete who competes for a prize ("athlon") and struggles a long way to achieve it. Attaching the athletic title to Eleazar is significant, and certainly shows the awareness of the viewers-listeners-readers to this phenomenon. Moreover, even though Greek sports were very successful, more than once the competitor who did not receive a prize won prestige and fame because he sweated hard to win the prize, while his competitor obtained the prize relatively easily.

The expression "athlete" appears many times in Sage literature, a sign of the extent of the influence of Greek athletics on the Jews, and it is, mostly in the status of an allegory, presented in a very positive light. For example, one of the Midrashim, in simulating Jacob's struggle with the "angel", puts it this way: "A parable for an athlete, who is wrestling with a king's son" (Beresheet Rabbah Ez, XNUMX). In another midrash, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says "...to two athletes, who would stand and wrestle before the king. If the king wanted to interpret it, and he didn't want to interpret it, one would stand up for his friend and kill him, and he would scream and say: "Who will bring my justice before the king" (Beresheet Rabbah XNUMX:XNUMX). It is difficult to judge here, Are the words directed at actual wrestlers and perhaps two arena fighters, gladiators, who stood before the ordeal ("Judgment of Heaven"), when the winner was declared as the rightful one.

In another place, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish (Rish Lakish), one of the heads of the Sanhedrin in Tiberias, who was himself a professional athlete who struggled for pay, tells: "A parable of two athletes, one weak and one strong. The strong defeated the weak and took a crown on his head." In this text appears, next to the use of the phrase "athlete", the crown, the diadem, which is the wreath that would be tied to the winner's head, which is more honorable than that to display athletic perfection. Rish Lakish, who was, as mentioned, knowledgeable in the field of sports activities, alludes to the accepted practice in Greek wrestling, which is the lack of weight separation between the contestants ("strong" versus "weak") on the one hand and the use of different techniques to overcome the weight difference.

If we were satisfied with the above sources alone, it would be difficult to prove that the Jews were indeed involved in the sporting branch of wrestling. However, conditional and Talmudic evidence refutes, as we will see below, this hypothetical concern.

The mishna unfolds before us a passage, from which we can draw some interesting conclusions in this regard. And this is how she testifies: "They use a knife (the body with oil on Shabbat) and use it as a bowel massager (that is, they massage the stomach), but they do not exercise and do not scratch. There is no yordin for cordima, and no one does epictozin (initiated, feigned vomiting)" (Shabbat XNUMX:XNUMX).
Before us, please pay attention, is the list of the various activities of wrestlers, before entering the ring, to the grappling area: it was customary to smear their bodies with oil, both to make their muscles stand out and especially to make it difficult for the opponent to wrap them up and use a stumbling technique against them. After the competition, they used to remove from their body the greasy layer of oil, sand and sweat batter, and as is known in the Greek practice of "scraping". A Greek writer known as Lucianus Samosatos writes: "Some of the wrestlers would grab and trip each other, and some would choke each other, wrestle and get dirty in the mud, and from there they undress (after the competition), they begin to smear their flesh and scratch each other very friendly" (Anacharsis, 1883).
In this context, it is interesting to note that in one of the versions of this Mishnah the word "filoma" appears in the meaning of mud, and since the sages of the Mishnah forbid bathing in mud on Shabbat, they seem to be directing their words to the branch of wrestling called "pankration", which was conducted on land muddy and muddy.

The term "kordima", or in another, more accurate and relevant version ("kiroma") refers to the Greek wrestling arena. Plutarch writes and mentions together the "phallus" and the "kiruma" as a symbolic expression for a mixture of oil, clay, dust and wax.

The box - "Vain Oshin Epictozin" - that appears in the Mishna and its subject of forced vomiting, involves the habits of the wrestling athletes. This vomiting is intended to monitor body weight, to such an extent that the Roman Seneca stings the wrestlers and calls them "despicable vomiters". The vomiting is also intended to calm the stomach after eating a lot, unnecessary and even dangerous before the fight in the wrestling ring.

The most important thing in our case is the conditional prohibition to carry out all these activities, especially when they are done on Shabbat. The ban does not indicate a restriction on viewing, but on actual involvement in the wrestling arena. Moreover, if it were not a phenomenon, the sages of the Sanhedrin would not have bothered to put a fence and a caveat for some esoteric event. And why on Saturday? Since this is the day of rest in the Jewish community, and in light of the Greek influences, some of its residents chose to fill their free time with physical content. Some of them, as mentioned, as I pointed out in one of my previous articles, chose to play ball that day.