21 BC
1. A meeting of the Sanhedrin. Due to popular demand, Menachem the Essene has been quickly replaced as he is seen as a puppet of Herod. He leaves to found a Yeshiva in Caesaria where Herod diverts a full sixth of the stipends that used to go to the Sanhedrin, which is all the more surprising because the Essenes are supposed to live in luxury.
2. Menachem has been replaced by Rabbi Shammai, a Rosh Yeshiva in the Upper Gallilee town of Sepph, appointed because he's seen as even more liberal and modernizing than Hillel. Shammai says very little in council, and yet he has appointed a whole new generation of his students as members of the Sanhedrin, and while he's seen as a reformer, his students refuse compromise with Hillel, whom they routinely accuse of being as much a stooge to Herod as Menachem. Shammai inevitably dresses them down in front of the full tribunal, yet the accusations against Hillel keep being issued.
3. The current issue before the Sanhedrin is that a group of five young Rabbis come forward with a letter claiming evidence that Herod is siphoning money from Menachem's yeshiva toward the extensions in his own personal palace. "It does not bear Herod's likeness on its seal yet it does bear the seal of the Temple Menorah, which means it comes from the Temple Curia and that it bears some amount of royal imprimatur." "Objection. On the other hand there's no evidence that priests operate with any imprimatur from Herod or his ministers." "On the other hand, don't be a freyer! Herod's high priest is still Ananel and his father is still Master of Coin. Nothing comes out of the Beys HaMikdash without Herod's imprimatur!" (general fracas and grumbling) "This is yet more evidence that Herod has not reformed ("objection?") nor has intention to reform! ("objection,"). He deliberately provoked the Nabatheans and Partheans into war for his own gain ("objection."), he assassinated the entire Maccabee-Hyrcanus dynasty but one heir (Objection.), and deliberately murdered this entire court (Objection!) with the willing consent of Shemaya and Avtalyon may they rest in piece (OBJECTION!). Hillel (bangs gavel): "Do I hear a motion for a half-hour recess?" "Motion granted." "Seconded." "All those in favor?" Few can hear Hillel over the commotion, Hillel bangs the gavel anyway. "The motion passes!" Nobody moves as everyone's shouting. Hillel says to his fellow zug at the front lectern "Shammai, may we confer in my chamber?"
4. Hillel and Shammai enter Hillel's chamber. Hillel immediately turns around: "Can you shtill your guys please?" "What?" "Geb a kook Shammai, you know that your wing can accuse me of whatever they want and I'll take it, I don't care. But once they bring Herod into it they're putting us all..." (Shammai interrupting) "What is it you want me to do?" "I want you to get them to shvayg." "You think I have any power over these guys?" "Stop with the shpiel. They're your bokhers, and I don't know what your goal is in this, but clearly you want them to go after Herod." "They don't need any convincing from anyone to go after Herod." "Most of these guys passed through your Yeshiva at one point or another. I'm not even sure what you stand for, but given what they stand for you..." "Look, I'm new here and you're President Hillel, I'll always defer to you running this place however you think best, but I told both you and Herod that I don't believe a Sanhedrin Father should be an activist. I'm just a shofet who only interferes when I think it's an absolute necessity, and that goes for any case at all." "So you're not standing up with them to denounce Herod... am I to infer from that that you think denunciation of Herod is unnecessary?" "I have no position on this." "You have no position on this? Your position is Father in the House of Judgement and you have no position on our king?" "None." "Why not?" "You can infer anything you like about my non-interference but that doesn't make it true." "Then I'm inferring with reasonable certainty that you believe with absolute faith in the necessity of our King's deposition." "I have no position on that."
5. Hillel: "Well, that settles quite a bit. At the beginning of business tomorrow, I'm putting to vote the removal of Bava-ben-Yehuda, Yochai-bar-Shimon, Hanunnah-ben Yitzhak, and Ravina-ben-Ashi. I assume you have no objections." "None." "Well then..." "Indeed... should we return to the chamber?" "In a moment... may I just inquire, humor me for a second Shammai, is that legend about you true? The one that you made your seven year old son fast during Yom Kippur?" "I have no answer to that." "Very well, shall we go back to the chamber?" "Rabban Hillel, I suppose I have a question too?" "Please." "Is it true what I heard about you at my Yeshiva in Gallilee?" "What did you hear?" "That Hillel, son of Sanhedrin President Gamliel-ben-Yehuda, was forty years old when he began to study Torah?" "Well obviously I'm not forty yet, so no." "Is it true that you, grandson of Royal scribe Rehovam-ben-Yerovam, were so poor that you couldn't afford to study so you climbed to the roof of a Yeshiva?" "Of course not." "But you've heard these stories?" "Maybe something like them once or twice but no." "And it would be beneath you to answer them, yes?" "It would be beneath me to answer them, but these rumors are not circulating around the court because your son fainted during Ne'ilah." "Alright then... is it true that Herod the Great, whom you go to such active lengths to defend, personally held a knife up to your neck when you were barely Bar-Mitzvah age and admitted to ordering the death of your father and grandfather?"
6. "Now I really think we should go back to the chamber." "I heard there's even more to that story." "It didn't take much for you to go from non-activism to hostility." "Rabban Hillel it's not hostility, it's to make the point that once we start interfering, there's no limit to what we have to acknowledge, and there follows a parchment trail." "So you have your students do your dirty work about Herod for you?" "What dirty work? My students have a mind of their own!" "So you admit they're your students." "They were my students." "When did they stop being yours?" "They've never stopped, but do you hold yourself accountable for all your students' ideas?" "Yes, actually, between you and me, if their conduct isn't worthy of what I teach them, I'm very disappointed." "But their conduct is not in question, it's their beliefs." "How is their conduct not indicative of their beliefs?" "Perhaps there's correlation but I do not judge your students, and isn't one of your famous sayings 'Judge not your friend until you stand in his place?'" "I suppose it is, but you've stood as Holy Father of the Sanhedrin for six months, and you see what I deal with every day." "Rabban Hillel, when have I ever not stood up to defend you when your character is slighted?" "You've been exemplary in that regard. I fault you not anything; but in six months, half is done we got done when Menachem the Essene didn't care what I did as long as Herod's associates got what they wanted, so why are you not helping us hear more cases and not deal with still another article of deposition against Herod? People are fighting violently and starving because we won't hear their cases."
7. "It's not our place to solve their problems." "Then let me ask you a further question Holy Father: is the story true that you forced your daughter to give birth under a Sukkah?" "I have no answer." "Is it true?" "I have no answer." "I have it on good authority that it is and you know as well as I do that forcing a woman to give birth anywhere but her own bed is an offense punishable in the Galillee by stoning." "Is the legendarily kind Rabban Hillel threatening me right now?" "It's not a threat, I won't put this in front of the court; but it is undoubtedly a slight against your character that you appear to so care about laws that you have little consideration for your daughter's safety and comfort, even if it violates the law of sleeping under the Sukkah during the Feast of Tabernacles. Would you like to answer this slight from the legendarily kind Rabban Hillel?" "Well... Mr. President... if you must know, I tore the ceiling down so that her baby could observe Sukkot from the moment he was born." "...I'm sure they both were thrilled..." "I'm sure God was." "God has better things to care about." "God gave us laws so we can follow them." "God gave us laws so we can live better lives." "We live better lives by following His laws." "We live better lives by interpreting His laws in the way that best provides our welfare." "And how's that working Rabban Hillel?" "Well... Holy Father... while I was risking my life trying to assuage Herod the murderer, you were safe in in your Upper Gallilee yeshiva. Everything he did he justified by claiming that our religion is more authoritarian than any measure he adapted, and there were times he was right. But we showed him that Judaism has another way, so yes, I would say it's working pretty well."
8. "And what about when Herod decides that your Jewish liberality is no longer useful?" "Meaning?" "Your liberality is useful when Herod tries to ingratiate our country to Rome for business, but when Rome bleeds Judean resources dry as they do every country they subordinate, and we have to defend ourselves against enslavement, what have we left to defend us?" "When it's time to defend ourselves against Rome, we will defend ourselves with every way we must." "And who will follow you? A people unused to privation? Grown indolent and lazy with your liberality?" "Do not underestimate the lazy. They above all people are sensitive to their circumstances." "And what will we have left to fund their rebellion?" "Well,... emes... but there is always trust in the covenant of Lord to fall back on."
9. "So then you admit you don't have faith in the Lord's covenant." "Reb Shammai! Of course I do... I just have some faith in fellow Jews as well." "And what... evidence... is there that we are as worthy of your faith as God?" "The fact that we have sustained a faith in God's covenant for a thousand years. Not to mention the fact that God clearly has faith enough in us to give the covenant to us." "So you would have us be so indistinct from God that we deserve your faith?" "We are not indistinct from God, but we are made in his image and therefore deserve some small degree of the faith He deserves. We really should go back into the chamber." "Just one more question Rabban, if men deserve some degree of the faith God does, then why have we the chutzpah to punish men when they break laws and not punish God when he breaks his covenant."
10. "So you admit that God sometimes breaks his covenant?" "I have no position on this." "What position have you?" "
--------------------------------------------------------------
7. " "....Emes... but the purpose of Jewish law is to make us worthier of our God." "And how do people become worthy of their God by fighting each other and starving?" "Emes again... but if God has the faith in us you say he has, then surely he shows how we are in His likeness by making us solve problems great enough that we think He should be the one solving them." "Emes to you... but why then not put the matter before the court where men can help their fellow men solve challenges so great that they're worthy of gods?" "That is not the purpose of the courts." "What is the purpose then?" "The purpose is to help bring Jews closer to God." "How do you bring Jews closer to God without easing their pain?"
No comments:
Post a Comment