Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 2, scan section 75

taking the bread, oil, etc., of Gentiles, the proclamation declar- ing the children of heathens unclean (to prevent the children of Jews from joining them at play and thus forming attachments), and the women of the Samaritans, the deadliest enemies of the Jews, unclean (in order to prevent their employment as servants by Jews), it was but little more difficult to devise laws which would forever break the oppressive domination of the priests in a mild but nevertheless effective manner. The first step necessary for the accomplishment of this desir- able end was to completely destroy the system of espionage practised by the priests, and which was carried on to such an extent that spies were constantly prying into actions and even utterances in the houses of the laymen. This was, however, by no means an easy task, from the very fact that the priests were virtual shareholders in all the possessions of the laymen. One fiftieth of all grain raised by the peasants was their share as Therumah; one tenth of such grain comprised the tithe, and one tenth of the tithe belonged to the priests individually; the first of the dough, the first of shorn wool, the parts of slaugh- tered cattle, the firstlings of cattle, the firstfruits of trees and produce, all belonged to the priests; and it was but natural that they were to be found in the houses of the laymen at all times, whither they would come not to humbly ask for their donations, but to demand it as the rightful possessors and share- holders. Nor were they at all backward about taking a hand in the management of all other affairs of the layman, under the plea of guarding their own interests ; and thus at times willingly, sometimes unwillingly, they were the spies of the higher author- ities of the government. The question then arose how to find a place where the delib- erations for the suppression of this constantly growing evil could be held without the presence of the spying priests; and to meet the exigencies of the case, an old decree that had been promul- gated in the early days of the existence of the Temple was again called into being and made effective. The decree was the one enacted in the time of Jose ben Joezer Ish Izreda and Jose ben Johanan the Jerusalemite, and read: " All the lands outside of Judaea are unclean " {i.e., all eatables and beverages containing any degree of sanctity whatever are rendered unclean by coming 388 APPENDIX. in contact with the soil of those lands outside of Judaea, but aside from such eatables and beverages nothing was rendered unclean). Now, the only eatables and beverages containing any sanctity whatever, which could be found outside of Jerusalem, where the sacrifices and other sanctified articles were brought, were the gifts and the Therumah set aside for the priests. Thus we see that the declaration of uncleanness, ostensibly directed against all eatables containing any degree of sanctity, was in reality directed against the Therumah of the priests, while the priests themselves were flattered by the elevation of the Theru- mah to the degree of highest sanctity, and its object will be apparent from the following argument : The Therumah is invested with sanctity only when it is sep- arated from the bulk, but while still a part of the entire crop it is regarded as ordinary grain. If the Therumah were separated from the bulk in any land outside of Judsea, the moment it comes in contact with the soil it becomes unclean and unfit for use. This fact made it necessary to separate the Therumah in Judaea. The transportation of the entire crop to Judaea for such a purpose involving too much labor and expense, part of the crop was set aside in the field, and from that part a sufficient quantity was separated and sent to the holy land. There the quantity of the Therumah (which according to biblical ordinance could have been only one grain, but according to established custom amounted to one fiftieth of the entire crop) was sepa- rated from the quantity sent. The consequence of this mode of procedure was, that the presence of the priest at the place where the crop was harvested was no longer required, as he could not demand his share outside of Judaea. Thus it was rendered pos- sible to hold a convocation where the presence of the priest was no longer to be dreaded.* It seems that up to the time of Hananiah ben Hizkyah this decree had been evidently disre- garded or not sufficiently efTective,t for we see that eighty years * At the same time that the decree declaring all lands outside of Judaea unclean was promulgated, glassware was also declared unclean, while prior to that time glass- ware had not even been susceptible to uncleanness. We cannot state positively whether this was done in order to render the first decree less conspicuous or to pre- vent the priests from being present at the places where glassware was manufactured, which were all outside of Judsea. Be that as it may, it can safely be assumed that the measure was another political ruse. f It was not sufficiently effective because, in order to circumvene the decree, the priests brought chests to the lands outside of Judaea in which to store the bulk of the grain before separating the Therumah, and thus prevent the contact of the latter with the soil. This we presume from a hint of Rashi to that effect. APPENDIX. 389 prior to the destruction of the Temple it was again promulgated, and this time reenforced with the declaration that even the at- mosphere of all lands outside of Judaea was unclean and all arti- cles containing any degree of sanctity were rendered unclean by contact with such atmosphere. The eighty years before the destruction of the Temple corre- spond with the time of Hananiah ben Hizkyah, and it is quite possible that the sages called by the Talmud " the sages of the eighty years *' were the same that took part in the deliberations in the attic, and that, in order to secure at least one place where they could hold a convocation undisturbed by the priests, they declared even the atmosphere of the lands outside of Judaea unclean. The Talmud relates, also, that in the city of Usha the decree was reenforced for the third time with the declaration that all articles rendered unclean by the atmosphere of such lands were not only to be rendered useless, but were to be immediately burned, as a precaution lest a priest might accidentally make use of them. Still, the decree was not as effective as it should have been, as long as the priest could come and announce that he would use his share of the Therumah for seed or dispose of it as seed, and to meet this exigency the sages of the attic first of all decreed that the crops raised from clean or unclean Therumah, used as seed, were clean or unclean respectively. Again, means had to be devised to rid the laymen residing