Babylonian Talmud

Rodkinson 1918 — source 2, scan section 76

in Judaea proper from the obnoxious presence of the priests at all times; for at harvest-time, or when the grain was brought from the lands outside of Judaea, the ever-watchful priest was on hand. To this end the subsequent regulations concerning Therumah were enacted and gradually reenforced. Thus at first a man who had eaten a thing unclean in the first degree rendered Therumah useless; then a man who had eaten a thing of the second degree of uncleanness, until finally even a sacred scroll, or even a hand that had come in contact with a sacred scroll, and last of all a hand that was not known to be positively clean, rendered Therumah useless. All this was done with the sole object of keeping the priests out of the houses of the laymen, and rather bring the Therumah to them than have them come to demand it. Should they come in spite of this, it was not difficult to find a pretext for calling the Therumah unclean. In order, however, not to make the purpose of these regulations 390 APPENDIX. too apparent, and thus give offence to the priests, other regula- tions were enacted in conjunction with these, which, while of no value whatever in themselves, acted as screens for the actual intentions. It is now not difficult to explain the historical sensation caused by the deference shown by Hillel to Shamai at the commence- ment of these deliberations, and the reasons which prompted the posting of an armed guard at the entrance of the hall. Hillel, in his capacity as a prince of Israel, was somewhat too timid to proceed against the priests in too harsh a manner; but the masses were so much incensed against their oppressors, and so deeply conscious of their grievances, that he could not stem the popular tide against them. In this emergency it was Shamai, under ordi- nary circumstances of lesser consequence than Hillel, that proved to be the champion of the popular cause ; and in order to insure for him a telling majority when the question came up for a final vote, the doors of the hall were guarded so that none could leave, while all were allowed to enter. Seeing the patriotism and popu- larity of Shamai, the prince could not help bowing to popular sentiment and showing respect to the favorite of the hour. It would require a volume of many, many pages to demon- strate how each one of the regulations instituted was directed against the priests, how deeply it injured them, and in what measure it curtailed their previous unlimited sphere of action ; also, especially, how the dispute between Hillel and Shamai concerning the susceptibility to uncleanness of vessels used at grape and olive pressing concerned the priests. Even then, a person not thoroughly imbued with the spirit of those times could scarcely understand it ; but we would request that the eighteen regulations be again carefully perused, and it will read- ily be observed by even the casual reader, from the hints given, that the ten ordinances * relating to Therumah were directed entirely against the priests, and the four concerning uncleanness were in part against the priests and in part against mingling with other nations; as for the regulation against mingling, that goes without saying, while the regulations concerning the Mikvah and Sabbath were but incidental and trivial matters intended as a screen for the grave importance of those mentioned. * We have not enumerated the ordinances in their regular order of sequence as to the time, for they are scattered in the Talmud without any order, but arranged them more in accordance with their importance and severity, according to the com- mentary of Rashi. Princeton Theological Seminat7 Libraries 1 1012 01249 6867