- As we know, Jews come in all shapes and sizes,
short and tall,
white and brown,
Hillel and Shammai.
That last category might be harder to fill out on a census,
but it's a major one.
The Jewish people have long differentiated themselves
by the Rabbinic opinions they follow.
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70CE,
Rabbinic Judaism became the center of Jewish life,
and with the absence of Priestly sacrifices
and Temple rituals,
rabbis became the focal point of Jewish study and practice.
But these great sages and leaders of the time
feared for the survival of Torah study
in the face of persecution and life in the diaspora.
That's when a great scholar and leader
named Rav Judah HaNasi came to the rescue
and made the innovative decision to write down
parts of the Jewish Oral Law,
editing and redacting what is known as the Mishnah.
This changed the game for Judaism and Torah study,
serving as the basis for the Talmud
and the continued study and elucidation
of Jewish Law, or Halacha,
that the Jewish people practice to this day.
Okay, just a "bisl" of context for you.
During the Hasmonean era,
two prominent sects of Judaism emerge.
The Pharisees believe, according to the practices
dating back to the giving of the Torah at Sinai,
that both the Written and Oral Laws of the Bible
are binding.
They are the majority,
and oppose the Hellenization,
or assimilation into Greek culture,
accepted by the Jewish political rulers of the time.
The Sadducees, on the other hand,
believe only the Written Law to be binding.
This group consists of the social elite,
who accept the secular Greek influence of Hellenization.
The two sects have
your regular old Taylor Swift-Katy Perry feud,
and tensions exist throughout the final duration
of the Hasmonean dynasty.
The destruction of the Second Temple
is horrific for all of the Jewish people,
but especially the Sadducees,
who essentially die out after the tragic event in 70CE.
At the same time, the Pharisees' ideology continues
and those who teach its laws
begin to receive the title of "rabbi".
The era of Rabbinic Judaism emerges,
the rabbis play the central role in Jewish life,
replacing the Temple as the focal point of law and custom.
Every great tournament needs its team rivalry,
and in Judaism this is no less apparent
than during the time of the Zugot.
During the second and first centuries BCE,
Zugot, or rabbinic pairs,
are established within the Sanhedrin,
the highest judicial body of Judaism
which rules over legal and religious disputes.
The Zugot are kind of like President and Vice President,
and are known as the Nasi and the Av Beit Din.
Their main mission is to learn all of the Torah
and transmit it faithfully to the entire Jewish people
and future generations.
Often, a duo of conflicting opinions emerges
from the positions of the Nasi and Av Beit Din.
These duos hash out the application of Jewish law,
and by virtue of their vast knowledge,
are accepted as the keepers of the Torah
as it applies to daily religious life.
The Zugot become the leaders of the people,
transmitting the entire Oral Law
to the next generation of Jews
and tweeting the nation about their newest ideas.
There were four different rabbinical pairs
during the Hasmonean period, circa 142 BCE to 63 BCE,
ending with Judah ben Tabbai and Simeon ben Shetach.
Simeon ben Shetach is responsible
for several important rulings
that become formative parts of Jewish practice
and are some of my own personal favorites.
He prescribes that children should attend school,
and that a husband be held liable
for the value of his entire property
if he fails to fulfill the marriage contract with his wife.
Simeon ben Shetach understands the value Judaism
has always placed on education
and uses his position to make changes
for the better of society
and for the fulfillment of Torah law.
The last of the Zugot, and arguably the most famous,
is that of Hillel and Shammai.
Hillel, known as "Hillel HaZaken" or Hillel the Elder,
becomes the central figure in Jerusalem
and the leading opinion
on many religious debates and practices.
Hillel is born in Babylon,
and makes the trek to Jerusalem as a young man.
He is appointed the President of the Sanhedrin in 30 BCE,
seven years after Herod comes to the throne.
He gains universal respect for his high ethical standards.
One of his most famous quotes
becomes a central piece of Jewish philosophy,
"If I am not for myself, who is for me?
But if I am for myself alone, what am I?
And if not now, when?"
Yeah. Lots to unpack there.
Hillel has many followers,
possibly even more than Kylie Jenner has on Instagram.
He founds the school known as Beit Hillel,
or the House of Hillel.
Some of his more outstanding disciples and descendants
are Rabban Gamliel,
who you may know from the Passover seder,
and Rabban Simon ben Gamliel.
The former contributes important regulations
on personal status and the leap-year,
and the latter becomes the supreme authority on Jewish law
for the entire country
right before the Great Revolt against the Romans.
Shammai is born in Judea,
and is eventually appointed to Veep of the Sanheidrin.
He is a great scholar with many Insta followers of his own,
who are known as Beit Shammai, or the House of Shammai.
Shammai is considered more stringent
on matters of Jewish law, and the public practice
often sides with the more lenient Hillel.
Shammai is known for his famous saying,
"Make your study of the Torah a fixed practice,
speak little, but do much,
and receive all men with a pleasant countenance."
I should clarify something pretty major,
Hillel and Shammai are actually friends,
and agree on most principles of Jewish law.
They argue against one another in only six specific cases,
and agree on thousands.
The two men may have some fierce debates,
but their opinions are anchored in the same traditions
and they celebrate the same Judaism.
Even when their disciples argue on over 300 cases
through the following years,
the two schools of thought still marry one another
and harbor a deep respect for one another's opinions.
Their debates are said to be true examples
of controversy for the sake of Heaven.
Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai challenge Jewish followers
even centuries later, to argue not for our own sakes,
but out of love of truth and love for others.
During the latter era of the Second Temple,
the study of and commentary on Oral Law begins to expand
as it passes down from one generation to the next.
The disciples of Hillel and Shammai
continue teaching their practices
as well as implementing opinions of their own.
These teachers are known as "Tannaim",
Aramaic for repeaters or teachers,
and "Chachamim", Hebrew for wise ones.
They become the unofficial leaders of the nation,
and in some cases, are more influential
than the official ones.
They are the experts on law under the Torah,
developing and interpreting it
as well as being teachers and moralists.
After the destruction of the Second Temple,
this focus on Torah as the governing force for everyday life
becomes even more important.
Without a physical capital
to practice sacrifices and daily rituals,
the Jewish people rely once again
on Torah study and its commandments
as a foundation for their national mission
of living Torah-filled lives.
Some big names emerge in the era of Tannaitic sages,
many of them reaching celebrity status.
They include rabbis like Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai,
Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, Rabbi Akiva,
and Rabbi Simeon ben Yochai.
They continue to pass down the Oral Law to the people,
share the rulings of the Zugot,
and develop their own decisions on halacha, or Jewish law.
Their study occurs mainly in the Beit Din,
or Jewish School of Higher Learning,
which centers in Yavne until the Romans move it
to the Galilee region after the Bar Kochba revolt.
But after the revolt, the threat against Jewish nationhood
is at an all-time high.
The Romans close down the Beit Din
and expel almost all of the Jews from Judea.
The Torah and the memories of the Land of Israel
remain the sole vestiges of nationhood
amongst the scattered Jews in the diaspora.
In a world where Judaism faces this real threat,
one man takes remarkable initiative
to preserve the values of Torah study
and the continuity of the Jewish community.
Rav Judah HaNasi rises to fame in Galilee
in the north of Israel in the second century.
The grandson of Rabban Gamliel of Yavne,
a former President of the Sanhedrin,
Judah becomes the leading Torah scholar
and therefore the official community leader
when he assumes the title of President
after the Romans once again permit self-governance
within the Jewish community.
Judah HaNasi fears that the fragmentation of world Jewry
might lead to the disappearance of a nation
and the abandonment of Jewish law.
The increasing persecution and dispersion in exile
makes it very difficult for each generation
to hold onto the vast body of Torah knowledge.
Backed by the other sages of the time,
he makes a bold decision,
to write down the bulk of the Oral Law.
Until this point, Oral Law has remained, well, oral.
It was prohibited to write down the Torah
because this might equate human interpretation
with that of divine text.
Yet by Judah HaNasi's time,
the Jewish people and many Jewish scholars
are facing persecution, and there is a real risk
of losing all that had previously been passed down
by word of mouth.
Judah HaNasi and the sages begin to compile
some parts of the Oral Law
into what we now call the Mishnah.
The Mishnah translates to study in Hebrew,
and is comprised of six books
and organized into 63 tractates.
It's a miracle they found a publisher to print them all.
Rav Judah HaNasi organizes and edits the collection
by topic, in a clear, concise manner
covering all areas of Jewish Law.
He writes down the laws just as they were received
during his time,
as a summation of different opinions,
where no final decisions have been reached.
The Mishnah includes multiple perspectives
on various matters,
side by side with definite rulings
handed down in earlier generations.
It serves as a basic code of conduct,
but moreso, it provides later generations
with the formulas for critical thinking, and interpreting,
and developing Torah law.
Until the Mishnah, Judaism had centered around the Temple
and the wisdom of the priests, known as Cohanim and Levites.
With those positions now gone,
Rabbi Judah HaNasi shifts the center of Jewish life
more towards Torah study and practice.
It is said of Judah HaNasi:
"From the time of Moses to the time of Rabbi Judah HaNasi,
Torah and greatness were never so concentrated
in one person."
Judah HaNasi's primary goals
are the maintenance and unity of Jews in Israel,
and he does this by encouraging widespread Torah study
and observance of the religious and social code
by all classes of people.
He creates a social system
based around the study of one unified text,
and he preserves Hebrew as the language of prayer
at a time when Aramaic is the daily language in the region.
He becomes simply known as Rebbi, the teacher.
During the 500 years of Roman rule,
the Jewish people faced some harsh transitions into Exile.
Threats to the nation existed
in the form of both persecution and dispersion.
Yet the presence of a Jewish people in the Land of Israel
never ceased.
Men like Hillel, Shammai, and Rav Judah HaNasi
took bold actions
to ensure the continuation of Torah
and a central Jewish community.
And the decisions they made to repurpose the Oral Law
created a sustained system of Jewish life
that has endured to this day.
The Mishnah laid the foundation for the Talmud,
which laid the foundation for further study
and interpretation.
Two millennia later, still without a Temple,
the Jewish people continue to thrive
both in the Diaspora and the Land of Israel,
using the very same codes of law
that were preserved in the Mishnah and Talmud so long ago.
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