Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Sanhedrin

Folio 18a

Our Rabbis taught: And place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens:⁴  The rulers of thousands amounted to six hundred;⁵  those of hundreds, six thousand; those of fifties, twelve thousand; and those of tens, sixty thousand. Hence the total number of judges in Israel was seventy-eight thousand and six hundred.

CHAPTER II

MISHNAH. THE HIGH PRIEST MAY JUDGE AND BE JUDGED, TESTIFY AND BE TESTIFIED AGAINST. HE MAY PERFORM HALIZAH,⁶  AND THE SAME MAY BE DONE TO HIS WIFE. THE DUTY OF YIBBUM⁷  MAY BE PERFORMED TO HIS WIFE; HE HOWEVER, MAY NOT, PERFORM THAT DUTY, SINCE HE IS FORBIDDEN TO MARRY A WIDOW.⁸

IF A DEATH HAPPENS IN HIS FAMILY, HE MUST NOT WALK IMMEDIATELY BEHIND THE BIER,⁹  BUT WHEN THEY¹⁰  DISAPPEAR,¹¹  HE MAY SHOW HIMSELF;¹²  WHEN THEY APPEAR [IN ONE STREET], HE MUST BE HIDDEN.¹³  [IN THIS MANNER] HE MAY GO WITH THEM AS FAR AS THE ENTRANCE OF THE GATE OF THE CITY. SO HOLDS R. MEIR. R. JUDAH SAID: HE MUST NOT LEAVE THE SANCTUARY, BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN, NEITHER SHALL HE GO OUT OF THE SANCTUARY'.¹⁴  WHEN HE CONSOLES OTHERS, IT IS CUSTOMARY FOR THE PEOPLE TO PASS ALONG, ONE AFTER THE OTHER,¹⁵  AND FOR THE 'MEMUNNEH',¹⁶  TO PLACE HIM BETWEEN HIMSELF AND THE PEOPLE.¹⁷  IF HE IS CONSOLED BY OTHERS, ALL THE PEOPLE SAY TO HIM, 'MAY WE BE THY ATONEMENT, AND HE ANSWERS THEM,' BE YE BLESSED OF HEAVEN. AND WHEN THE MOURNERS' MEAL¹⁸  IS GIVEN TO HIM, ALL THE PEOPLE ARE SEATED ON THE FLOOR AND HE ON A STOOL.

THE KING MAY NEITHER JUDGE NOR BE JUDGED, TESTIFY NOR BE TESTIFIED AGAINST. HE MAY NOT PERFORM HALIZAH NOR MAY IT BE PERFORMED TO HIS WIFE. HE MAY NOT PERFORM YIBBUM, NOR MAY IT BE PERFORMED TO HIS WIFE. R. JUDAH SAID: IF HE WISHES TO PERFORM HALIZAH OR YIBBUM, HE SHALL BE REMEMBERED FOR GOOD. BUT THEY [THE RABBIS] SAID: [EVEN IF HE WISHES] HE IS NOT LISTENED TO; NOR MAY ANY ONE MARRY HIS WIDOW. R. JUDAH SAID: A KING MAY MARRY A KING'S WIDOW, FOR SO WE FIND IN THE CASE OF DAVID WHO MARRIED THE WIDOW OF SAUL, AS IT IS WRITTEN, AND I GAVE THEE THY MASTER'S HOUSE AND THY MASTER'S WIVES INTO THY BOSOM.¹⁹

GEMARA. THE HIGH PRIEST [MAY JUDGE]. But is this not obvious? — It is necessary to state, HE MAY BE JUDGED.²⁰  But that too is obvious, for if he cannot be judged, how can he judge? It is not written, hithkosheshu wa-koshshu,²¹  which Resh Lakish interpreted: Adorn yourselves first, and then adorn others?²²  — But since he [the Tanna] wishes to state: A KING MAY NEITHER JUDGE NOR BE JUDGED, he also, teaches' THE HIGH PRIEST MAY JUDGE AND BE JUDGED. Alternatively, he [the Tanna] informs us of the following: Viz., of what has been taught: If a High priest killed anyone; if intentionally, he is executed, if unintentionally, he is exiled.²³  He transgresses positive and negative commandments, and ranks as a hedyot²⁴  in all respects.²⁵

'If intentionally, he is executed.' Is this not obvious? — It is necessary to state, 'If unintentionally, he is exiled.'²⁶  But is not that, too, evident? It is necessary; for you might have thought that I could argue from the verse, And he shall dwell therein until the death of the High Priest²⁷  that only he whose return is provided for,²⁸  is exiled, but one whose return is not provided for, is not exiled. For we learnt:

1. Tosef. III. Two hundred and thirty in accordance with R. Nehemia, and forty-seven held in reserve for increasing the number of the court of twenty-three, where one is uncertain and the rest equally divided, adding two at a time, up to a maximum of seventy or seventy-one, v. infra 40a.
2. Requiring only seventy to constitute the Sanhedrin.
3. Requiring seventy-one.
4. Ex. XVIII, 21.
5. Since the population consisted of 600,000. Likewise for the other officials. (Ex. XII, 35.). [This is to teach that the judges were included in the number of each respective group (Tanh. Mishpatim].
6. V. n. p. 1 and p. 31.
7. [H] The duty of a levirate marriage, i.e., the obligation of marrying one's brother's widow if she be childless. (V. Deut. XXV, 5.) Although marriage with a brother's widow was forbidden as a general rule (Lev. XVIII, 16; XX, 21), in the case of childlessness it was obligatory. This obligation could, however, be avoided by the ceremony of Halizah, which was recommended later in Talmudic times in preference to yibbum (v. Yeb. 39b; 109a).
8. Lev. XXI, 14. A widow, or one divorced, or a profaned woman, or a harlot, these shall he not take.
9. Though by following the bier, he would not come in actual contact with the dead: (v. p. 18, n. 7), precautions had to be taken so as to prevent any possibility of his becoming levitically impure.
10. The other mourners.
11. From one street, having entered a second.
12. In the first.
13. I.e., he most always be one street behind the concourse following the bier.
14. Lev. XXI, 12.
15. In ordinary cases, after the burial, friends of the mourner passed by in a line and offered him comfort. In later times this was reversed, the friends standing in two rows, and the mourner passing between them.
16. Lit., 'the appointed one'. An officer of high rank in the Temple, generally the superintendent of the Temple service. Here identical with the Segan; v. R. Papa's statement, p. 97 and n. 5. loc. cit.
17. I.e., The High Priest was attended on the right by the Memunneh and on the left by the people.
18. 'se'udath habra'ah', the first meal after the funeral which is prepared and given to the mourners by a neighbour. (v. II Sam. III. 35; M.K. 27b). This meal consists of bread and eggs. V.B.B. 16b.
19. II Sam. XII, 8.
20. And so the first is mentioned too, for completeness.
21. [H] Zeph. II, 1. E.V. Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together.
22. By a play on the similarity of 'gather yourselves together', fr. [H] and 'adorn yourselves', Heb. [H]
23. V. Num. XXXV, 11.
24. V. Glos.
25. V. Sanh. Tosef. IV.
26. V. p. 92, n. 4.
27. Num. XXXV, 25.
28. I.e., by the death of the High Priest.

'He transgresses positive and negative commandments.' But is he bound⁴  to transgress?⁵  — What it means is: If he transgressed a positive or a negative commandment, he is in every respect [equal to] a hedyot.⁶  But is this not obvious? — [No,] I might think, since we learnt: 'A whole tribe, a false prophet or a high priest are not to be judged except by a court of seventy one';⁷  and R. Adda b. Ahabah said: [This is deduced from the verse,] Every great matter they shall bring unto thee,⁸  meaning, 'the matters of a great man':⁹  — therefore (I might think) all matters of a great man [involve trial by the Great Sanhedrin]; the Tanna therefore teaches us [otherwise].¹⁰

But perhaps it is so?¹¹  — Is it actually written, 'matters of a great [man]'? What it states is: 'The great matter', i.e., the really important matter.¹²

HE MAY TESTIFY AND BE TESTIFIED AGAINST. He may testify? But has it not been taught: And hide thyself from them;¹³  there are times when thou mayest hide thyself¹⁴  and there are times when thou mayest not. How so?¹⁵  — [E.g., when the finder is] a Kohen and it [sc. the object found] is in a grave-yard;¹⁶  or an old man, and it is undignified for him;¹⁷  or when his work is of greater value than his neighbour's [loss]: in such cases Scripture says, And hide thyself.¹⁸  — said R. Joseph: He may be a witness for the king.¹⁹  But have we not learnt: HE [THE KING] MAY NEITHER JUDGE NOR BE JUDGED; TESTIFY NOR BE TESTIFIED AGAINST? — But, said R. Zera: He may be a witness for the king's son. But the king's son is a commoner!²⁰  — Rather [say thus]: He may testify in the presence of the king.²¹  But surely the king may not be given a seat on the Sanhedrin! — For the sake of the High Priest's dignity, he comes and sits down until his evidence is received, after which he leaves and then we deliberate on his²²  case.

The text [states]: 'The king may not be given a seat on the Sanhedrin;' nor may the king or the High Priest be members of the board for the intercalation of the year.

'The king [may not be given a seat] in the Sanhedrin,' — because it is written, Thou shalt not speak 'al rib [in a case].²³  [meaning], thou shalt not speak against the rab [chief of the judges].²⁴  Again. 'nor may the king or the High Priest be members of the board for the intercalation of the year.' The king, on account of 'Afsanya' [the upkeep of the army];²⁵  the High Priest, because of the [autumnal] cold.²⁶

R. Papa said: This²⁷  proves that the seasons of the year fall in with the normal lunar months.²⁸  But is it so? Were there not three cowherds who were standing conversing, and who were overheard by some Rabbis. One of them said: If the early and late sowing²⁹  sprout together, the month is Adar; if not, it is not Adar.³⁰  The second said: If in the morning frost is severe enough to injure³¹  an ox, and at mid-day the ox lies in the shade of the fig-tree and scratches its hide,³²  then it is Adar, if not, it is not Adar. And the third said: When a strong east wind is blowing and your breath can prevail against it, the month is Adar; if not, it is not Adar. Thereupon the Rabbis intercalated the year?³³  — Is it then logical for you to assume that the Rabbis intercalated the year by a simple reliance upon cowherds? But they relied on their own calculations, and the cowherds [merely] corroborated their proposed action.³⁴

HE MAY PERFORM HALIZAH. The Tanna teaches this³⁵  categorically. irrespective of whether [his sister-in-law was widowed] after nesu'in or only after erusin.³⁶  Now, as for a widow after nesu'in, it is correct, since he is interdicted by a positive and a negative command;³⁷

1. That is, if there was no High Priest at the time when he was exiled. V. Mak. 11b.
2. That he should actually be exempt from exile.
3. Deut. XIX, 3.
4. Lit., 'Is there no way', 'is it impossible that he should not transgress'?
5. 'He transgresses etc.' implies that he must transgress.
6. V. Tosef. Sanh. IV.
7. V. supra 2a.
8. Ex. XVIII, 22.
9. I.e., the High Priest, v supra 16b.
10. That through transgression he becomes a mere hedyot and is tried by three.
11. May not the interpretation of the matters of a great man apply to this also?
12. I.e., one involving capital punishment.
13. Deut. XXII, 4, in reference to the return of lost objects.
14. I.e. refrain from carrying out the duty of returning the find.
15. When is one permitted to retreat?
16. V. p. 18, n. 7.
17. To pick up the object.
18. Thus a man's dignity abrogates the injunction, Thou mayest not hide thyself'; in the same way, the duty of bearing testimony (v. Lev. V, 1) should be abrogated in favor of a High Priest, since it is not in keeping with his exalted office.
19. I.e. in a case where the king is one of the litigants.
20. Hence even so it is still undignified for the High Priest to testify.
21. I.e., when the king is a member of the Sanhedrin.
22. The king's son's (Rashi).
23. Ex. XXIII, 2. [H] rib is here written defectively, i.e., without a yod, hence can be read rab, 'master' or 'chief'.
24. I.e. if the king were a member of the Sanhedrin, other members would be inclined to suppress their opinions in deference to him.
25. [G] from [G] wages. As it would be to his interest sometimes to intercalate and sometimes not to intercalate the year. according as the payment of the army is by the year or by the month.
26. Since he might be biassed against intercalation which, by placing the Day of Atonement later in the autumn, would make the several ritual baths which he has to take on that day (five immersions in all) rather cold. V. Yoma 31b.
27. The objection to the High Priest's taking part in the intercalation of the year.
28. I.e., when the year is intercalated, the weather in Tishri is the equivalent of that of Marcheshvan in an ordinary year.
29. I.e., the wheat sown earlier and the barley that was sown later (Rashi).
30. But Shewat.
31. Lit., 'kill'.
32. Through the heat.
33. Thus we see that the purpose of intercalation is to readjust the seasons, and the second Adar then has the climate of the first Adar in normal years, therefore Tishri will have its usual degree of heat in an intercalated year.
34. In case, therefore, intercalation has been prompted by a reason other than the readjusting of the seasons, the weather will vary according to the months.
35. That the High Priest may not perform Yibbum.
36. V. Glos. A widow after erusin is still a virgin.
37. a) A virgin of his people he shall take to wife, Lev.XXI, 14; b) A widow he shall not take. ibid.