[Avodah] mi yamut

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 09:50:53AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: >How else would you justify having Sanhedrins for each shevet?

: The same way you justify having one for each city.  Et hadavar hakaton
: yishpetu hem.

Define davar gadol. Is it the severity of the law, the number of people
impacted, or the difficulty of the decision?

Tefillin, for example, was left a machloqes for millenia. Yigal Yadin
found evidence of the machloqes back in the days of a Sanhedrin, and it
lasted into the 12th century (Rabbeinu Tam was born in 1100 CE).

Tzitzis in the days of the Sanhedrin were tied in a wide variety of ways.
The geonim, rishonim and achronim come to many different recommendations
given the conflicting sources.

Havarah wasn't brought to uniformity, or else someone would have taught
sheivet Ephrayim that the shin differs from the sin.

I think we could find evidence of numerous machloqesin that the Sanhedrin
had to have known of but didn't try to bring to uniformity.


Speaking of the court for each sheivet, I once wondered on list
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n078.shtml#14> about a
of a mythical Issacharism, what could have become of beris
Sinai in the hands of another sheivet known for their erudition had
their history run differently.

On my blog, I wrote
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2006/04/what-is-judaism.shtml>:
> I think much of what drives the Torah's laws of inheritance is
> Hashem’s desire for each sheivet to have a distinct derekh avodah,
> and each beis av to have its own subspecies. Without that, there is
> little rationale for choosing one gender over the other, and from
> Chazal until today we find ways to avoid being obligated to do so.

> In fact, most questions must not have gone forward to the central beis
> din in Yerushalayim, the Sanhedrin. Each sheivet had their own judicial
> system as well, and their own high court. Israel was much bigger then
> than once the Greeks and Romans brought more modern means of harnessing,
> modern roads, etc... There was opportunity for much greater variety of
> opinions than those of Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. Each sheivet had
> the opportunity to forge very distinct implementations of the covenant
> of Sinai. Each evolved according to the rules of halakhah, (in addition
> to the idolatrous and irreligious amongst us) and therefore all within
> the covenant, all of them "the words of the living G-d", but with much
> less frequent need to impose "but the law is according to..."

> The 12 nesi'im, the heads of the tribes, each gave the same gift for
> the inauguration of the Mishkan. And yet, for each day the Torah lists
> the items in the gift again, repeating the same text (or nearly so)
> twelve times. (Bamidbar 7:12-83) The Ramban explains that even though the
> items given were identical, a silver platter, a silver sprinking bowel,
> fine flower mixed with oil, a gold pan, a bull, a ram, a lamb, a goat,
> and shelamim offerings, the intent was distinct. And he goes through
> the gift of each nasi, explaining how he related it to his own tribe's
> history, talents, and culture.

> It's mind-stretching to think how different their expressions of Torah
> would be. Perhaps they would even seem like different religions. ...

(I then go on to speculate why Yehudah's version of the beris was the
one to be revived; why Hashem wanted benei Yisrael to become the nation
called Yehudim.)

Picture the evolution of halakhah that differed from Judah-ism in more
fundamental ways than Ashkenaz vs Sepharad vs etc... One that is far
more alien to us hashkafically than Chassidei Ashkenaz and their
self-flagellation.

After all, the splits from tannaim onward were all given the Judean
and Levitic courts' traditions. (With a little influence from Binyamin,
Shim'on, and survivors of other shevatim.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
micha at aishdas.org        about things most people don't watch even on
http://www.aishdas.org   Yom Kippur.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rabbi Israel Salanter