[Avodah] bavel leadership

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:59:49AM +0100, Arie Folger wrote:
: RMB wrote:
: > In any case, my reconstruction appears to be peshat in Sukkah 20a.
...
: >                                                The first time the
: > Torah was forgotten from Israel, Ezra came up from Bavel and
: > reestablished it, when it was forgotten again, Hillel haBavli came
: > up and reestablished it, and when it was forgotten, R' Chiya and
: > his sons came up [also from Bavel] and established it.

: There is another way to understand the specific circumstances under
: which Hillel was needed, which teaches about the Benei Beteirah
: interregnum, as you term it, too....

Abbreviating a thesis by R' SZ Leiman, he writes:
: In short, and doing a tremendous injustice to his talk, there was a
: period, which probably lasted decades, during which the Boethitians
: were in charge of the Beit haMiqdash. They used the Dead Sea sect
: calendar, which is a solar calendar, based on 364 days a year, so that
: every holiday always begins on the same day of the year...

As I wrote RAF privately, this fits the Y-mi, which sometimes refers to
the Beis Issim rather than Baisusim. This would mean some identification
between the Beisusim and the Essenes, the sect discussed by Chazal but
not Josephus with the sect Josephus names but never shows up in Chazal.

I also do not think the two understandings of why Hillel was needed
contradict. Reish Laqish refers to Hillel reestablishing Torah. But it
would be logical if the period in which the Baisusim assumed control
over the Sanhedrin was one which led to the Torah getting forgotten to
the point of needing reestablishment.

What it does do is rob my reference of the point for which I was quoting
it. I used it to suggest that Bavel had a strong Torah community during
the time of the events of Chanukah. However, in this light, the reason
why Torah study was so strong in Bavel in Hillel's day could be because
the religious climate in Israel was such that the talmidei chakhamim
would have descended to Bavel after the events of Chanukah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Friendship is like stone. A stone has no value,
micha at aishdas.org        but by rubbing one stone against another,
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Fax: (270) 514-1507      	    - Rav Mordechai of Lechovitz