[Avodah] caeser & bar kamza

[Zev Sero]

On 2/08/2011 5:54 PM, Harvey Benton wrote:
> i attended a shiur last nite where the rov mentioned that basically everyone
> (from the chachamim (not standing up for bar kamza), to the shamash (who sent the message
> to the wrong person), to the host (mevazeh, etc) to bar kamza (moser), was to
> blame for the destruction related to the bar kamza story.....

Interesting, because R Avigdor Miller explains it just the opposite
way: everyone except Bar Kamtza acted correctly, and the point of the
story is not to blame anyone; on the contrary the point is that the
churban came about through the trivial mishap of a messenger confusing
two similar names.  The advantage of this pshat is that it's consistent
with the other two stories in the triplet, which both have that exact
same point, that a tiny mishap caused a major disaster.  "For want of a
nail the kingdom was lost."  If the first story in the set has all these
mussar lessons, and is blaming people for the churban, then how does it
fit in the same set as the other two stories?

> why didn't the chachamim or those in charge of the beis hamikdash,
> simply go and show the ceaser the blemishes that had been cut by
> bar kamza, and explain to him, that we would have gladly accepted an unblemished animal,
> but that this one before us (offered by caeser or his people) but then cut by bar kamza (eye & lip?)
> had been tainted. .....

The gemara says why: in goyishe law this is not considered a blemish,
so he wouldn't have accepted that explanation.

-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name