[Avodah] havdallah, and other berachos

[David Riceman]

RLL:

<<I always heard that. That there were 120 members from its inception 
until its end, but never more than 71 at any one time.>>

One of my rebbeim cited a Yerushalmi which claimed that there were 85 
members, and said that the list of householders in Ezra contained 85 
names.  He claimed that the number of members of the KhG changed with 
the clan structure of the Jews of EY (see Yerushalmi Megillah 70d that 
85 members of the KhG approved of Purim, and Yerushalmi Berachos 4d that 
120 members of the KhG established the text of shmoneh esraih).

The article in Otzar Yisrael gives a summary of the scholarly consensus 
around 100 years ago (including both of the references above).

David Riceman