[Avodah] R. Akiva, Bar Kochba and Zecharya HaNovi

[Zev Sero]

On 11/10/17 11:42, Micha Berger wrote:
> 
> The man described in the Y-mi Taanis 24b (4:5) doesn't sound personally
> observant.

The Rambam clearly doesn't hold like the Yerushalmi's version of the 
story, because he holds that the Chachamim stuck with BK until he was 
killed "ba`avonos".  That word is ambiguous (whose sins, his or the 
people's) but later he says a presumptive Moshiach who's killed is 
"kechol malchei beis Dovid hash'leimim vehak'sheirim", so we can assume 
he holds that BK was killed for the generation's sins, not for his own, 
hence "ba`avonos", not "ba`avonosav".


> This is also why in both R' Aqiva's world as well as R' Meir's and R'
> Shim'on's -- before and after BK's revolt -- it is taken for granted
> that most Jews are amei ha'aretz.

Amei Haaretz were in the Perushim "denomination".  They kept Perushi 
halacha as well as they understood it, even if they despised the 
Chaverim who taught it.  They made up their own invalid leniencies in 
maasros, and weren't careful all year with taharos, but they were 
careful with terumah and never told lies on Shabbos.  In any case, the 
question isn't what the majority would have done on their own, but 
whether BK forced them to obey halacha, and the Rambam assumes he did.


-- 
Zev Sero                May 2017, with its *nine* days of Chanukah,
zev at sero.name           be a brilliant year for us all