Q&A: Is the Entire Oral Torah Based on Shimon ben Shatach?
Is the Entire Oral Torah Based on Shimon ben Shatach?
Question
“As it was taught in a baraita: There was an incident involving King Yannai, who went to Kohalit in the wilderness and conquered sixty towns there. On his return he was celebrating greatly, and he called all the sages of Israel and said to them: Our forefathers used to eat salted foods when they were occupied with building the Temple; we too shall eat salted foods in remembrance of our forefathers. They brought salted foods onto tables of gold, and they ate. There was there a certain scoffer, an evil-hearted and wicked man, and Elazar ben Po’ira was his name. Elazar ben Po’ira said to King Yannai: King Yannai, the hearts of the Pharisees are against you. He said: And what shall I do? He said to him: Stand before them with the frontlet between your eyes. He stood before them with the frontlet between his eyes. There was there one elder, and Yehudah ben Gedidya was his name, and Yehudah ben Gedidya said to King Yannai: King Yannai, the crown of kingship is enough for you; leave the crown of priesthood to the descendants of Aaron. For they used to say that his mother had been taken captive in Modi’in, but the matter was investigated and not found to be so. And the sages of Israel withdrew in anger. Elazar ben Po’ira said to King Yannai: King Yannai, if this is the law for an ordinary Jew in Israel, is this your law as king and High Priest? He said: And what shall I do? He said to him: If you listen to my advice, crush them. He said: But what will become of the Torah? He replied: Behold, it is wrapped up and lying in a corner; whoever wishes to study may come and study. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Heresy immediately entered him, for he should have said: That may be true for the Written Torah, but what about the Oral Torah? Immediately evil was unleashed through Elazar ben Po’ira, and all the sages of Israel were killed, and the world was desolate until Shimon ben Shatach came and restored the Torah to its former state” (Kiddushin 66)
King Yannai killed all the sages of Israel except for Shimon ben Shatach, who was Yannai’s brother-in-law (Rashi), and his sister (Queen Salome Alexandra, as I understand it) hid him.
It would seem from here that the entire tradition of the Oral Torah is based on only one person — Shimon ben Shatach!
And another question that comes up from this: at the beginning of tractate Avot, in the listing of the period of the pairs, it says that Shemaya and Avtalyon received from Shimon ben Shatach and Yehudah ben Tabbai. If they received before Yannai killed all the sages, then how were Shemaya and Avtalyon not killed along with the rest of the sages? And if they received afterward, then how did they receive from Yehudah ben Tabbai, who was a sage and was killed together with all the other sages?
Many thanks!
Lavi
Answer
This is not a historical description that literally all the sages of Israel were killed there. A bit of reading comprehension. This is aggadah, and it is evident that it is not historical in all its details (it is not likely that there were sixty towns in Kohalit in the wilderness, just as there are no bar Yokhani eggs and no millions of people on the King’s Mountain and in Betar and in other places). The way of aggadah is to present things in exaggerated form in order to illustrate and to shock. With that, your question at the end also falls away, since it is really just further proof of what I said.
Thank you very much. Indeed, words of aggadah usually are not meant literally, but this story seemed to me דווקא to be a historical account of the killing of all the sages, for a few reasons:
1. The story looks like it was copied from some book, perhaps from external books/apocryphal literature (I didn’t find a source, but that is the style of writing). Expressions like “and he said” or “and the matter was investigated” do not sound like classical rabbinic aggadah.
2. The story is supported in several other places, such as Berakhot 48a: “King Yannai and the queen were dining together, and since he had killed the rabbis, there was no one to recite the blessing for them. He said to his wife: Who will get us a man to bless for us? She said to him: Swear to me that if I bring you such a man, you will not harm him. He swore to her, and she brought Shimon ben Shatach, her brother.”
And likewise in Sotah 47a: “When King Yannai was killing the rabbis, Shimon ben Shatach was hidden by his sister; Rabbi Yehoshua ben Perachya fled and escaped to Alexandria of Egypt.”
I accept that the question from tractate Avot strengthens the claim that not all the sages were killed, at least not Yehudah ben Tabbai, and that this is aggadah like other rabbinic aggadot and not a historical description. But the story’s appearance in several sources does seem to indicate a certain degree of authenticity.