Fathers 1:1 The Great Assembly

...and the Prophets gave it over to the Men of the Great Assembly.

The Mishna concludes the account of Torah transmission with the Men of the Great Assembly. Not much is known of this institution except that it answered important theological questions (Yoma 69), instituted prayers (Ber 33a, Megillah 17b), and that there were prophets among its members (ibid). Some clues to its purpose may be found in its name, Men of the Great Assembly (rather than just Great Assembly), and in the number of its member - one hundred and twenty. This is an unusual number for it is unique. What I mean is that we repeatedly find seventy elders in Chumash but nowhere do we find one hundred and twenty. To understand the significance of this number and its implications, let us briefly consider the history of representative government in Israel as reflected in the Tanach. I abridge the discussion found in the Hertz Chumash, notes to Deuteronomy, p. 930 (there is much more about this in academic literature but this quotation will suffice for our purposes).

" Next in importance in the molding and administration of the Jewish state was the National Council... The general impression...left on the mind by reading the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua is that Israel was governed by  a Chief (Prince, Judge, King) who was at the head of the military and civil authorities; and that alongside him, was a High Priest who controlled the ecclesiastical establishment; that the Chief had a Council, probably bicameral. to determine national policies; that the smaller chamber was composed of twelve princes (Nesiim), and larger of seventy elders (zekeinim), and that the two constituted the Edah (Congregation or the Parliament)... Throughout the succeeding centuries we find the same democratic institution, exercising executive, political and high judicial powers. This National Council became fully developed under the name of Am-Haaretz... Eventually it re-emerged after the Exile as the Gerusia, the Great Synagogue, and the Sanhedrin."

The question then is why 120? I first share with you the two most plausible answers that I know and then the answer which I prefer because it fits best into the approach that we established previously in this commentary.

R. Reuven Margolis in "Yesod Hamishna V'Arichoso", writes that the Sanhedrin that existed before the Exile was constituted of seventy members. There was never a question of who deserves to belong in it and who does not, for all candidates were ranked and as soon as place was vacated the most deserving candidate in line filled it. This was fairly easy for there would be but a few worthy candidates at a time and there was consensus as to how arrange them by rank. After the Exile, however, the Sanhedrin had to be reconstituted. Many more than seventy potential candidates were available. It was decided therefore to increase the number to include them all by creating a body of 120. Thereafter, as members died, they were not replaced, until the number in the Sanhedrin again reached seventy. Henceforth, the same procedure as before the Exile was followed.

This supposition may explain the difference between the Bavli and Yerushalmi passages. Babylonian Talmud (Meg. 2a) states that the celebration of the Feast of Purim  instituted by the men of the Great Synagogue. But the Palestinian Talmud (Meg. 70d; Ruth R. ii. 4) speaks of "eighty-five elders, among them about thirty prophets."The number eighty-five is taken from Neh. x. 2-29.  Presumably the Yerushalmi is speaking of a time when some of the original members had already died and the total number of the Men of the Great Assembly has shrunk to 85.

This answer explains why there were not seventy members but it does not explain why there were specifically 120 and not, say, 125, or 145 or any other number equal to the number of worthy candidates?

Nachman Krochmal in Moreh Nevukhei Hazeman suggests that the members of Knesset Hagedolah were the 120 heads of families enumerated in Ezra 10.  "The activity of the scribes began with the cessation of that of the Prophets. In fact, after the Israelites who came back from Babylon had turned their hearts to God, there was greater need of men to instruct the people, and to assist them in obtaining a clear understanding of the Law. This body of teachers is identified by Zacharias Frankel ("Darke ha-Mishnah," p. 8) and Nachman Krochmal Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman," ch. xi.) with the "men of the Great Synagogue" (comp. the expression συναγωγὴ γραμματέων in I Macc. vii. 12), of which Simeon the Just was the last member (Jewish Encyclopedia, Scribes)"

Building on both of these explanation and on the principles established earlier in our commentary, we can say that the Men of Great Assembly consciously and purposefully engaged in reformulating Judaism for the new age and circumstances in which the Jewish people found itself. At this point, Prophetic traditions could no longer guide the people, for prophecy ceased and it was no longer possible to strive for it as the supreme goal of religious life. The Men of the Great Assembly, the 120 heads of the families who returned, came together to do nothing less than fashion a new framework into which Sinaitic Laws, prophetic morality and the lessons of history could be fashioned, so that Judaism could survive and flourish. We will learn in the next mishna that it consisted in putting Torah study at the center of religious life. No longer would man seek God directly in prophecy; now he would look for him in his Word and the oral tradition.

What does then the number of 120 signify?. Quite simply, I think that it indicates the unanimity with which the new formulation was accepted. One hundred twenty is highly symbolic for it  is nothing less than 12 times ten. Ten representative from each of the twelve tribes on Israel! What could be more authoritative than this?

That learning has become the goal of religious life is clear from the prologue  of the Book of Ben Sirah. Written in Hebrew between 200 and 175 B.C., contemporaneously with the Knesseth Hagedolah, it mentions them and lays out what the goal of religious life should be. The text was translated into Greek sometime after 132 B.C. by the author's grandson, who also wrote a Foreword which contains information about the book, the author, and the translator himself. The original version ended with an eulogy for Shimeon, ben Choni, High Priest, probably Shimon Hatsaddik. I put the relevant phrases in bold.

": Whereas many great teachings have been given to us through the law and the prophets and the others that followed them, on account of which we should praise Israel for instruction and wisdom; and since it is necessary not only that the readers themselves should acquire understanding but also that those who love learning should be able to help the outsiders by both speaking and writing, my grandfather Jesus, after devoting himself especially to the reading of the law and the prophets and the other books of our fathers, and after acquiring considerable proficiency in them, was himself also led to write something pertaining to instruction and wisdom, in order that, by becoming conversant with this also, those who love learning should make even greater progress in living according to the law.

We will focus on the actual teachings of the Men of the Great Assembly, mishna 2, next week.

Comments

[yitz..]

ben Sirah was "Jesus ben Sirah"?? that looks pretty odd ..

[avakesh]

Thank you. I can tell that my English is beginning to rub you wrong. Please be assured, it is only chitzonius. I write for the widest possible audience and it is a difficult verbal balancing act to sound heimish to all groups.
Jesus is nothing more than Yehoshua in Greek. Since Ben Sira, until recently (when long fragments wre discoverd in the Cairo geniza), was only known in Greek, that is the usual name used. It has nothing to do with the other person by the same name.
BTW, the New Testament never quotes Ben Sirah.

[yitz..]

Your english doesn't rub me the wrong way.. I assumed it was a transliteration issue. It's just strange to see a choice not to distance oneself from that particularly "heavy" name.

I personally prefer non-heimish, and appreciate your more academic style; though for myself I try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to write as simply as possible.

[David]

test

[DF]

Can you clarify something. It is true we never knew Bar Kochba's first name was Shimon until this past century. but you are making a differnet point, that Ben Sirah's first name was only discovered this century? I'm just a little confused. Please clarify, if you don't mind.

[avakesh]

I think that you are asking whether the Hebrew version gave us Ben Sira's "true name"?
His Hebrew name was always presumed to have been Yehoshua, just like the Septuagint transliterates all "Yehoshua"'s as Jesus (really Jesu). That's just a peculiarity of Greek transliteration.