So many Jews!

from Matteh Dan 

Behold it is acknowledged and well known to any educated person that in the Second Temple period and for hundreds of years after its destruction, in the Land of Israel and beyond, there lived millions of Jews, so many that it is hard to believe. This is as they said in Pesachim 64b, "One time King Agrippa sought to focus on the count of the multitudes of

Israel

. He said to the High Priest, "Note the how many Paschal sacrifices there are". He set aside on kidney from each sheep and they were found to be twice the number that went out of

Egypt

[1], not counting people who were not ritually pure or were too far away to be obligated to bring a Paschal sacrifice. There was not a Paschal lamb that did not have at least ten people signed up to share it and consume it together. According to this count there were 12 X 10 X 1000.000.00: what we would call in English language 12 million. This accords with reason and this number of inhabitants is realistic[2]. That, however, which is written in Gittin 57b that Yannai had 600.000.00 cities and each one had a number of inhabitants equal to the number that came out of Egypt, except for two that had twice the number that went out of Egypt, is an exaggeration. It is just like what it says in the beginning of the second chapter of Tamid (29a), "Sages spoke in an exaggerated language[3]". Should you not say that it is an exaggeration, 600.000.00 cities with 600.000.00 inhabitants each will result in so many bodies that it will not leave even a parsa[4] of arable land that can be plowed and sawn. Similarly what is said there (Gittin 57b) that Hadrian slaughtered 600.000.00 times 600.000.00 in

Alexandria

in

Egypt

is an exaggeration. There is, however, no doubt that

Judah

and

Israel

were numerous like the sand on seashore.

Now I will quite for you the words of Agrippa[5] to Ceasar Caius[6]. It describes what happened when that wicked man decided that all kings shall bow to him and all nations should worship him as a god, including all the congregations of Israel that are spread throughout the four corners of the earth and in the Temple in Jerusalem. These are some of his words as they pertain to us:

" As for the holy city, I must say what befits me to say. While she, as I have said, is my native city she is also the mother city not only of one country Judea but of most of others in virtue of the colonies sent out in diverse times to the neighboring lands Egypt, Phoenicia, the part of Syria called Hollow[7]  and the rest as well and the lands lying far apart, Panphylia, Cilicia, most of Asia up to Bythinia, and the corners of Pontus, similarly also into Europe, Thessaly, Boetia, Macedonia, Aetolia, Attica, Argos, Corinth, and most of the best parts of Pelloponnese. And not only are the mainlands full of Jewish colonies but also the most highly esteemed of the islands

Euboea

,

Cyprus

,

Crete

. I say nothing of the countries beyond the Euphrates, for except for a small part they all,

Babylon

and the other satrapies those where the land within their confines is highly fertile, have Jewish inhabitants. "

 One of the Christian scholars went too far, for he had written that during the

Second

Temple

period there were in the

Land

of

Israel

66 times 110.00.00, that is 66 million and 260 thousand. He wrote this because he found in the Josephus "To Romans" that in one Galilean village there were 15.000.00 persons. It appears that he assumed that it was the same with every single village. He gave every walled city a population of 50.000.00 and allocated 9 walled cities to each tribe. The total came out to be 5 million and 520 thousands people. If you multiply it by 12 tribes, the result will be that number of 66.260.000.00.

This is something that does not make sense, for during the

Second

Temple

period there were only two and a half tribes, counting priests and Levites[8].  If some of the other tribes were with them[9], their numbers were not of great consequence. In addition, not all settlements were of equal size. Even if you were to say that a certain village had 15 thousand inhabitants, it does not necessitate that population in other villages or towns of that province were proportionate to that number. Even if Gallilee was densely settled,

Judea

does not need to be as settled as Gllilee was.

Be it as it may, everyone accepts that the number of the Children of Israel was great and awe-inspiring, one that could not be counted or grasped, whether inside the Land or outside it.

---

[1] This peculiar construction that qualifies the number or multiples of 600.000.00 as "the number that went out of Egypt" may be used to indicate that the number 600.000.00 that refers to the number of males has standing behind it also appropriate numbers of women and children, just as the 600.000.00 that went out of Egypt were accompanied by women and children.

[2] This account is corroborated by Josephus who reports that the number of people coming to the

Temple

in his time was on the order of 2.565 million. "So there high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called Passover… found the number of sacrifices as 265.500; which upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amount to 2565.00.00 persons that were pure and holy (Wars of the Jews, Book 6, Ch. 9. Sec. 3, 422-427).

[3] From the Talmudic discussion itself it appears that only the specific examples quoted there are subject to the principle, "The Sages spoke in an exaggerated language (see Tosafot Chullin 90b, s.v Bshlosha Makomot )", while R. Nieto appears to understand it as a general principle that can also be applied to toher Aggadic passages. In this he follows Maimonides in the Guide for the Perplexed II, 47 and Shiltei Giborim Avodah Zara, p. 6 (in Alfasi).

[4] A parsah is 2.3 - 2.9 miles.

[5] AGRIPPA I (10 B.C.E.–44 C.E.), tetrarch of Batanea (the

Bashan

) and

Galilee

, 37–41 C.E. and king of

Judea

, 41–44 C.E.; grandson of Herod and Mariamne the Hasmonean, and son of Aristobulus and Berenice. He was friendly with Gaius, later the emperor Caligula. Caligula on his accession appointed him to the tetrarchies of Herod Phillipus and Lysanias consisting of Bashan-Trachonitis, Gaulanitis, Argob, and Abel, with the title of king. During this period Agrippa used his connections in

Rome

to intercede with Caligula on behalf of the Jews. They wished Caligula to retract an order to erect his statue in the

Temple

in

Jerusalem

. Shortly afterward Caligula was murdered.

 

[6] From Philo's Legatio at Gaium, Section 281-282 (vol.10, p 143 in Loeb Calssical Library, Tr. F. H. Colson,

London

: William Heinemann, 1962.  I am indebted to Dr. Louis Feldman for locating this citation for me. The version quoted by R. Nieto contains minor discrepancies from this translation in the listing of places and may represent his own translation from a Latin manuscript.

[7] The Greek is Coele, I,e, Coele-Syria, the offician Seleucid designation for those portions of

Palestine

and southern

Syria

captured by Antiuchus III from the Ptolomies (ca. 200 B.C.E.

[8] Only Judah and Benjamin have returned from captivity. R. Nieto assumes that priests and Levites were evenly distributed throughout kingdoms of

Judah

and

Israel

and that only the half of the tribe of Levi that was exiled with

Judah

has returned.

[9] Erachin 33a.