Although apparently a foregone conclusion, as I write this we are in the midst of President Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate. One group believes President Trump has abused his power by using it, not for the good of all, but to humiliate his political opponents. In today’s Daf, we come across a similar case amongst Talmudic scholars in the period right after the Roman’s destroyed the second Temple in 70 C.E.

First, some background. The great Rabbinical court of seventy leading Torah scholars is known as the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin is led by a Nasi (a prince) who is aided by an Av Beis Din (father of House of Justice). Vespesian, before he was emperor, besieged Jerusalem. Realizing all was lost and the Temple would soon be destroyed, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, the Av Beis Din, went to see Vespasian and begged that the city of Yavneh be spared and that the Sanhedrin be allowed to move there. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai knew that Vespasian would never spare Jerusalem, but he also knew that Israel as a people would not survive without the Sanhedrin, so he opted for Yavneh. When the Sanhedrin moved, Rabbi Gamliel became Nasi. After Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai passed away, Rabbi Yehoshua became Av Beis Din.

Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua apparently did not care much for each other. They mixed it up several times in Talmudic debates. At one point they got into a tussle about whether the Maariv prayer was compulsory or not. Rabbi Gamliel decides that the Torah scholars (the Shield Bearers, according to Rabbi Gamliel) needed to collectively resolve the dispute. Rabbi Gamliel told the assembly that Maariv was compulsory and asked if anyone disagreed. Rabbi Yehoshua did not disagree, so Rabbi Gamliel specifically called him out and said that he had heard that Rabbi Yehoshua disagreed. Rabbi Gamliel forces Rabbi Yehoshua to stand and eventually confess that he disagrees with Rabbi Gamliel. Gamliel makes Yehoshua stand in an act of subservience, while Gamliel sits and continues to lecture about why Yehoshua is wrong.

This humiliating treatment of Rabbi Yehoshua incenses the other Shield Bearers and they decide to depose Rabbi Gamliel. They decide that Rabbi Yehoshua cannot be the Nasi since he is one of the disputants. Rabbi Akiva, who is greatly admired (and who we will hear from a lot going forward) because his father was a convert and the Rabbis worry that he does not have the merit of his forefathers to protect him. Eventually, the Rabbis ask Rabbi Elazar ben Azarryah to be the Nasi. He has all the traits desired in a Nasi – he is wise, he is rich so he can deal appropriately with Caeser, and he is a tenth generation descendant of Ezra, so he possesses much merit from his forefathers. (Interestingly, the Hebrew for Caeser is “Kaysar” – very close to Kaiser). The Rabbis offer the position to Rabbi Elazar ben Azarryah and he says he has to consult his wife. The Daf then ends on this cliffhanger and we have to wait until tomorrow to find out what happens next.

Before we get to the coup, we start with the appropriate time for praying the Shemoneh Esrei. First, we discuss instances where the Rabbinical court in its wisdom can create rules to provide details for a biblical obligation. Therefore, in this case where the time for offering the morning sacrifice in the Temple, and therefore the time for reciting Shacharis, is uncertain, we decide that the proper time is through the end of the fourth hour of the day.

The Talmud does not have such an easy time with deciding until when we can say Mincha. In fact, no conclusion can be drawn. We can chose whichever interpretation we want to follow. However, we need to be consistent. We can’t merely use convenience as a reason to adopt one interpretation and then another.

We then hear of a story of Rav. Rav was praying and his student Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba prayed behind him. After Rav completed his prayer, he made sure to pass behind Rabbi Yrimiyah bar Abba so as not to disrupt his prayer. The Talmud learns three things from this story. First, we may pray Maariv of the Sabbath on the eve of the Sabbath (late Friday afternoon). We also learn that a student should pray behind his master (very Jedi!) and we should not pass in front of those who are praying.

This leads to a discussion about how we should show respect to our teachers. We need to pray in the proper position to our teacher (I am not sure where this is since beside, in front of and behind all appear to be bad choices). We should show defference to our teacher when greeting him and returning his greeting. We should not set up an academy without the permission of our teacher, nor should we say something we learned from someone other than our teacher without attribution so the teacher is not associated with the ruling. I think this is why we get long strings of attributions in the Talmud. For instance, this is a quote from today’s Daf, “Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rabbi Assi, who said in the name of Rabbi Elazar, who said in the name of Rabbi Chanina, who said in the name of Rav . . . “.

We learn that Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba was a special case and that is why he could pray behind Rav. Rabbi Yirmiyah bar Abba was considered the equal of Rav and apparently considered himself the peer of Rav, not his student.

We then encounter the ancient problem of telling time. We discuss the rules about what to do if we discover we are in error about whether it is actually dark or not. For instance, if on Friday afternoon we believe sundown has occurred, but really we just had some passing clouds, has the Sabbath started? The rules are apparently different for an individual and a Minyan.

Stay tuned tomorrow and we will learn what Rabbi Elazar ben Azarryah decides to do in the coup against Rabbi Gamliel!