I am well aware that we ended yesterday on a cliffhanger and we all want to know what happens with Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh. Does he depose Rabbi Gamliel? What does his wife advise? Before we can get there, however, I need to mention that I think today’s Daf has been my favorite. Perhaps I am just relieved after the excrement Dafs! However, this page is chocked full of good stuff. We learn the outcome of the Nasi impeachment. We learn about how Jews relate to the wider non-Jewish community. We learn how contemporary circumstances change our reading of Scripture. We learn how a boss should relate to his underlings. We learn about power sharing. We learn about professional pride. All of this on one page of Talmud. Let’s jump in.

If you remember yesterday, the Rabbis became incensed when Rabbi Gamliel, the Nasi of the academy at Yavneh, publicly humiliated Rabbi Yehoshua, the Av Beis Din. The Rabbis decided to depose Rabbi Gamliel and requested Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh become Nasi. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh said he needed to consult his wife.

She was concerned that perhaps Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh would also be deposed. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh deals with this objection with a folk saying, “Let a person use a precious glass cup one day, and the next day let it break.” I love this saying. We cannot let the fear of what may happen in the future stop us from enjoying today. Too many times in my own life I did not believe the good fortune I had at the time could possibly last. I did not allow myself to enjoy life to the fullest with my wife and kids because of what could happen in some hypothetical future. I hope I can remember this saying.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh’s wife next objects that he is only eighteen and that the Nasi should be older to command respect. At this point, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh’s beard turns white. Every year at the Passover Seder we read about this when Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh says, “I am like a seventy year old man . . . “.

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayh immediately sets about democratizing the Academy. He opens it to all interested people, not just the allegedly “deserving scholars”. Rashi notes that the influx of new scholars so enriched the discussion and broke people out of a stultifying orthodoxy. In fact, many questions that previously confounded the Rabbis wee resolved and forever more in the Talmud the new era was referred to as “that day”. Rabbi Gamliel, the champion of a more aristocratic view of the study hall, realized his own error and was concerned he had withheld the Torah from Israel.

We see Rabbi Gamliel oppose Rabbi Elazar ben Azarayah and get schooled by his younger opponent. An Ammonite convert came to the academy and wanted to join the congregation of Israel (which apparently meant he wanted to marry a Jewish woman). Rabbi Gamliel refuses the request, but Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah says they can enter the congregation. Rabbi Gamliel relies on Deuteronomy 23:4 (“No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted into the congregation of the Lord: none of their descendants, even in the tenth generation, shall ever be admitted into the congregation of the Lord.”)

Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah disagrees. He believes the Ammonite convert should be allowed in. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah notes that long ago the king of Israel scattered the Ammonites among the people of the world (Isaiah 10:3). They are all mixed up with other nations. In other words, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah has reinterpreted the biblical proscription based on circumstances prevailing today. All to often, in our quest for ideological or religious purity, we cannot look at the world as it exists today. We desire a purity that comes from a different time or ignores the needs of individuals. Rabbi Gamliel eventually concedes that Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah is correct.

The reeducation of Rabbi Gamliel continues. Realizing that he did not behave well, Rabbi Gamliel tries to make amends with Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Gamliel visits Rabbi Yehoshua in his house. He sees that Rabbi Yehoshua is a blacksmith (meaning that he supports himself as a blacksmith so that he can continue his Torah study). Rabbi Gamliel did not know this about Rabbi Yehoshua, even through they worked together in the academy. Rabbi Yehoshua says, “Woe unto the generation whose leader you are, for yo know not the suffering of Torah scholars, how they support themselves and how they are nourished!” Rabbi Gamliel asks for forgiveness.

I believe we learn from this story how we are to treat those who work for us. We need to understand that they have lives too. We need to be interested in them as people and realize and take account of their individual struggles.

Rabbi Yehoshua sees that Rabbi Gamliel has truly repented and learned his lessons. Rabbi Yehoshua actually wants Rabbi Gamliel reinstated as Nasi. The Rabbis face a conundrum. Rabbi Gamliel is the true heir to the Nasi, but they also say ” We have a tradition that in matters of sanctity we elevate, but we do not lower”. We do not humiliate people to raise someone else up. I wish our current leaders could learn this lesson. Eventually, the Rabbis make Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah co-Nasi, with Rabbi Gamliel responsible for lectures for three weeks and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah responsible for lectures one week.

We take a brief pause from all the drama to learn the proper order of services. Mussaf, as we have seen, can be prayed all day on the Sabbath and festivals. Should we pray Mussaf or Minchah first on these days if we wait until the time of Minchah before saying Mussaf? The Talmud holds that we say Minchah first. However, as a practical matter, I think most synagogues today go straight from Shacharis into the Mussaf service, so this is a bit of a moot point.

We then come to a Mishnah that says we should pray before studying that we do not create a mishap (wrong understanding) and after studying we should pray a thanksgiving prayer. The Talmud immediately gives the text of the prayers we are supposed to say. Before studying, we are supposed to say, “May it be your will, Lord, My God, that a mishap not come about through me. And may I not stumble in a matter of law and cause my colleagues to rejoice over me. And may I not say regarding something which is tamei that it is tahor. And not regarding something which is tahor that it is tamei. And may my colleagues not stumble in a matter of law and I rejoice over them. For the Lord grants wisdom from; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding. Unveil my eyes that I may perceive wonders from your Torah.”

I am perturbed by this blessing as we seem to accept that we should rejoice in the mistakes of others. The ethos seems completely opposite of the idea that we don’t tear others down that we just discussed. Apparently, I am not the only one disturbed by this prayer, because some commentators try to spin it to mean the exact opposite of what it says. I hope I never rejoice in the mishap of my coworkers.

After studying, we are to say, “I thank You, o Lord, my God, that you have established my portion with those who dwell in the study hall, and you have not established my portion with idlers; for I arise early and they arise early; I arise early for words of Torah, and they arise early for idle words; I toil and they toil; I toil and receive reward, and they toil and do not receive reward; I run and they run; I run to the life of the world to come and they run to the pit of destruction. As it is written: And You, o God, You will lower them into the well of destruction, men of bloodshed and deceit shall not live out half their days; but as me, I will trust in you.” I am just as disturbed by this blessing. Torah scholars would not exist without the economic surplus created by the workers. Rather than rejoice that they are not workers, they should thank the workers profusely for creating a world in which they have the luxury of studying for a living!

We introduce another Mishnah about the Shemoneh Esrei. Rabbi Gamliel (the conservative) says we must pray all eighteen blessings. Rabbi Yehoshua says we can pray an abridgment. Rabbi Akiva says we should pray all eighteen, if we can. The Mishnah discusses a short prayer we should say in a dangerous place. The Mishnah also states that we should pray facing the Temple if we can. If we can’t (like we are imprisoned in stocks), we should just concentrate on the Holy of Holies (the innermost sanctum of the Temple).

When reciting Shemoneh Esrei, observant Jews will bow in certain places. We end today’s jam packed Daf with a discussion of how low we should bow in these places. We also begin to learn the history of the nineteenth blessing that was added later as a prayer against heretical Jews.