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A Philosophical Session in a Tannaite Academy

1965; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 21; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0362152900017645

2166-5508

Judah Goldin,

Biblical Studies and Interpretation

Commenting on the verse which reports the devastation of Jerusalem by Nabuzaradan, that ‘he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man's house,’ the Midrash makes the following remark: And to what does the clause every great man's house refer? That's the academy ( bet midrash ) of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai. And why is it called bet gadol [literally, the house of the great one]? Because there the shebah ( shevah ) of the Holy One, blessed be He, was rehearsed, related, recited — the verb used is teni, which means not only to recite but to study and to teach. To translate shebah by the neutral word ‘praise’, is to miss the real intent of the statement. Shebah in the present sentence, as in a great many others in talmudic-midrashic literature, is clearly δόξα ; and one of the traditional commentators on our midrashic passage has already correctly explained it: in Johanan ben Zakkai's academy they were engaged in the Creation and Merkabah (Chariot) speculations. The parallel passage in the Palestinian Talmud bears him out.