...תפלת ערבית גמליאל אומר חובה ר' יהושע אומר רשות אמר אביי הלכה כדברי האומר חובה ורבא אמר הלכה כדברי האומר רשות. ת"ר מעשה בתלמיד אחד שבא לפני ר' יהושע א"ל תפלת ערבית רשות או חובה אמר ליה רשות בא לפני רבן גמליאל א"ל תפלת ערבית רשות או חובה א"ל חובה א"ל והלא ר' יהושע אמר לי רשות א"ל המתן עד שיכנסו בעלי תריסין לבית המדרש כשנכנסו בעלי תריסין עמד השואל ושאל תפלת ערבית רשות או חובה א"ל רבן גמליאל חובה אמר להם רבן גמליאל לחכמים כלום יש אדם שחולק בדבר זה אמר ליה ר' יהושע לאו א"ל והלא משמך אמרו לי רשות אמר ליה יהושע עמוד על רגליך ויעידו בך עמד רבי יהושע על רגליו ואמר אלמלא אני חי והוא מת יכול החי להכחיש את המת ועכשיו שאני חי והוא חי היאך יכול החי להכחיש את החי היה רבן גמליאל יושב ודורש ור' יהושע עומד על רגליו עד שרננו כל העם ואמרו לחוצפית התורגמן עמוד ועמד אמרי עד כמה נצעריה וניזיל בר"ה אשתקד צעריה בבכורות במעשה דר' צדוק צעריה הכא נמי צעריה תא ונעבריה...
...As for the evening-Tefillah, Rabban Gamaliel declares it to be obligatory, but R. Joshua declares it to be voluntary. Abbai said : The Halakah is in agreement with him who declares it to be obligatory ; but Raba said : The Halakah is in agreement with him who declares it to be voluntary. Our Rabbis have taught : It happened that a disciple came before R. Joshua and asked him, "Is the evening-Tefillah voluntary or obligatory?" He replied, "It is voluntary." Then he came before Rabban Gamaliel and asked him the same question. He replied, "It is obligatory." He thereupon said to him, "But has not R. Joshua told me it was voluntary!" Rabban Gamaliel said to him, "Wait until the shield-bearers enter the House of Study." When the shield-bearers had assembled, the questioner stood up and asked, "Is the evening-Tefillah voluntary or obligatory ?" Rabban Gamaliel replied, "It is obligatory." Rabban Gamaliel said to the Sages, "Is there anyone who has a different opinion on this matter?" R. Joshua said to him, "No" Then Rabban Gamaliel said to him, "But has it not been reported to me in thy name that it is voluntary ?" And he added, "Joshua, stand up that it may be testified against thee." R. Joshua stood up and said, "If I were living and he dead, the living would be able to deny the statement of the dead ; but seeing that I am alive and he also is alive, how can the living deny the statement of the living ! " Then Rabban Gamaliel sat and commenced his discourse while R. Joshua remained standing, until all those present began to murmur and cried to Huspit the interpreter, "Stop !" and he stopped. They said, "How long is [Rabban Gamaliel] going to continue heaping indignities upon [R. Joshua]? Last year he slighted him on the question of the New Year ; he slighted him on the question of the firstborn in the incident of R. Sadok; and here again he has slighted him. Come, let us depose him!...
...מאן נוקים ליה נוקמיה לרבי יהושע בעל מעשה הוא נוקמיה לר' עקיבא דילמא עניש ליה דלית ליה זכות אבות אלא נוקמיה לר' אלעזר בן עזריה דהוא חכם והוא עשיר והוא עשירי לעזרא הוא חכם דאי מקשי ליה מפרק ליה והוא עשיר דאי אית ליה לפלוחי לבי קיסר אף הוא אזל ופלח והוא עשירי לעזרא דאית ליה זכות אבות ולא מצי עניש ליה אתו ואמרו ליה ניחא ליה למר דליהוי ריש מתיבתא אמר להו איזיל ואימליך באינשי ביתי אזל ואמליך בדביתהו אמרה ליה
...Whom shall we appoint in his stead ? Shall we appoint R. Joshua ? [No ;] he is a party in the incident. Shall we appoint R. 'Akiba ? [No ;] perhaps Rabban Gamaliel will plague him because of his lack of ancestral merit. Let us, then, appoint R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah, for he is wise, rich, and he is of the tenth generation from Ezra. He is wise, so if anyone puts difficult questions to him, he will be able to reply to him ; and he is rich, so if it be necessary for someone to attend at the palace of the Emperor, he will be qualified to do so ; and he is of the tenth generation from Ezra, so he possesses ancestral merit and Rabban Gamaliel will not be able to worry him on that score." They attended upon R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah and asked him, "Would the master consent to become the head of the College?" He replied, "I will first go and take counsel with the members of my household." He went and consulted his wife, and she said to him,
דלמא מעברין לך אמר לה [לשתמש אינש] יומא חדא בכסא דמוקרא ולמחר ליתבר אמרה ליה לית לך חיורתא ההוא יומא בר תמני סרי שני הוה אתרחיש ליה ניסא ואהדרו ליה תמני סרי דרי חיורתא היינו דקאמר ר' אלעזר בן עזריה הרי אני כבן שבעים שנה ולא בן שבעים שנה...
"Perhaps they will soon depose thee!" He answered "[Let a man] use the cup of honour for one day, and to-morrow let it be broken." She said to him, "Thou hast no grey hair!" That day he was eighteen years of age; but a miracle was wrought for him, and eighteen rows of hair turned grey. That is what R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah meant when he said, "Behold I am like one seventy years old," and not "I am seventy years old."...
...תנא אותו היום סלקוהו לשומר הפתח ונתנה להם רשות לתלמידים ליכנס שהיה ר"ג מכריז ואומר כל תלמיד שאין תוכו כברו לא יכנס לבית המדרש ההוא יומא אתוספו כמה ספסלי א"ר יוחנן פליגי בה אבא יוסף בן דוסתאי ורבנן חד אמר אתוספו ארבע מאה ספסלי וחד אמר שבע מאה ספסלי הוה קא חלשא דעתיה דר"ג אמר דלמא ח"ו מנעתי תורה מישראל אחזו ליה בחלמיה חצבי חיורי דמליין קטמא ולא היא ההיא ליתובי דעתיה הוא דאחזו ליה...
...It has been taught : That same day, they removed the doorkeeper [of the College] and permission was granted to the disciples to enter ; for Rabban Gamaliel had issued a proclamation: "A disciple, who is not inwardly the same as outwardly, will not be allowed to enter the House of Study." That day many forms had to be added. R. Johanan said : Abba Jose b. Dostai and the Rabbis differ as to the number; one declaring four hundred forms were added, the other declaring it was seven hundred. This [vast addition] depressed Rabban Gamaliel who said, "Perhaps, God forbid, I have withheld Torah from Israel !" He was shown in a dream white pitchers full of ashes. It was not really so ; but he was shown this to relieve his mind....
...אר"ג הואיל והכי הוה איזיל ואפייסיה לר' יהושע כי מטא לביתיה חזינהו לאשיתא דביתיה דמשחרן א"ל מכותלי ביתך אתה ניכר שפחמי אתה א"ל אוי לו לדור שאתה פרנסו שאי אתה יודע בצערן של ת"ח במה הם מתפרנסים ובמה הם נזונים אמר לו נעניתי לך מחול לי לא אשגח ביה עשה בשביל כבוד אבא פייס...
...Rabban Gamaliel thereupon said, "Since it is so, I will go and conciliate R. Joshua." When he arrived at the latter's house, he noticed that the walls of his house were blackened, and said to him, "From the walls of thy house it can be recognised that thou art a charcoal-burner." R. Joshua replied, "Woe to the generation whose leader thou art, for thou knowest not the struggle of the disciples to support and feed themselves!" He said to him, "I beg thy pardon; forgive me." He took no notice of him. "Do it out of regard for my father!" He made peace with him....
...אמרי היכי נעביד נעבריה גמירי מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין נדרוש מר חדא שבתא ומר חדא שבתא אתי לקנאויי אלא לדרוש ר"ג תלתא שבתי וראב"ע חדא שבתא...
...They asked, "What shall we do? Shall we depose [R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah] ? We have the tradition, 'We may raise to a higher degree of sanctity but not degrade to a lower degree! ' If we ask one of them to give the discourse on one Sabbath and the other on the next Sabbath, it will lead to jealousy. Let, then, Rabban Gamaliel give the discourse three Sabbaths [in the month] and R. Eleazar b. 'Azariah one Sabbath,"...
Rabban Gamliel - LYRICS
From The God Album by Rory Michelle Sullivan
Special thanks to: Levi Cooper and our Midrash class at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies; Laura Marder; Yaffa Epstein
Text: Babylonian Talmud Tractate Brachot 27b-28a; Mishnah Tractate Rosh Hashana 2:8-9
CHORUS: Oh Rabban Gamliel, will we survive to tell the tale? Oh, Rabban Gamliel.
Rabban Gamliel sits with students standing, Torah study is demanding!
Rabban G relays his teachings quietly
To the spokesman, word for word, who makes sure all the boys have heard
Rabban G is waiting, poised to squash his rivalry.
Suddenly, Rabban Gamliel shouts, pointing Rabbi Yehoshua out
Asks him, “Did you rule a different way?”
Rabbi Yehoshua sighs, “I can’t tell lies, not while a witness is alive –
Yeah, I did, just earlier today.”
For Rabbi Yehoshua knows that it’s worth the ego blows
To acquiesce without animosity
For even when Rabban G is wrong, his position must stay strong
The point here is not truth, but stability.
Rabbi Yehoshua is made to stand (degrading for the right-hand man:
It’s student status - public humiliation).
Meanwhile the students plot, offended by Rabbi Yehoshua’s lot
And plan to depose Rabban Gamliel from his station
CHORUS: Oh Rabban Gamliel, will we survive to tell the tale? Oh, Rabban Gamliel.
- “Who can really run the school? - “Not Rabbi Yehoshua, he was just overruled.”
- “Rabbi Akiva? “ – “Not from a proper family.”
- “How ‘bout Elazar ben Azarya?”- “Hey! He could go pretty far, yah!
He’s a wealthy scholar with a fitting family tree.”
All the students have now voted. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya is promoted,
But not before he checks in with his wife
“They’ll just throw you out,” she says to him. But Rabbi Elazar won’t stay grim.
“Nu? Glass breaks, but we use it for its life.”
“Elazar, you little pisher! Won’t you ever get the picture?
You’re just eighteen, how can you be so bold?”
But Rabbi Elazar, miraculously, grows 18 rows of white hair immediately,
Saying, “I’m like - seventy years old.”
Elazar (with the students, being mensches) filled the hall with all new benches
Saying, “They’d rather sit. All this standing, let’s renounce ‘er.
And what’s with all this exclusivity? Let everyone in, indiscriminately!”
So he flung open the doors and kicked out the bouncer.
CHORUS: Oh Rabban Gamliel, will we survive to tell the tale? Oh, Rabban Gamliel.
Now everyone is learning Torah, people really from all over
Rabban Gamliel is nervous about their new ideas
‘Cause new ideas could be polluted, Torah from Mount Sinai is now diluted!
This is everything Rabban Gamliel fears
So he goes to find dear Yehoshua, who says, “Rabban G, what’s it to ya?
Would it kill you to ask me about my life?
Until now, after all these years, you’ve had clearly no idea
How I made my living. You know nothing about strife.”
- “I just said I hadn’t known that you make charcoal from your home.”
- “You’re so out of touch. I can’t believe you lead this generation.”
- “Sorry,” says Gamliel, “But listen – you know we both have a mission:
Save the Torah! Forgive my insensitive communication.”
“No? Forgive me for my father’s sake!” And the Rabbis both embraced,
United in their mission once again.
Returned together to the Yeshiva, laid down the law to Elazar ben Azarya
And granted that one week per month, he could remain.
CHORUS: Oh Rabban Gamliel, will we survive to tell the tale? Oh, Rabban Gamliel.
Yes, three weeks each month Rabban Gamliel would rule and one week per month Elazar ran the school
Quite an interesting administration
But Rabban G did recognize the values that the students emphasized
And so factored them into the equation.
And now the Yeshiva’s back to traditions, but not without a few additions:
The benches stayed, the bouncer is still gone.
For the moral of our humble tale, is: Keep Torah alive, not stale,
Find the balance, like the way the school’s now run.
Take three parts continuity and one part ingenuity
And you will have a Torah that can thrive
Yes, three parts of preservation and one big heap of innovation.
That’s the way to keep Torah going – and alive.
Oh, use three parts continuity and one part ingenuity
When passing on your precious testament
Yes, three parts of preservation and one big heap of innovation.
That’s the way to keep it relevant.
CHORUS: Oh Rabban Gamliel, will we survive to tell the tale? Oh, Rabban Gamliel.
Questions for Discussion:
- Where do you see the text coming through in the song?
- How did the song change the way you viewed the text?
- What is the relevance to our own lives and practice?