Juggling, Acrobatics, and a Rigorous Schedule: Talmudic Stories from the Temple's Simchat Beit HaShoeivah (Sukkah 53a)
See my previous two-part series on the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Mishnah: pt1 and pt2; this is part of the Talmud on those Mishnaic passages.
Outline
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel’s Juggling and Acrobatics during the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Second Temple; and Levi’s Failed Attempt and Subsequent Injury
Feats of Juggling: Levi, Shmuel, and Abaye's Astonishing Performances
The intense schedule of the day of Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Second Temple
The Passage
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel’s Juggling and Acrobatics during the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Second Temple; and Levi’s Failed Attempt and Subsequent Injury
A baraita describes Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel's remarkable skills during the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah:
He would juggle eight flaming torches, ensuring they never touched one another.1
Additionally, he demonstrated an extremely difficult form of bow, called “kidda” (קידה), by inserting his thumbs into the ground, bowing, “kissing” the floor (meaning, his face touched the floor), and then straightening up—a feat that no one else could perform.2
The Talmud recounts that Levi performed this extremely difficult bow (kidda) before R' Yehuda HaNasi, injuring himself and thereby developing a permanent limp.
The Talmud questions this, citing R' Elazar's statement that “One should never speak impertinently3 toward Heaven”,4 with the addition that a “great man” (אדם גדול) once developed a permanent limp as a punishment for speaking impertinently toward Heaven.
The anonymous “great man” in this anecdote is traditionally identified as Levi.5
The Talmud harmonizes the apparent contradiction by explaining that both factors contributed: Levi's impertinence led to him being vulnerable to injury when he exerted himself during the bow.
תניא:
אמרו עליו על רבן שמעון בן גמליאל:
כשהיה שמח שמחת בית השואבה,
היה נוטל שמנה אבוקות של אור,
וזורק אחת, ונוטל אחת, ואין נוגעות זו בזו.
וכשהוא משתחוה,
נועץ שני גודליו בארץ
ושוחה, ונושק את הרצפה, וזוקף,
ואין כל בריה יכולה לעשות כן,
וזו היא קידה.
לוי אחוי קידה קמיה דרבי ואיטלע.
והא גרמא ליה?
והאמר רבי אלעזר:
לעולם אל יטיח אדם דברים כלפי מעלה,
שהרי אדם גדול הטיח דברים כלפי מעלה, ואיטלע,
ומנו — לוי.
הא והא גרמא ליה.
It is taught in a baraita:
They said about Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel that
when he would rejoice at the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water,
he would take eight flaming torches
and toss one and catch another, juggling them, and, though all were in the air at the same time, they would not touch each other.
And when he would prostrate himself,
he would insert his two thumbs into the ground,
and bow, and kiss the floor of the courtyard and straighten,
and there was not any other creature that could do that due to the extreme difficulty involved.
And this was the form of bowing called kidda performed by the High Priest.
The Gemara relates: Levi demonstrated a kidda before R' Yehuda HaNasi and strained his thigh and came up lame.
The Gemara asks: And is that what caused him to be lame?
But didn’t R' Elazar say:
One should never speak impertinently toward God above;
as a great person once spoke impertinently toward God above, and even though his prayers were answered, he was still punished and came up lame.
And who was this great person? It was Levi. Apparently his condition was not caused by his bow.
The Gemara answers: There is no contradiction. Both this and that caused him to come up lame; because he spoke impertinently toward God, he therefore was injured when exerting himself in demonstrating kidda.
Feats of Juggling: Levi, Shmuel, and Abaye's Astonishing Performances
The Talmud recounts various feats of juggling performed by notable figures:
the aforementioned-Levi juggled6 eight knives in front of R' Yehuda HaNasi,7 Shmuel juggled 8 glasses8 of wine in front of the Persian King Shapur, and Abaye juggled eggs (either 8 or 4 ) in front of Rabba.
לוי הוה מטייל קמיה דרבי בתמני סכיני.
שמואל קמיה שבור מלכא בתמניא מזגי חמרא.
אביי קמיה (דרבא) בתמניא ביעי, ואמרי לה בארבעה ביעי.
Apropos the rejoicing of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel at the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water, the Gemara recounts:
Levi would walk before R' Yehuda HaNasi juggling with eight knives.
Shmuel would juggle before King Shapur with eight glasses of wine without spilling.
Abaye would juggle before Rabba with eight eggs. Some say he did so with four eggs.
The intense schedule of the day of Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Second Temple
A baraita quotes R' Yehoshua ben Ḥananya describing the intense schedule of the day of Simchat Beit HaShoeivah in the Second Temple, saying that they would stay up the whole night celebrating.
Their day began with the daily morning animal sacrifice (תמיד של שחר - morning tamid), followed by prayer (meaning, the daily morning prayer, Shacharit), the musaf animal sacrifice (קרבן מוסף), and the musaf prayer (תפלת המוספין).
They then went to the beit midrash (presumably to study Torah), ate and drank (presumably in the sukkah), prayed the daily afternoon prayer (תפלת המנחה - Mincha), and witnessed the daily afternoon animal sacrifice (תמיד של בין הערבים).
The day concluded with the Simchat Beit HaShoeivah.9
תניא,
אמר רבי יהושע בן חנניה:
כשהיינו שמחים שמחת בית השואבה,
לא ראינו שינה בעינינו.
כיצד?
שעה ראשונה תמיד של שחר,
משם לתפלה,
משם לקרבן מוסף,
משם לתפלת המוספין,
משם לבית המדרש,
משם לאכילה ושתיה,
משם לתפלת המנחה,
משם לתמיד של בין הערבים,
מכאן ואילך לשמחת בית השואבה.
[...]
It is taught in a baraita that
R' Yehoshua ben Ḥananya said:
When we would rejoice in the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water,
we did not see sleep in our eyes the entire Festival.
How so?
In the first hour of the day, the daily morning offering was sacrificed and everyone came to watch.
From there they proceeded to engage in prayer in the synagogue;
from there, to watch the sacrifice of the additional offerings;
from there, to the synagogue to recite the additional prayer.
From there they would proceed to the study hall to study Torah;
from there to the eating and drinking in the sukka;
from there to the afternoon prayer.
From there they would proceed to the daily afternoon offering in the Temple.
From this point forward, they proceeded to the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing of the Water.
[...]
See History of juggling - Wikipedia > “Roman Empire”, with slight adjustments:
The Tractate Sukkah of the Talmud says that R' Shimon ben Gamliel (10 BCE to 70 CE) could “take eight fire torches and throw them in the air and catch one and throw one and they did not touch one another.”
Another mention of torch juggling from around the third century CE appears in the letters of Alciphron, where an incident is described involving a woman whose husband “was attached to the Ionian lass who tosses balls and juggles torches.”
An ancient mention of knife juggling comes from the early Church father Chrysostom, who in Antioch around CE 450 witnessed jugglers “tossing up knives in rapid succession into the air and catching them by the handle.”
See Megillah.22b.16:
תנו רבנן:
קידה — על אפים, שנאמר: ״ותקד בת שבע אפים ארץ״.
כריעה — על ברכים, וכן הוא אומר: ״מכרוע על ברכיו״.
השתחואה — זו פישוט ידים ורגלים, שנאמר: ״הבוא נבוא אני ואמך ואחיך להשתחות לך ארצה״.
The Sages taught in a baraita:
The term kidda indicates falling upon one’s face, with one’s face toward the ground, as it is stated: “Then Bathsheba bowed [vatikod] with her face to the ground” (I Kings 1:31).
Keria means bowing upon one’s knees, as it is stated with regard to Solomon: He finished praying and “he rose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling [mikkeroa] upon his knees” (I Kings 8:54).
Finally, hishtaḥava’a, that is bowing with one’s arms and legs spread in total submission, as it is stated that Jacob asked, in response to Joseph’s dream: “Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down [lehishtaḥavot] to you to the ground?” (Genesis 37:10).
יטיח אדם דברים - an idiom. Jastrow (Hif. - הֵטִיחַ, sense #2) indicates that it literally means “throw/cast words”, and the verb is related to the biblical phrase כמטחוי קשת - “like the casting of a bow”.
כלפי מעלה - literally: “towards above”.
Levi was famous for his limp, see Shabbat.59b.8:
אמרו ליה לרב:
אתא גברא רבה אריכא לנהרדעא, ומטלע,
ודרש ״כלילא שרי״.
אמר:
מאן גברא רבה אריכא [דאיטלע] — לוי,
שמע מינה, נח נפשיה דרבי אפס
ויתיב רבי חנינא ברישא,
ולא הוה ליה איניש ללוי למיתב גביה,
וקאתי להכא.
The Gemara relates that one day they said to Rav:
A great, tall man came to Neharde’a and he was limping (איטלע).
And he taught: With a kelila (כלילא - a wreath), it is permitted to go out into the public domain on Shabbat.
Rav said:
Who is a great, tall man who limps? Levi.
Conclude from this that R’ Afes passed away
and R’ Ḥanina is sitting at the head of the yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael in his place.
And, consequently, Levi had no one before whom to sit and study
and he came here.
It's worth noting that the term "great man" (גברא רבה) is also used to describe Levi in that context. Based on the context, it's quite possible that it refers to his physical stature (height) rather than his spiritual greatness. (In which case aricha - אריכא - is a gloss.)
See also the Talmudic passage discussed in my piece here, that one makes a blessing of “Who makes creatures different” on someone with a limp (חגר), among a list of other such disabilities.
For more on Levi’s talmudic biography, see the section of the story discussed in my piece here, where Shmuel intervenes in Heaven on Levi’s behalf, requesting that he be admitted to the Heavenly Yeshiva.
מטייל - literally: “carried”. Based on the context of from earlier, and the materials “carried" , it seems most likely that this is referring to juggling, and not balancing.
Presumably more successfully than his attempt to preform the kida bow in front of R' Yehuda HaNasi, in the previous section.
מזגי - literally: “mixes”. This is the term often used for wine, since wine was always diluted with water before drinking.
It should be pointed out that the Steinsaltz translation of this passage is overly literal, I translate more accurately in my summary, referring to the relevant technical terms being referred to.