Pt2 From Babylon’s Ruins to Jewish Multitudes: Talmudic Blessings for Idolatry, Crowds, and Leadership (Berakhot 57b-58a)
This is the second and final part of a two-part series. Part 1 is here, the outline of the series can be found there.
Blessings Upon Seeing Crowds of Jews and of Non-Jews
Rav Hamnuna teaches that one recites blessings upon witnessing the following types of crowds:
Seeing a crowd1 of Jews: “Blessed…Who knows all secrets (חכם הרזים)”.
Seeing a crowd of non-Jews: A curse from Jeremiah 50:12 is recited.
A baraita states (like Rav Huna) that when seeing a crowd of Jews, one should say: “Blessed…Who knows all secrets”.
The baraita adds (unclear if this is part of the blessing or not): whose minds (דעתם) and appearances2 differ.3
ואמר רב המנונא:
הרואה אוכלוסי ישראל, אומר: ״ברוך … חכם הרזים״.
אוכלוסי גוים, אומר: ״בושה אמכם וגו׳״.
תנו רבנן:
הרואה אוכלוסי ישראל, אומר:
״ברוך … חכם הרזים
שאין דעתם דומה זה לזה, ואין פרצופיהן דומים זה לזה"
And Rav Hamnuna said:
One who sees multitudes of Israel, six hundred thousand Jews, recites: Blessed…Who knows all secrets.
One who sees multitudes of gentiles recites: “Your mother shall be sore ashamed, she that bore you shall be confounded; behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert” (Jeremiah 50:12).
The Sages taught in a Tosefta:
One who sees multitudes of Israel recites: Blessed…Who knows all secrets.
Why is this? He sees a whole nation whose minds are unlike each other and whose faces are unlike each other, and He Who knows all secrets, God, knows what is in each of their hearts.
Ben Zoma’s Blessing over a Large Crowd of Jews in Late Second Temple Jerusalem and His Happiness for His Freedom from Manually Producing Food and Clothing
Part 1: Ben Zoma’s Blessing on a Large Crowd of Jews in Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple Period
The Talmud recounts that Ben Zoma, observing a large crowd on the Temple Mount,4 recited this blessing (the one mentioned in the previous section) and added another praising God for creating all those people (in the crowd) to serve him (as an elite; an idea continued in the next section).
בן זומא ראה אוכלוסא על גב מעלה בהר הבית,
אמר:
״ברוך … חכם הרזים
וברוך … שברא כל אלו לשמשני״.
The Gemara relates:
Ben Zoma once saw a multitude [okhlosa] of Israel while standing on a stair on the Temple Mount.
He immediately recited: Blessed…Who knows all secrets
and Blessed…Who created all these to serve me.
Part 2: Ben Zoma’s Happiness for Not Needing to Labor to Produce Food and Clothing from Scratch
Ben Zoma highlights the extensive labor that the biblical Adam (the first human) had to undertake to produce basic necessities like bread5 and clothing,6 contrasting it with his own ease in finding everything already prepared.7
הוא היה אומר:
כמה יגיעות יגע אדם הראשון עד שמצא פת לאכול:
חרש,
וזרע,
וקצר,
ועמר,
ודש,
וזרה,
וברר,
וטחן,
והרקיד,
ולש,
ואפה,
ואחר כך אכל.
ואני משכים ומוצא כל אלו מתוקנין לפני.
וכמה יגיעות יגע אדם הראשון עד שמצא בגד ללבוש:
גזז,
ולבן,
ונפץ,
וטוה,
וארג,
ואחר כך מצא בגד ללבוש,
ואני משכים ומוצא כל אלה מתוקנים לפני.
כל אומות שוקדות ובאות לפתח ביתי,
ואני משכים ומוצא כל אלו לפני.
[...]
Explaining his custom, he would say:
How much effort did Adam the first man exert before he found bread to eat:
He
plowed,
sowed,
reaped,
sheaved,
threshed,
winnowed in the wind,
separated the grain from the chaff,
ground the grain into flour,
sifted,
kneaded,
and baked
and only thereafter he ate.
And I, on the other hand, wake up and find all of these prepared for me. Human society employs a division of labor, and each individual benefits from the service of the entire world.
Similarly, how much effort did Adam the first man exert before he found a garment to wear?
He
sheared,
laundered,
combed,
spun
and wove,
and only thereafter he found a garment to wear.
And I, on the other hand, wake up and find all of these prepared for me.
Members of all nations, merchants and craftsmen, diligently come to the entrance of my home,
and I wake up and find all of these before me.
[...]
The Biblical Jesse's Large Entourages and the Definition of “Crowd”
The verse "And the man in the days of Saul was old, and came among men" (I Samuel 17:12) is interpreted in the Talmud as referring to the biblical Jesse, David's father. Jesse was known for going out and coming in surrounded by large crowds and lecturing (דרש) to large crowds.
Ulla comments that such large crowds of Jews do not exist in Babylonia.
The Talmud quotes a tradition that defines a "crowd" as a gathering of at least 600,000 (i.e. over half a million) people.
״והאיש בימי שאול זקן בא באנשים״.
אמר רבא, ואיתימא רב זביד, ואיתימא רב אושעיא:
זה ישי אבי דוד
שיצא באוכלוסא,
ונכנס באוכלוסא,
ודרש באוכלוסא.
אמר עולא: נקיטינן אין אוכלוסא בבבל.
תנא: אין אוכלוסא פחותה מששים רבוא.
On the topic of multitudes, the Gemara cites another verse:
“And the man in the days of Saul was old, and came among men” (I Samuel 17:12).
Rava, and some say Rav Zevid, and some say Rav Oshaya, said:
This refers to Yishai, father of David,
who always went out with multitudes,
and entered with multitudes,
and taught Torah with multitudes.
Ulla said: We hold there is no multitude in Babylonia.
The Sage taught: A multitude is no fewer than six hundred thousand people.
Blessings Upon Seeing Scholars and Kings, Jewish and Non-Jewish
Jewish Sages: “Blessed…Who has shared of His wisdom with those who revere Him.”
Non-Jewish Sages: “Blessed…Who has given of His wisdom to flesh and blood.”
Jewish Kings: “Blessed…Who has shared of His glory with those who revere Him.”
Non-Jewish Kings: “Blessed…Who has given of His glory to flesh and blood.”
תנו רבנן:
הרואה חכמי ישראל, אומר ״ברוך … שחלק מחכמתו ליראיו״.
חכמי אומות העולם, אומר: ״ברוך … שנתן מחכמתו לבשר ודם״.
הרואה מלכי ישראל, אומר: ״ברוך … שחלק מכבודו ליראיו״.
מלכי אומות העולם, אומר: ״ברוך … שנתן מכבודו לבשר ודם״.
The Sages taught:
One who sees the Sages of Israel recites: Blessed…Who has shared of His wisdom with those who revere Him.
One who sees Sages of the nations of the world recites: Blessed…Who has given of His wisdom to flesh and blood.
One who sees kings of Israel recites: Blessed…Who has shared of His glory with those who revere Him.
One who sees kings of the other nations of the world recites: Blessed…Who has given of His glory to flesh and blood.
Appendix - Nebuchadnezzar's Giant Statue: The Beginning of the Fiery Furnace Story (Daniel 3:1-5), Formatted and With Etymologies
Part 1
נבוכדנצר מלכא עבד צלם די־דהב,
רומה אמין שתין, פתיה אמין שת
אקימה בבקעת דורא, במדינת בבל
ונבוכדנצר מלכא שלח למכנש ל
אחשדרפניא,
סגניא,
ופחותא,
אדרגזריא,
גדבריא,
דתבריא,
תפתיא,
וכל שלטני מדינתא
למתא
לחנכת צלמא די הקים נבוכדנצר מלכא
King Nebuchadnezzar made a statue (צלם) of gold
sixty cubits high and six cubits broad (=roughly 90 feet high by 9 feet wide).
He set it up in the plain of Dura (בקעת דורא) in the province of Babylon.
King Nebuchadnezzar then sent word to gather the
Satraps (אחשדרפניא - from Persian khshathapavan),
Prefects (סגניא),
Governors (פחותא),
Counselors,
Treasurers (גדבריא - from Persian ganzabarah),
judges,
officers,
and all the provincial officials
to attend the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Part 2
באדין מתכנשין
אחשדרפניא,
סגניא,
ופחותא,
אדרגזריא,
גדבריא,
דתבריא,
תפתיא,
וכל שלטני מדינתא
לחנכת צלמא די הקים נבוכדנצר מלכא
(וקאמין) [וקימין] לקבל צלמא די הקים נבכדנצר
So the
satraps,
prefects,
governors,
counselors,
treasurers,
judges,
officers,
and all the provincial officials
assembled
for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up,
and stood before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Part 3
וכרוזא קרא בחיל:
לכון אמרין עממיא, אמיא, ולשניא
בעדנא די־תשמעון קל
קרנא
משרוקיתא
(קיתרס) [קתרוס]
שבכא
פסנתרין
סומפניא
וכל זני זמרא
תפלון ותסגדון לצלם דהבא די הקים נבוכדנצר מלכא
The herald (כרוזא) proclaimed in a loud voice,
“You are commanded, O peoples (עממיא), nations (אמיא), and languages (לשניא),
when you hear the sound of the
Horn (קרנא)
Pipe (משרוקיתא)
Zither (קיתרס)
Lyre (שבכה)
Psaltery (פסנתרין - from Greek psaltḗrion, meaning “stringed instrument, harp”)
Bagpipe (סומפניא - from Greek sumphōníā, meaning “symphony”)
and all other types of instruments,
to fall down and worship the statue of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
פרצופיהן - from Greek prosopon, meaning “face, visage”.
On the topic of differing minds and faces, see my piece here, on the sugya of the creation of Adam and the rationale behind human variation.
Presumably, during Sukkot or Passover, when hundreds of thousands of Jews made pilgrimage to Jerusalem; see my piece “Crowds, Crushes, and Censuses: Talmudic Historical Anecdotes of The Pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover in the Late Second Temple Period (Pesachim 64b)”, section “Census by King Agrippa”, where the Talmud states that Agrippa took a census one year, counting the number of Passover sacrifices, and they counted 1.2 million sacrifices.
On the specific expression here -- על גב מעלה בהר הבית -- see my discussion in a note here; and see also the same exact expression, again used in an anecdote about Ben Zoma, here, section “R' Yehoshua Ben Ḥananya, Ben Zoma and the Limits of Esoteric Comprehension: An Account of Cosmological Interpretation on the Temple Mount”.
Listing the 11 steps required to prepare bread, which parallels “The Order of Bread” series of the 39 archetypal melachot of Shabbat; specifically steps #1-11 as listed here.
Listing 5 steps required to prepare clothing, which parallels part of “The Order of Garments” series of the 39 archetypal melachot of Shabbat; specifically steps #12-14,16,19 as listed here.
Benefitting from a hierarchy in which they devoted themselves to study while others engaged in manual work.
Compare here, section “Rabbis of Yavne (רבנן דיבנה)”, where urban labor--likely study, see my note there--is contrasted with field labor. And see also here, section “Human Struggle For Livelihood vs. Animal Ease”.
In contrast, compare the Talmudic teaching that even a scholar should engage in menial labor rather than financially rely on others,, here, section “Rav's advice to Rav Kahana”, item # 2:
פשוט נבילתא בשוקא, ושקיל אגרא,
ולא תימא ״כהנא אנא, וגברא רבא אנא, וסניא בי מלתא״.
Skin a carcass in the market and take payment,
but don't say: “I’m a priest, or: I’m a great man, and this is beneath me.”
Steinsaltz here bowlderizes Ben Zoma’s statements.