Pt3 The ‘Eighteen Decrees’: A Foundational Rabbinic Story, and a Case Study in Formatting a Yerushalmi Sugya for Literary Structure (Yerushalmi Shabbat 1:4)
This is the third part of a four-part series. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here; the outline of the series can be found at Part 1.
Non-Jews’ oil (#10)
Rav Yehuda - Attributes the original prohibition of non-Jewish oil to the biblical Daniel
(See footnote.)1
שמנן.
מי אסר את השמן?
רב יהודה אמר:
דניאל אסר את השמן:
וישם דניאל על ליבו
אשר לא יתגאל בפת בג המלך
וביין משתיו.
Their oil.
Who forbade the oil?
Rav Yehuda said:
Daniel forbade it:
Daniel was careful
not to defile himself by the king’s repast (פת בג)
and the wine he drank (Daniel 1:8)
R’ Aḥa; R’ Tanḥum b. Ḥiyya citing R’ Yoḥanan / R’ Yehoshua ben Levi - people even risked death over the issue of non-Jewish oil
רבי אחא רבי תנחום בר חייה, בשם רבי יוחנן
ואית דאמרי לה בשם רבי יהושע בן לוי:
שהיו עולין עליו להר המלך ונהרגין עליו.
R’ Aḥa, R’ Tanḥum bar Ḥiyya in the name of R’ Yoḥanan,
And some say it in the name of R’ Yehoshua ben Levi:
For it they were climbing up King’s Mountain2 and were killed for it.
R’ Yehuda HaNasi and his court formally permitted non-Jewish oil (#11)
ומי התירו?
רבי ובית דינו התירו בשמן.
And who permitted it?
R’ [Yehuda HaNasi] and his court permitted it.
In three places R’ Yehuda HaNasi is referred to as “our teachers”: in divorce documents, oil, and sandal law
בשלשה מקומות נקרא רבי יהודה הנשיא “רבותינו”:
בגיטין
ובשמן
ובסנדל.
In 3 places is R’ Yehuda HaNasi called “our teachers”:
in divorce documents (גיטין),
oil,
and a sandal
His court was called a “permissive court”, since a court that permits three prior prohibitions is called a “permissive court”
ויקראו לו בית דין שרייא.
שכל בית דין שהוא מבטל שלשה דברים --
הוא נקרא בית דין שרייא.
And they called him “a permissive court”,
for any court which permits 3 [previously forbidden] things --
is called “permissive court.”
R’ Yudan b. Yishmael - R’ Yehuda HaNasi’s court disagreed with him in one of the other permissive rulings - bills of divorce
אמר רבי יודן בירבי ישמעאל:
בית דינו חלוק עליו בגיטין.
R’ Yudan ben R’ Ismael said:
his court disagreed with him about bills of divorce.
R’ Yoḥanan - legal problem: how could a later court revoke Daniel’s prohibition if a lesser court cannot overturn an earlier one?
(See footnote.)3
רבי יוחנן בעי:
ולא כן תנינן:
שאין בית דין יכול לבטל דברי בית דין חבירו
עד שיהיה גדול ממנו בחכמה ובמיניין.
ורבי ובית דינו מתירין מה שאסר דניאל וחבורתו.
R’ Yoḥanan asked:
Did we not state (Mishnah, Eduyot 1:5):
“for no court may invalidate the words of another court
unless it be greater in wisdom and numbers”?
And [thus, how could] R’ [Yehuda HaNasi] and his court permit what Daniel and his companions forbade?
R’ Yoḥanan citing R’ Elazar b. Tzadok - a decree not accepted by the majority of the public is not fully binding; this is applied to the oil decree
(See footnote.)4
אלא רבי יוחנן כדעתיה.
דמר רבי יוחנן, בשם רבי לעזר בירבי צדוק:
מקובל אני
שכל גזירה שבית דין גוזרין על הציבור
ולא קיבלו רוב הציבור עליהן --
אינה גזירה.
R’ Yoḥanan follows his own opinion,
for R’ Yoḥanan said in the name of R’ Elazar ben R’ Tzadok:
I have a tradition
that any decree (גזירה) passed by a court
which is not accepted by the majority of the public --
is not an decree.
The oil decree was investigated, and it was found that the majority of the public had not accepted the prohibition
ובדקו ומצאו גזירה שלשמן
ולא קיבלו רוב הציבור עליהן.
And they checked and found in the matter of the edict about oil
and did not find that a majority of the public followed it.
Anecdote re Yitzḥak b. Shmuel b. Marta and R’ Simlai the Southerner in Nisibis - R’ Simlai teaches that R’ Yehuda HaNasi and his court permitted oil (#12)
יצחק בר שמואל בר מרתא נחת לנציבין.
אשכח רבי שמלאי הדרומי יתיב ודריש:
רבי ובית דינו התירו בשמן.
Isaac bar Samuel bar Martha went down to Nisibis.
He met R’ Simlai the Southerner who sat and expounded:
R’ [Yehuda HaNasi] and his court permitted the oil.
Shmuel accepts this tradition and eats non-Jewish oil; Rav resists; Shmuel threatens him with ostracism
שמואל קביל עלויי ואכל.
רב לא אכל.
Samuel accepted this and ate.
Rav did not eat.
אמר ליה שמואל:
אכול!
דלא כן --
אנא כתיב עלך זקן ממרא.
Samuel told him:
eat!
Otherwise --
I shall declare you a rebellious Elder (זקן ממרא).
... until pressed and informed the ruling is truly attributed to R’ Yehuda HaNasi and his court, after which he eats
אמר ליה:
עד דאנא תמן
אנא ידע מאן עירער עליה.
רבי שמלאי הדרומי.
He answered him:
when I still was there
I knew who complained (עירער) about it --
R’ Simlai the Southerner.
אמר ליה: מהו מר ליה בשם גרמיה?
לא, בשם רבי ובית דינו.
ואטרח עלוי ואכל.
He told him: did he say it in the name of himself?
No, in the name of R’ [Yehuda HaNasi] and his court.
He bothered5 him and he ate.
Non-Jewish women (#13)
R’ Elazar - “do not intermarry with them” appears in seven places in the Bible
(See footnote.)6
בנותיהן.
אמר רבי לעזר:
בשבעה מקומות כתוב:
לא תתחתן בם.
Their daughters.
R’ Elazar said:
in 7 places it is written:
do not intermarry with them (Deuteronomy 7:3).7
R’ Avin - the verse is forbidding the seven Canaanite nations
אמר רבי אבין:
לוסר שבעה עממים.
R’ Avin said:
to forbid 7 [Canaanite] nations (שבעה עממים)
R’ Yehoshua of Ono - Extends “their daughters” homiletically to include “their eggs”
תנא רבי יהושע אונייה:
לוסר את ביציהן.
R’ Yehoshua from Ono stated:
to forbid their eggs.
R’ Yishmael - Supports that reading from the verse “the daughter of the ostrich,” understood as an ostrich egg
תני רבי ישמעאל:
ואת בת היענה.
זו ביצת הנעמית.
R’ Ismael stated:
and the ostrich (בת היענה) (Leviticus 11:16; Deuteronomy 14:15)
This is the egg of the ostrich (נעמית).
Compare Bavli, Avodah_Zarah/36a#6, which cites this verse. And see also ibid., Avodah_Zarah/36a#8 (=ibid., 36b#2):
[...]
אמר באלי,
אבימי נותאה,
משמיה דרב:
פיתן
ושמנן,
יינן
ובנותיהן,
כולן משמנה עשר דבר הן.
[...]
Balei says that
Avimi of Nota [Nota’a] says
in the name of Rav:
The prohibitions of non-Jews’
bread
and their oil,
their wine
and their daughters (i.e. intermarriage),
are all from the 18 matters decreed in a single day in the days of the students of Shammai and Hillel.
On the prohibition on non-Jewish oil in general, see Michlol, “שמן עכו”ם”.
הר המלך.
On this place, see my extended note on the intro in “The Destruction of “King’s Mountain” (‘Tur Malka’): A Story of Custom, Rebellion, and Massacre (Gittin 57a)“.
Compare the parallel Bavli, Avodah_Zarah/36a#4, and ibid. #10, which asks this same question.
Compare Bavli, ibid., 36a#11 thru 36b#1:
אמר רב משרשיא:
מה טעם?
הואיל ופשט איסורו ברוב ישראל,
שמן --
לא פשט איסורו ברוב ישראל
Rav Mesharshiyya said:
What is the reason that none of the 18 decrees can be voided?
Since the prohibition spread among the majority of the Jewish people, it cannot be voided.
But with regard to oil —
its prohibition did not spread among the majority of the Jewish people,
and therefore it can be voided.
דאמר רבי שמואל בר אבא, אמר רבי יוחנן:
ישבו רבותינו ובדקו על שמן
שלא פשט איסורו ברוב ישראל,
וסמכו רבותינו
על דברי רבן שמעון בן גמליאל
ועל דברי רבי אלעזר בר צדוק,
שהיו אומרים:
אלא אם כן רוב צבור יכולין לעמוד בה,
As R’ Shmuel bar Abba says that R’ Yoḥanan says:
Our rabbis sat and inspected the matter of non-Jews’ oil
and determined that its prohibition had not spread among the majority of the Jewish people,
and our rabbis relied
upon Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel’s statement
and upon Elazar bar Tzadok’s statement,
as they would say:
The rabbis issue a decree upon the community
only if most of the community is able to abide by it.
דאמר רב אדא בר אהבה:
מאי קרא?
״במארה אתם נארים
ואתי אתם קבעים
הגוי כלו״,
אי איכא גוי כולו —
אין,
אי לא —
לא.
As Rav Adda bar Ahava said:
What is the verse from which it is derived?
It is the verse: “You are cursed with the curse,
yet you rob (קבעים) Me,
even this whole nation” (Malachi 3:9).
This teaches that
if there is the acceptance of the whole nation,
Yes, an ordinance may be instituted,
but if not,
No, the ordinance may not be instituted.
אטרח.
On this word, see Jastrow (modernized), entry “טְרַח I”, section “Af’el”:
Af’el: - אַטְרַח 1) to make ready for moving, to load (compare טָעַן II)
Aramaic Targum to Job 37:11 (Hebrew text: יטריח).).
Af’el: - אַטְרַח 2) to trouble.
Megillah 22b:13 - לא מַטְרַח ציבורא Manuscript Munich: (ed. לא בעי למִיטְרַח, read למַטְרַח, see Rashi, a. Rabbinowicz, ‘Dikdukei Sofrim’ there, note) - “he would not trouble the congregation (to rise before him)”
and frequently.
Af’el: - אַטְרַח 3) to beg persistently.
Vayikra Rabbah 16:2 - אטרח עליה - “he insisted upon his telling him”
Yerushalmi Peah 1, 16b bottom of page - אין מַטְרְחַת עלוי - “if you strain the chord too much”
In our context, sense #3 is the most relevant: “to beg persistently“, i.e. to persistently insist.
Compare the parallel Bavli, Avodah_Zarah/36b#5.
See ed. Guggenheimer (ff. 329): “The text as quoted is written only once [...]“, see his discussion there.