Seventy-Something…

In a well-known passage from zizit, ritual fringes, to the corners of according to the Babylonian. puzzlement that Rabbi Eleazar ben the Passover Haggadah, the garments. The section concludes The story in the Jerusalem Azariah does not in fact appear as a Jewish sages are discussing the “I am the Lord your God, who Talmud implied that the shock of colleague or interlocutor with any obligation to speak about the brought you out of Egypt to be your hearing about his appointment of the prominent rabbis of the exodus from Egypt at night. God. I am the Lord your God.” caused his entire head to fill with second century whose teachings This biblical allusion to the white hair. and discussions are so extensively Rabbi Egyptian exodus invites a natural The Babylonian version of the documented in rabbinic literature. observes that he was unable to segue to the liturgical blessing that story put a more positive spin on As for the whitening of his hair locate a source for that obligation develops that idea. the developments. – this is a well-known medical until his colleague Ben Zoma came However, no such obvious Rabbi Eleazar’s wife initially phenomenon known as “poliosis,” up with a clever bit of scriptural transition existed for the evening balked at the invitation that her diagnosed as a decrease in melanin exegesis to prove that the service. In the ancient rite of the spouse serve in such an important that can be attributed to a broad does indeed contain such a land of Israel it was not customary position, fearing that the elders range of causes. requirement. to include the zizit paragraph as would not submit to the authority The seems to Deuteronomy 16:3 explains that part of the Shema, because the of such a young colleague. associate Rabbi Eleazar’s that we were commanded to eat obligation was not deemed to Subsequently, a miracle was transformation with a sudden only leavened bread during apply at nighttime (or at least to performed for his benefit when psychological trauma, and this Passover in order “...that you may night-clothes). eighteen rows of his hair turned evokes similar tales that attach to remember the day when you came Under the circumstances, what white, lending him a mature figures like Marie Antoinette or forth out of the land of Egypt grounds were there for inserting the appearance that was suitable to the Thomas More whose hair all the days of your life.” blessing about the exodus into the dignity of the office. reportedly turned white overnight Ben Zoma reads the wording of evening prayers? Ben Zoma came to The Babylonian rabbis saw in as the consequence of their sudden the Hebrew verse with midrashic the rescue with his ingenious that episode the key to imprisonments. precision: “the days of your life” exegetical insight that was so understanding the vague-looking Those cases are dismissed with might have referred only to the satisfying to Rabbi Eleazar ben wording in the Passover Haggadah. much skepticism by modern days, but the addition of the extra Azariah. Rabbi Eleazar uttered the sentence medicine – certainly when it comes word “all” must come to teach us The precise translation of Rabbi around the time of his appointment to claims of an instantaneous or that the obligation extends to the Eleazar’s statement in both the at Yavneh, and what he meant to overnight transformation, which is nights as well. and the Passover say was “Behold, my white hair has simply impossible given the gradual The passage’s inclusion in the Haggadah is: “Behold, I am now as given me the appearance of a seventy- rate of hair growth, so that white Haggadah seems to imply that one who is seventy years old, but I year-old, even though I am still of a roots would not become visible for Rabbi Eleazar ben Aazariah and was never able to demonstrate that the youthful age.” at least a few weeks. Ben Zoma were conversing about exodus should be mentioned at night.” In its discussion of the Nevertheless, some concede the the obligation to speak about the Those ever-precise sages of the mishnah dealing with the existence of an obscure condition exodus on Passover night, at the Talmud could not quite swallow the mentioning of the exodus in the called “diffuse alopecia areata” that seder. This reading is reinforced by sloppiness of his phrasing. Was the evening service, the Jerusalem could produce similar effects under its placement immediately good rabbi seventy, sixty-nine, Talmud inserted the following highly unusual circumstances. following the account about the seventy-one... or what? observation about Rabbi Eleazar’s Most commentators follow the great Jewish sages who were Why equivocate with a Hebrew reference to his age: “Even though he Babylonian Talmud’s lead in reclining (the prescribed posture for idiom “ke-ven shiv’im shanah” that acceded to a high office, he nonetheless interpreting Rabbi Eleazar’s the Passover meals) in B’nei B’rak, carries the connotation of “like, went on to live a long life. This condition as an outright miracle one of whom was indeed Rabbi seventy” or “seventy-ish” or some suggests that high office [normally] intended to enhance his dignity as Eleazar ben Azariah. other expression that is more shortens a person’s days.” a scholarly leader. However, some Nevertheless, those of us who appropriate to a teen chat-room This remark only makes sense if of them prefer more naturalistic are more familiar with rabbinic than to a learned compendium of we assume that the number seventy explanations. literature will recognize that our religious law? was intended literally (even if not Maimonides, for example, argues text is actually a separate citation Our sages could not resist the precisely). If Rabbi Eleazar was that the young scholar threw from the Mishnah, and that its temptation to link this passage to a sixteen years old when he was himself into a frenzy of original context has nothing tradition about a famous incident appointed to the leadership at uninterrupted study by day and directly to do with Passover. from the rabbinic politics of the Yavneh, somewhere around 80 CE, night, until he became enfeebled It is taken from the tractate late first century CE. then he would have been about 70 and his hair turned white, so that and deals with an issue At that time, the academy of in the mid-130s, during the he now appeared to have aged involving the weekday liturgy. Yavneh was headed by the turbulent years of the Bar Kokhba beyond his actual years. The question that occupied the Patriarch Rabban II. uprising – a ripe old age by the There might be a valuable rabbis in this passage related to the When Gamaliel was ousted for his standards of the ancient world. cautionary lesson here for those of structure of the morning and public humiliation of his colleague It was at that advanced age that you who don’t know enough to take evening liturgies. It is customary to Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, the he submitted his observation an occasional respite from follow up the recitation of the sages turned to Rabbi Eleazar ben concerning the mentioning of the your labours. morning and evening Shema Azariah to serve as his replacement, Egyptian exodus at night. sections with a blessing related to at least until the dispute was According to this reading, he Professor Eliezer Segal the theme of the Egyptian exodus, resolved. chose to round off his age as an focusing on the song of Moses and The Talmuds report that Rabbi alternative to referring to Full Professor of Religious Studies, climaxing in our confident Eleazar was only a teenager at the something like “sixty-eight and University of acknowledgment that God will time when he was drafted to the two thirds” whose mathematical Calgary, and continue to act as the “redeemer of prestigious office of the , exactitude would have been a regular Israel.” charged with presiding over the superfluous and distracting for the contributor Now the inclusion of this theme reconfiguration of Jewish religious point that he wanted to make at to Destiny. was understandable for the morning life in the aftermath of the the time. service, where the Shema destruction of the Second Temple: Though most historians seem to concluded with a reading of a mere sixteen years old according lean towards accepting this Numbers 15:37-41, which speaks to the Jerusalem Talmud, eighteen chronology, some express their about the commandment to attach

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