THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MERKAVAH TRADITION

BY

JACOB NEUSNER Brown University, Providence(Rhode Island, U.S.A.)

It is an axiom among traditional scholars of Talmudic literature that appearance of a saying or story in a late document, such as the Babylonian gemara or a medieval collection of midrashim, does not mean the saying or story itself is late. The whole corpus of rabbinic materials, it is alleged, circulated orally before redaction. Hence, what appears in a late document could have been handed on in oral tradition from earliest time, therefore is just as reliable as what is redacted in the earliest compilations. In other words, the theological principle that !Tnn3 im?ai mp1N rtt applies as much to the oral as to the written Torah. That axiom cannot be said to run counter to common sense, for the conditions for the transmission of traditional materials are not incongruent to it. If pretty much everything was preserved by memory, then the occurrence in a written document is not consequential in assessing the relative age of materials. We shall here test that axiom by a comparison of the four versions of the story of Yohanan ben Zakkai and the Merkavab-sermon of his disciple Eleazar ben 'Arakh. I shall first present a translation of each version, followed by some comments from a historical point of view, and then offer a synoptic study of the several versions I

(a) And the story is told that Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was

1) My Developmentof a Legend: Studies on the Traditions ConcerningYohanan ben Zakkai (Leiden 1970) provides similar studies of all materials in which Yohanan ben Zakkai appears. In The Rabbinic Traditions about the Pharisees before 70 A.D. (Leiden 1971), three volumes: I. The Masters. II. The Houses. III. Conclusions I have offered similar studies of all Pharisaic traditions before Yohanan's time. My students, Rabbi Moshe Gorelik (Brandeis University), Rabbi Shamai Kanter (Brown University), and Mr. William Scott Green (Brown University) are present- ly at work on similar studies of Eleazar b. Azaiah, Gamaliel II, and Joshua b. Hananiah respectively. My present studies concern Eliezer b. Hyrcanus. We hope eventually to lay the foundations of a critical history of the Yavneh academy and its traditions. 150 riding on an ass, going out of Jerusalem. R. Eleazar b. 'Arakh his disciple was walking behind him. He [R. Eleazar] said to him [Rabban Yohanan], "Rabbi, Teach me a chapter in the Works of the Chariot." He replied, "Have I not taught you [plural], And Concerning the Merkavah, not with a single discipline [alone may one study] unless he is a sage and comprehends out of his own knowledge." (b) He said to him, "If not, give me permission that I may speak before you." (c) R. Eleazar b. 'Arakh was expounding [the Chariot] until fire was licking all around him. When Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai saw that the fire was licking all around him, he descended from the ass and kissed him, saying to him, "Rabbi Eleazar b. 'Arakh, Happy is she who bore you, happy are you, 0 Abraham our father, that such a one has come forth from your loins." (d) He [Rabban Yohanan] would say, "If all the sages of Israel were in one side of the scale and Rabbi Eleazar ben carakh in the second side, he would outweigh them all." (Mekhilta of R. Simeon b. Yohai Mishpatim 20:1, ed. EPSTEIN- MELAMED, pp. 158, 1. 8-17, and 1 59, 1. 1 8-21 ) Comment: Part d is tacked on, having nothing to do with the Merk.a- vah story. It stands by itself. I do not know why it should have been important to the Aqibans, responsible for this compilation, to preserve Yohanan's praise of Eleazar. Perhaps their Merkavah-traditions depended on his, but it is more likely that 'Aqiva's Merkavah-traditions come from Joshua. In that case it is all the more puzzling that Eleazar is represented as the chief Merkavah-disciple. Furthermore, Eleazar did not come to Yavneh, and probably fell from favor by the time of, if not before, Yohanan's death. The Merkavah-story therefore was probably given final formulation before that time, for, as we shall see, in other versions, the effort is made to transfer the normative Merkavah- tradition to Joshua and others. I imagine that this account was given final form by the time Eleazar left Yohanan's circle and was not altered afterward. That is the only way we can understand the high praise of Eleazar consistently included in the Merkavah-materials. But (d) cannot have been added much after formulation of (a) for the same considerations apply without qualifi- cation. It is further to be supposed that the Aqibans preserved the Merkavah- story pretty much as they received it, for, as I said, they could not have preferred an account praising Eleazar to one praising Joshua, 'Aqiva's own Merkavab-teacher. If these suppositions are sound, then there is