Tractate 27b 65

wear a uniform; but shall the one who did not wear a uniform say to the one who is accustomed to wear a uniform, ‘Remove your uniform, that I may wear it’?” [I.e., that Rabban Gamliel, who was from the line of NesVim, should return to his position of , rather than Rabbi .] said to the Sages: “Close the doors, so that the servants of Rabban Gamliel will not come and distress the Sages.” Rabbi Yehoshua said, “It is better that I arise and go to them.” He came and knocked on the door, and told them, “A sprinkler, the son of a sprinkler, shall sprinkle. And shall the one who is neither a sprinkler nor the son of a sprinkler say to the sprinkler who is a son of a sprinkler, ‘Your water is bitter, and your ashes are roasted ashes’? ” [I.e., a priest whose father would sprinkle the water of the -offering is certainly worthy to sprinkle, but it is inconceivable that someone who is not a priest who sprinkles, nor the son of a priest who sprinkled, shall say to a priest who sprinkles, the son of a priest who sprinkled, “The water that you sprinkle is bitter and foul, and your ashes are plain ashes which have been roasted in an oven, rather than of a red heifer.”] Rabbi Yehoshua sought to hint to them that Rabban Gamliel was of royal descent, suitable for wearing regal garb, while Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah was of priestly lineage. Just as it is not proper for a king to assume the priesthood — as we have seen regarding King Uzziah, who burnt the incense, and became a leper as a result — so, too, it is not proper for a priest to assume kingship. For the Hasmonean kings, who were priests, were punished for having taken the throne. The verse “The scepter shall not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:10) is interpreted as referring to the Exilarchs in Babylon, and “nor the ruler’s staff from