{"id":84242,"date":"2020-11-29T16:17:56","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T14:17:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=84242"},"modified":"2020-11-29T16:32:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T14:32:47","slug":"temple-tumult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/temple-tumult\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple Tumult"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"84242","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":70715,"related_cahpter":"622","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Who would win the priestly lottery was not a decorous affair\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The historian Jack Wertheimer writes that in late twentieth century America, \u201cto one extent or another, synagogues across the denominational spectrum\u2014with the exception of the Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox sectors of the Orthodox community\u2014insisted upon decorous services and formality.\u201d\u00a0 This statement might not seem particularly remarkable to anyone who has ever been shushed in a Jewish prayer space, a common experience across the spectrum ranging from the sedate atmosphere of a grand Reform temple to the relaxed ambience of a <em>beit knesset<\/em> at a Modern Orthodox sleepaway camp.\u00a0 But it might have been surprising indeed to the Talmudic teacher Rabbi Yohanan, given his reading of verse 15 of Psalm 55.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This psalm is a call for divine salvation from taunts and hatred. Frequently throughout this book, when the psalmist complains about physical, spiritual, or emotional slings and arrows, his nemesis is made out to be a true antagonist. Psalm 55, though, expressly tells us that this lyric does not refer to an ordinary enemy but rather to an opponent who was \u201cmy companion, my friend,\u201d with whom the poet \u201cwalked together in God\u2019s house.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rabbi Yohanan, in Tractate Yoma, relates this last phrase to a mishnaic discussion about the method used to allocate the honor of performing various parts of the service in the Temple.\u00a0 The Mishna tells us that in order to avoid too much chaos as priests jostled against each other in vying for different opportunities to serve, the Temple leadership instituted a lottery system in which priests noisily took part in a game of chance that would determine what role they would play in any given service.\u00a0 Rabbi Yohanan understands verse 15 of our Psalm to refer not (or at least not only) to two people walking together in some unidentified house of God, but to multiple people making a commotion together in the course of the Temple lottery.\u00a0 And as if to up the ante on talking during services \u2013 or at least making a racket while participating in a competition in the Temple \u2013 Rashi explains Rabbi Yohanan\u2019s view as referring to the honor that a king experiences when being greeted by a major noisy fanfare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagining a group of ten-year-olds caught by the <em>shammas<\/em> in the back of the shul playing cards, or maybe \u201cchumash baseball,\u201d calling on Rabbi Yohanan for some help . . .<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":60139,"id":60139,"title":"2sam8-priest","filename":"2sam8-priest.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-the-superpower\/2sam8-priest\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam8-priest","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60138,"date":"2019-07-25 13:39:28","modified":"2023-03-16 16:41:19","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":789,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-300x228.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":228,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-768x584.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":584,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","large-width":789,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","1536x1536-width":789,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","2048x2048-width":789,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","post_full_size-width":789,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-552x420.jpg","home_baner-width":552,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Temple Tumult","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Who would win the priestly lottery was not a decorous affair","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":60139,"id":60139,"title":"2sam8-priest","filename":"2sam8-priest.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/david-the-superpower\/2sam8-priest\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2sam8-priest","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":60138,"date":"2019-07-25 13:39:28","modified":"2023-03-16 16:41:19","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":789,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-300x228.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":228,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-768x584.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":584,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","large-width":789,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","1536x1536-width":789,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","2048x2048-width":789,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest.jpg","post_full_size-width":789,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/2sam8-priest-552x420.jpg","home_baner-width":552,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84244,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84242\/revisions\/84244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}