Simeon the Righteous in Rabbinic Literature: A Legend Reinvented

259 Pages·2013·1.23 MB·English

by  Amram Tropper

Simeon the Righteous in Rabbinic Literature
Ancient Judaism and
Early Christianity
Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken
Judentums und des Urchristentums
FoundingEditor
MartinHengel†(Tübingen)
ExecutiveEditors
CilliersBreytenbach(Berlin)
MartinGoodman(Oxford)
EditorialBoard
FriedrichAvemarie†(Marburg),JohnBarclay(Durham),
PieterW.vanderHorst(Utrecht),TalIlan(Berlin),
TessaRajak(ReadingandOxford),
DanielR.Schwartz(Jerusalem),
SethSchwartz(NewYork)
VOLUME84
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/ajec
Simeon the Righteous
in Rabbinic Literature
A Legend Reinvented
By
AmramTropper
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2013
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Tropper,AmramD.
SimeontheRighteousinrabbinicliterature:alegendreinvented/byAmramTropper.
pagescm.–(AncientJudaismandearlyChristianity,ISSN1871-6636;volume84)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-90-04-24498-6(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-24502-0(e-book:alk.paper)
1.Simeon,theJust–Inrabbinicalliterature.2.Rabbinicalliterature–Historyandcriticism.I.Title.
BM496.9.S56T762013
296.1'20092–dc23
2012045780
Thispublicationhasbeentypesetinthemultilingual“Brill”typeface.Withover5,100characters
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ISSN1871-6636
ISBN978-90-04-24498-6(hardback)
ISBN978-90-04-24502-0(e-book)
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,הנכותלכת,והינב,יגח,ןידע,היפוצייבוהאל
“‘.ךינוב’אלא‘ךינב’ירקתלא”
(א”עדסתוכרבילבב)

CONTENTS
Introduction............................................................ 1
1. TheRabbinicTraditions ............................................. 11
2. SimeontheRighteous,theGreatAssemblyofAvotandthe
RabbinizationofEarlySecondTempleJudaism ..................... 23
3. SimeontheRighteousandtheOriginsoftheWorld’sThreePillars.. 69
4. SimeontheRighteousandtheNarcissisticNazirite.................. 81
5. SimeontheRighteousandAlexandertheGreat ..................... 113
6. SimeontheRighteousandtheTempleofOnias ..................... 157
7. SimeontheRighteousinSecondTempleChronology ............... 199
Conclusion ............................................................. 213
SelectBibliography ..................................................... 217
IndexofSubjects ....................................................... 241
IndexofSources ........................................................ 243

INTRODUCTION
IfyoushouldvisitJerusalemandwalknorthwardsoftheOldCitytowards
Mt. Scopus, you will likely pass through a street named after Simeon the
Righteous: RehovShimʿonha-Zadik. The street is adjacent to a burial cave
fromtheRoman-Byzantineperiodthatwasprobablyalreadyinuseduring
SecondTempletimesandthisburialcave,accordingtoamedievalJewish
tradition,isthefinalrestingplaceofSimeontheRighteous.
Due to its medieval identification, the ancient burial cave became a
holysiteforJewsinbothmedievalandmoderntimesandJewishpilgrims
continue to visit it year in year out. Thus, for example, the site remains
a popular location for the Hasidic “halaqah” ritual, the ceremonial first
haircut of three year old boys often performed on the thirty third day of
the ʿOmer (shortly before the festival of Shavuot). As a well known holy
Jewishsitetheburialcaveinspirednotonlythenameoftheadjacentstreet
butalsothenamesoftwoadjoiningneighborhoodsthatwereestablished
in 1891–1892: Shimʿon ha-Zadik and Nahalat Shimʿon. Thus, the medieval
Jewishtraditionwhichidentifiedtheburialcaveasthefinalrestingplace
of Simeon the Righteous influenced the naming of two neighborhoods in
modern Jerusalem and transformed the burial cave into a pilgrimage site
sacredintheeyesofmyriadsofJewsfromtheMiddleAgestothepresent.1
Ifyoushouldexpandyourpurviewandmakeanexcursiontosouthern
Jerusalemaswell,youmightvisittheSt.SimeonMonastery,aGreekOrtho-
doxmonasteryattheheartoftheSanSimonneighborhoodwhosenameit
1 SeeBen-Arieh(1986)21–23,188–191;BenEliyahu(1996)64;KlonerandZissu(2000)
97–98;KlonerandZissu(2003)137.NotfarfromtheburialcaveassociatedwithSimeonthe
Righteousisanotherburialcaveidentified,sincemedievaltimes,astheburialcaveofthe
largeSanhedrinofSecondTempleJerusalem.Thus,accordingtomedievaltradition,Simeon
theRighteous,afinalremnantoftheGreatAssembly(seeChapter2below),wasburied
neartheburialplaceoftheheirstotheGreatAssemblyinrabbiniceyes,i.e.themembers
oftheSanhedrin.ArelativelyrecentJewishtraditionidentifiesaburialcaveadjacenttothe
caveassociatedwithSimeontheRighteousasthefinalrestingplaceofthesmallSanhedrin
presumablybecauseofitsproximitytothecavesassociatedwiththelargeSanhedrinand
SimeontheRighteous(ZissuandKloner(2000)100).
The “halaqah” ceremony is famously performed on the thirty third day of the ʿOmer
alongsideRabbiSimeonbarYohai’sgraveinMeronandEyalbenEliyahuhassuggestedto
methatperhapstheceremonywastransferredtoJerusalembyJerusalemiteswhodidnot
feellikemakingthelongtrekallthewaytotheGalileeandhencedecidedthatthegraveof
anotherfamous“Simeon”couldfunctioninlieuofRabbiSimeonbarYohai’sdistantgrave.