Raban Gamliel-background - רבן גמליאל- רקע
Resource
Type:
Verhaal
in:
Engels
Age:
10-18
Group Size:
10-58
Estimated Time:
45
minutes
RABAN GAMLIEL
GAMALIEL I THE ELDER (c.10 BCE-c.65 CE) Pharisee president
(nasi) of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and early rabbinical
authority; grandson of Hillel the Elder (q.v.). The first
sage to be given the title of Rabban ("our Master"), he was
active throughout the last decades of the Second Temple and
died a few years before its destruction. As one who enjoyed
supreme religious authority, Gamaliel I maintained regular
contact with Jewish communities at home and abroad,
dictating numerous letters (three of which are quoted in the
Talmud) on matters such as the proclamation of a New Moon or
the approach of a leap year. Following his grandfather's
example, he also enacted various ordinances to protect
divorcees and enable widows whose husbands' deaths could not
be proved by the statutory two witnesses to remarry after a
single witness had provided evidence. This liberal and
humane interpretation of halakhah (Jewish law) was further
visible in Gamaliel's anxiety to prevent miscarriage of
justice, and in his positive attitude toward gentiles.
He had close ties with the Judean royal family and King
Agrippa I relied on him for expert legal advice. According
to New Testament sources, Gamaliel was an honored and
popular "doctor of the law" who intervened on behalf of
Peter and his companions when they were arraigned before the
Sanhedrin; Paul, the erstwhile Pharisee, also took pride in
the fact that he had studied under Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-40,
22:3). "When Rabban Gamliel died," said the rabbis, "the
glory of the Torah ceased, along with purity and
saintliness." He was the founder of a dynasty which included
his immediate successors, R. Simeon ben Gamaliel (q.v.) and
Gamaliel II of Yavneh (q.v.), and his great-great-grandson
Judah ha-Nasi (q.v.). L.W. Schwarz, ed., A Golden Treasury
of Jewish Literature, 1937. E.E. Urbach, The Sages, 1969.
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