Talmudic Temple lore

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Reconstructing the Life of the Temple and Its All-Too-Human Denizens. In the Talmud’s descriptions of self-glorifying and self-enriching Temple priests, lessons for today’s public officials.

Imagine that 400 years from now, the United States has been destroyed and Washington, D.C., lies in ruins. Few documents survive to explain how America was once governed; all that posterity has to rely on is hearsay and oral tradition, passed down over the generations. People know, for instance, that there was once a vice president named Al Gore, but they don’t know when he lived or exactly why his name has been recorded, when other holders of the same office are forgotten. Some speculate that it is because Gore was the best of all vice presidents; others say that perhaps all vice presidents were named Gore, in honor of the first of their line.

This was roughly the situation of the rabbis when they tried to reconstruct the life of the Temple. ...

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.