Description:
<jats:p>Commenting on the verse which reports the devastation of Jerusalem by Nabuzaradan, that ‘he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man's house,’<jats:inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mime-subtype="gif" xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="S0362152900017645_inline1" />the Midrash makes the following remark:</jats:p><jats:p><jats:named-content xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" content-type="blockquote" xlink:type="simple">And to what does the clause<jats:italic>every great man's house</jats:italic>refer? That's the academy (<jats:italic>bet midrash</jats:italic>) of Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai. And why is it called<jats:italic>bet gadol</jats:italic>[literally, the house of the great one]? Because there the<jats:italic>shebah</jats:italic>(<jats:italic>shevah</jats:italic>) of the Holy One, blessed be He, was rehearsed, related, recited</jats:named-content></jats:p><jats:p>— the verb used is<jats:italic>teni,</jats:italic>which means not only to recite but to study and to teach. To translate<jats:italic>shebah</jats:italic>by the neutral word ‘praise’, is to miss the real intent of the statement.<jats:italic>Shebah</jats:italic>in the present sentence, as in a great many others in talmudic-midrashic literature, is clearly<jats:italic>δόξα</jats:italic>; and one of the traditional commentators on our midrashic passage has already correctly explained it: in Johanan ben Zakkai's academy they were engaged in the Creation and Merkabah (Chariot) speculations. The parallel passage in the Palestinian Talmud bears him out.</jats:p>