Not Everyone is as Spry as Rabbi Hanina: Stories from b.Hullin 19-26

In which we learn of timetables for apprenticeships

This week I started my summer position as the Interim Director of Jewish Life at the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, which is a fancy way of saying that I’m subbing for the facility’s rabbi, who is going on parental leave. I’ve spent the last two weeks shadowing the rabbi, chatting with the residents, attending meetings and classes and leading services, and I am having a wonderful time! On the downside, I have had less time for daf learning and took some cursory looks at the various slaughter rulings without having time to iron all their wrinkles. As we do in these situations, I’m recurring to the Ein Yaakov to flag the important bits for us, and it did not disappoint!

An issue that takes up much of Hullin 24 is the career ladder of priests and Levites. The opening mishna says that some things that are appropriate for the former are disqualifying for the latter, and vice-versa - so, of course, the Gemara turns to figure out which is which. As it happens, this month we’re reading the early parahsot of Numbers, which contain a lot of instructions for Levites (who did much of the fetch-and-carry labor at the tabernacle), so it is maybe not surprising that the Gemara flags that Levites can become too old for the job (the verse, in Numbers 8:25, says “And from the age of fifty years he shall return from the service”). The Gemara suggests that this early retirement age pertains only to the years of moving around with the tabernacle, which was hard on the shoulders (בִּזְמַן שֶׁהָעֲבוֹדָה בַּכָּתֵף), but once they got to a semi-permanent space in Shiloh, the retirement perks ceased.

Then, we discuss the contradiction regarding the age of starting the job. Is it 25 years (Numbers 8:24) or thirty (Numbers 4:47)? Having sat through a long HR meeting about timesheets yesterday, I can see the importance of this! The Gemara resolves the contradiction by suggesting that one starts an apprenticeship at 25 and actually takes on the job at 30. This, we are told, contradicts the Babylonian training program that enrolled Daniel and his friends, which if you read my book you’ll know was only three years long. That’s not a problem, explains the Gemara, because learning Babylonian is easy-peasy (שָׁאנֵי לְשׁוֹן כַּשְׂדִּים, דְּקַלִּיל), whereas learning temple work is hard (וְאִידַּךְ – שָׁאנֵי הִלְכוֹת עֲבוֹדָה, דְּתַקִּיפִין). I should also mention, re the image above, that this text—like the JPS translation of Daniel—glosses over the fact that the four friends were children, יְלָדִ֣ים, which contributes to the horror of the story but also bolsters the courage and wisdom of Daniel & Co.

If there’s anything that legitimately disqualifies the Levites from service at Shiloh, it’s a deterioration of the voice with age. The temple sources remind us that the Levites were expected to sing in unison (לְהַשְׁמִיעַ קוֹל אֶחָד) and, once one’s voice started trembling, they might have been released from service.

The Gemara then turns to figuring out how mature a person must be to join public service—they must know how to put their shoes on and take them off while standing on the other foot (apparently, sciatica was not known at the time). Then we’re told that Rabbi Hanina, who was eighty, could still perform his feat, and he explains:

We shall resume our regularly scheduled program with the question: what is a bird made of?