Rabbi Joazar ben Zeredah

Rabbi Joazar ben Zeredah

"History of the Hebrews' Second Commonwealth..." by Isaac Mayer Wise (c.1880), p.70 ; Chapter VIII, Palestine Under Syrian Rulers:

10. Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben John.

- All of them made two mistakes, viz. : Jerusalem was not Palestine, and the aristocracy was not the Hebrew people. Under such circumstances, Jason certainly could not preside over the Sanhedrin, which was a conservative body, representing all parts of the country. The disciples of Antigonus turned up as heads of the Sanhedrin, viz. : Jose b. Joezer, of Zeredah, in Ephraim (I. Kings x. 13) as the presiding officer, and second to him, Jose ben John of Jerusalem. The former [Jose ben Joezer of Zeredah] certainly was a son of Aaron and one of the Hassidim [Hebrew translation] : and the latter appears to have been a brother of Mattathia, the Asmonean, hence, also a priest. They were the bearers and exponents of the traditions received from the school of Antigonus of Sochu. The motto of this Jose b. Joezer was:

"Let thy house be the meeting place for the wise, cover thyself with the dust of their feet, and drink with thirst their words"

i, e., he advised many private meetings to discuss the public affairs, and urged wise counsel to prevail. He wanted the wise men to lead and the common men to obey in that threatening crisis. His colleague's motto was:

"Let thy house be widely open (form no secret societies), let the poor be members of thy household (the rich were corrupted to the core), and converse not too much with the woman " (7).

Both mottoes point to revolutionary preparations and the formation of secret societies, although, apparently, the first urges the study of the Law and the second the practice of charity. An ordinance of those heads of the
Sanhedrin, preserved in the Talmud (Sabbath 14 b), also points to revolutionary preparations. They declared Levitically unclean the land of the Gentiles and all glassware; so that none should leave the country; that the Hebrews in foreign countries should come to Palestine, and none should use glassware, either because it was imported from Syria or in order that none should drink with the Syrians and the Hebrew aristocracy, who used glassware (8).

Sources

• History of the Hebrews' Second Commonwealth: With Special Reference to Its Literature, Culture ...

by Isaac Mayer Wise - https://archive.org/details/historyhebrewss00wisegoog/page/n84

• Boethusians Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boethusians