Zugot

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Zugot

Zugot ((t?quphath) hazZughôth) refers to the period during the time of the Second Temple

Second Temple

The Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE. During this time, it was the center of Judaism worship, which focused on the sacrifices known as the korbanot....
(515 BC - 70 AD), in which the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people was in the hands of five successive generations of zugot ("pairs") of religious teachers.

Origin of the name
In Hebrew, the word "zugot" indicates a plural of two identical objects. (In English: "pairs".) The name was given to the two leading teachers of the Law during each successive generation during the period.

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Zugot ((t?quphath) hazZughôth) refers to the period during the time of the Second Temple

Second Temple

Origin of the name

In Hebrew, the word "zugot" indicates a plural of two identical objects. (In English: "pairs".) The name was given to the two leading teachers of the Law during each successive generation during the period. According to tradition, two of them always stood at the head of the Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
; one as president ("nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
") and the other as vice-president or father of the court ("Av beit din

Av Beit Din

Av Beit Din, Av Beis Din, or Av Beth Din . was the second-highest ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Commonwealth period....
"; see Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
).

The term "Zugot" refers to 5 pairs of legal scholars who ruled the Supreme Court Beit Din HaGadol from 142 BC when the 2nd Judean State was established as an independent state to the end of Hillel the Elder

Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
's rule ca. 40 BC. Afterwards the positions Chief Justice Nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
and Vice President Av Beit Din
Av Beit Din

Av Beit Din, Av Beis Din, or Av Beth Din . was the second-highest ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Commonwealth period....
remained, but they were not Zugot.

With the rise of the independent Judean state under Simon

Simon Maccabaeus

Simon Maccabaeus was a son of Mattathias Maccabaeus and thus a member of the Hasmonean family.He took part in the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire led by his brothers, Judas Maccabaeus and Jonathan Maccabaeus....
the Maccabee of the Hasmonean

Hasmonean

The Hasmoneans were the ruling dynasty of the Hasmonean Kingdom of Israel , an independent Jewish state. The Hasmonean dynasty was established under the leadership of Simon Maccabaeus, two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt in 165 BCE....
s, the nature of Judaism changed from Theocracy

Theocracy

Theocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a broader sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided....
to Nomocracy

Nomocracy

A nomocracy is a government which is ruled by law. That is, a government under the sovereignty of rational laws and civic right as opposed to one under theocratic systems of government ....
. The change reflected a radical transformation from the rule of the Jewish community by God through the High Priest

Kohen Gadol

Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol is the title of wiktionary:High Priest of early Israelite religion and of Classical Age Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem....
, to rule of the community through the judicial and legislative discourse of the Supreme Court. The High Priest, the Kohen Gadol
Kohen Gadol

Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol is the title of wiktionary:High Priest of early Israelite religion and of Classical Age Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem....
, went from being the supreme legal and spiritual authority to a figurehead who ruled in the Temple but was still subservient to the Supreme Court. After the destruction of the Judean state and the 2nd Temple in 70 AD, the Supreme Court Beit Din HaGadol ceased to exist. With Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
permission the Sanhedrin was re-established, first at Jamnia

Council of Jamnia

The Council of Jamnia or Council of Yavne is a hypothetical 1st century council at which it is postulated the Development of the Jewish Bible canon was defined....
, and it became the government in exile for the Jewish community. In 425 AD the Roman government shut down the Sanhedrin as a result of its Christian intent to dominate religious expression and marginalize Judaism.

Historical background

The title of av beit din
Av Beit Din

Av Beit Din, Av Beis Din, or Av Beth Din . was the second-highest ranking member of the Sanhedrin during the Second Commonwealth period....
existed before the period of the zugot. His purpose was to oversee the Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
, the court of religious law (also known as the "beth din

Beth din

A beth din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Land of Israel....
"). The rank of nasi
Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
(president) was a new institution that was begun during this period.

During the first generation of the Zugot, the Jewish supporters of Hellenistic control in Israel managed to gain control over the position of the "Cohen Ha'Gadol" (the High Priest of the Temple), and raised Greek sympathizers to that position. The purpose of the High Priest was to be a spiritual leader of the Jewish people, which led the religious leaders among the people to elect a nasi

Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
, to provide an alternative to the growing corruption of the priests of the Temple. This conflict led to the split between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and to the political upheaval that followed.

List of zugot

There were five pairs of these teachers:

Jose ben Joezer, and Jose ben Johanan
who flourished at the time of the Maccabean wars of independence
Joshua ben Perachyah
Joshua ben Perachyah

Joshua ben Perachya was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the latter half of the second century BC.He and his colleague Nittai of Arbela were the second of the five pairs of scholars who received and transmitted Jewish tradition ....
, and Nittai of Arbela
Nittai of Arbela

Nittai of Arbela was av beit din or vice-president of the Sanhedrin under the nasi Joshua ben Perachyah at the time of John Hyrcanus . In Jerusalem Talmud Haggigah II 76d he is called Mattai of Arbela, which is also found in ancient and linguistically reliable manuscripts of the Mishnah, such as Codex Kaufmann. The confusio...

at the time of John Hyrcanus
John Hyrcanus

John Hyrcanus was a Hasmonean leader of the 2nd century BC. Apparently the name "Hyrcanus" was taken by him as a regnal name upon his accession to power....
Judah ben Tabbai
Judah ben Tabbai

Judah ben Tabbai ' was a Jewish tannaim of the early first century BCE. He was a contemporary of Simeon ben Shetach. During the persecution of the Pharisees under Alexander Jannaeus ', Judah fled to Alexandria, returning after Jannaeus' death....
, and Simeon ben Shetach
Simeon ben Shetach

Simeon ben Shetach or Shimon ben Shetach was a Pharisee scholar and Nasi of the Sanhedrin during the reigns of Alexander Jann?us and his successor, Queen Alexandra Salome , who was Simeon's sister....

at the time of Alexander Jannæus and Queen Salome Alexandra
Salome Alexandra

Salome Alexandra or Alexandra of Jerusalem , was the only Jewish Queen regnant, with the exception of her own husband's mother whom he had prevented from ruling as his dying father had wished, and of the much earlier usurper Athaliah....
Sh'maya, and Abtalion
at the time of Hyrcanus II
Hyrcanus II

Hyrcanus II, a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, was the Jewish Kohen Gadol and King of Judea in the 1st century BCE....
Hillel
Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
, and Shammai
Shammai

Shammai was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah.Shammai was the most eminent contemporary and the Halakha opponent of Hillel the Elder, and is almost invariably mentioned along with him....

at the time of King Herod the Great
Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great , was a Roman Empire client state of Israel. Herod is known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and other parts of the ancient world, including the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple....

Other uses of term Zugot

The term zugot refers to pairs generally. The Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 109b-112a) contains an extensive discussion of dangers of zugot and of performing various activities in pairs. The discussants expressed belief in a demonology

Demonology

Demonology is the systematic research of demons or beliefs about demons. Insofar as it involves exegesis, demonology is an orthodox branch of theology....
and in practices of sorcery from which protection was needed by avoiding certain activities. The demonology included a discussion of Ashmidai (Asmodai

Asmodai

Asmodeus or Asmodai is a king of demons mostly known from the deuterocanonical books Book of Tobit. The demon is also mentioned in some Talmudic legends, for instance, in the story of the construction of the Temple of Solomon....
or Asmodeus), referred to as king of the shadim or demons. No such demonology occurs in the Jerusalem Talmud

Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of rabbi notes about the Jewish Oral law as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah....
.

Both belief in a Jewish demonology in which demons could cause one harm, and reservations against pairs generally, disappeared entirely from Judaism by the Middle Ages, and do not exist today. Medieval commentators, who are followed today, asserted that the practice of avoiding doing things in pairs out of concern for being harmed by demons was not applicable to then-contemporary conditions. They gave various reasons. Meiri, for example, stated that belief in the harm of pairs was widespread among the masses of the time and the Sages sought to allay their fears and draw them away from their excesses. Tosafot
Tosafot

The Tosafot or Tosafos are medi?val commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes....
held that we need not concern ourselves with zugot because evil spirits are no longer prevalent. Ben Yehoyada held that any harm from pairs has 'nowadays' become completely negated. Maimonides

Maimonides

Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon , the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maymun , was born in C?rdoba, Spain, Spain on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 13, 1204.....
suggested that the Rabbis of the Talmud were susceptible to contemporary superstitions.