Goats and Yehoshua bin Nun The Gemara lists ten ordinances decreed by Yehoshua when he led Am Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael. The first one was "that cattle be permitted to pasture in woods… R. Papa explains, "that this applies only to small cattle (Beheimot Dakot) - i.e. sheep and goats - pasturing in 'big woods'. It would not be permitted in the case of small cattle pasturing in small woods or big cattle pasturing in large forests [because of possible damage to the trees] (Baba Kama 80b). Historically speaking, Transjordania - Ammon, Moab, the Gil'ad and the Bashan were particularly devoted to sheep growing from earliest times. Nevertheless, it was believed that the best sheep came from Hebron and the best rams from Moab (Sotah 34b). A perusal of almost any page of Tanach will show that virtually every rural family kept a few goats and sheep for their personal use. Their meat and milk were staple foods and their wool was indispensable, "The lambs will be for your clothing… and there will be goats' milk enough for your food, [and] for the food of your household… (Mishlei 27:26,27). Lamb chops were a favorite meal at a time of celebration (Yeshayahu 22:13). Goat hair was woven into curtains and tent covers (Sh'mot 26:7, 35:26) or for stuffing pillows (I Shmuel 19:13). And of course, sheep and goats were preeminently the animals used for Korbanot in the Beit HaMikdash, first and second. I Divrei Hayamim 27:31 tells us that "over the flocks (Tzon) [of King David] was Yaziz the Hagrite." Good King Chizkiyahu had "flocks (Tzon) and herds in abundance; for G-d had given him much substance" (II Divrei Hayamim 32:29). In Biblical days, the so-called Takana of Yehoshua either fell by the wayside or was observed in the breach. The commercial raising of sheep and goats required large grazing areas and only the large latifundia (in Bayit Sheini days usually foreign-owned) had enough land to make it worthwhile. The Nevi'im and later the Sages were keenly aware that every time a great landowner "enclosed" hundreds of small homesteads for his sheep and goats, thousands of expellees - Jewish farmers and their families - lost their livelihood. During the great war which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Mikdash, and in particular after the Bar Kochba debacle 65 years later, vast areas of prime agricultural land throughout Eretz Yisrael were ravaged, causing the destruction of Jewish agriculture and the ruin of countless more farmers. A frequent phenomenon even before the Roman wars, the twin defeats and the resultant repression caused this socially unhealthy development to accelerate. The noted historian Michael Avi Yona wrote (The Jews Under Roman and Byzantine Rule, p.28), "Heavy losses were caused to the Jewish community (after the wars, CS)… by short sighted (and greedy, CS) people who were out for quick returns and who began to raise herds and sheep and goats ("small cattle" in the Talmudic language) in areas once cultivated but now temporally abandoned. Such enterprises were apparently very profitable, due to the expansion of the textile industry. R. Yochanan was recorded as saying; "Who ever wishes to become rich, should raise small cattle" (Chulin 84b). The rapid increase in the number of sheep and goats was bound in the end to ruin the crops and wooded areas (and the livelihood of the yeoman peasantry, CS); it was therefore decided that 'small cattle may not be raised in the Land of Israel, but only in Syria and in the deserts of the Land of Israel' (Baba Kama 7:7). The Jewish authorities under- took to protect the trees of their country; their point of view was expressed thus: 'Because of four things is daylight extinguished… because people cut down good trees and raise small cattle' (Tosefta Sukka 2:5)." The sage R' Chanina attributed the early death of his son to the fact that the boy had chopped down a fig tree (Baba Kama 91b). The Sages' thoughts on what 1800 years later would come to be called "ecology" or "bionomics" could be encapsulated in this beautiful Midrash. In the hour when the Holy One, Blessed be He, created the first man, He took him and let him pass before all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him: "See my works, how fine and excellent they are! Now all that I have created, for you have I created. Think upon this and do not corrupt and desolate My World, For if you corrupt it, there is no one to set it right after you" (Kohelet Rabbah 7:28). The Mishna in Sanhedrin (3:3) lists negative elements (gamblers, usurers etc.) that the earlier Sages barred from testifying in court or being appointed judges because of their general untrustworthiness. Because of shepherds' growing habit of driving their herds to pasture on the property of others, the later Sages added them to the list (Sanhedrin 25b). (Note: This decree only applied to shepherds who pastured their own flocks but not to hired herdsman who pastured the animals of others. The Sages - optimistically perhaps - assumed that a man does not trespass unless material benefits accrue to him.) After the horrific defeats in the two wars against Rome, the farsighted Sages were anxious to reestablish Jewish agriculture, the basis of Jewish national existence in Eretz Yisrael. It was essential to provide a living for as many Jews as possible; many more Jewish families could be supported by agriculture than by animal husbandry. The Sages remembered the ancient Takana attributed to Yehoshua bin Nun and endeavored to enforce it. "Our rabbis taught, 'There was once a righteous man who had heart ailments ("The righteous man" was reputed to be R. Yehudah ben But a [Tosefta BK 8:4] who ordained five of R. Akiva's students at a time when the Roman occupiers murdered both those ordaining and those being ordained in their effort to break the chain of Semicha. However, the traditions are at variance.). he doctors, upon being consulted, said that there was no remedy for him unless he sucked warm milk every morning. Therefore, they brought a goat to him and tied it to the legs of the bed, and he sucked from it every morning. After some days, his colleagues came to visit him, but as soon as they saw the goat tied to the legs of the bed, they turned back and said, 'An armed robber is in the house of this man! How can we come in and see him?' Then they sat down and inquired after his conduct, but they did not find any fault in him except for the matter of the goat. At the time of his death, he proclaimed, 'I know of no sin that be imputed to me except for the goat when I transgressed against the words of my colleagues (Baba Kama 80a). And this was a case of Piku'ach Nefesh - a clear danger to life! Catriel's book in progress: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrim’s Perspective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service [The
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