In the following passage, where city councils are explicitly mentioned, the
latter appear to have had the upper hand:
R. Yoh:anan said: If they mention you for (candidature to) theboule[city council],
let the Jordan be your frontier.^139
R. Yoh:anan said: One may appeal to the authorities for exemption from the
boule.
R. Yoh:anan said: One may borrow at interest for...the sanctification of the
month.
R. Yoh:anan used to go into the synagogue in the morning, collect the crumbs,
eat, and say:‘May my lot be with him who sanctified the month here (last)
evening!’(pSanh.8: 2 (26a), with parallel inpMoed Qatan2: 3 (81b)).This passage, a list of four traditions of or about Rabbi Yoh:anan, occurs in the
Palestinian Talmud in the context of a reference in the Mishnah to a meal that
was held‘at the intercalation of the month’(mSanh. 8: 2). Thefirst two
sayings, however, seem completely out of context, as they do not relate
to the intercalation of the month or any other aspect of the calendar;^140 but
I would suggest that their inclusion in this passage is significant and has an
explanation. The story at the end of this passage implies that R. Yoh:anan was
somehow excluded from a meal that had taken place, the evening before, in a
synagogue; at this meal, someone had‘sanctified the month’. Although this
phrase is used elsewhere for the declaration of the new moon by the rabbinic
court (mRH2: 7), the rabbinic court seems most unlikely to be referred to in
this case, because R. Yoh:anan—probably the most important rabbinic sage of
mid-third-century Palestine—would surely not have been excluded from it;
indeed, he is mentioned elsewhere in the Palestinian Talmud as a member of it
(pRH2: 6 (58b),pSanh.1: 2 (18c)). The insertion of two sayings about the
bouleat the beginning of this passage implies perhaps, instead, that it was the
city council that had gathered in the synagogue, to hold a festive meal and to
‘sanctify the month’. R. Yoh:anan—who earlier in this passage, paradoxically,
recommended exemption from or evasion of theboule—now regretted being
excluded from it. This story suggests, at the very least, that‘sanctification of
the month’was not the monopoly of the rabbis. Calendar decisions could be
taken by other authorities, perhaps the city councils, from which even great
rabbis like R. Yoh:anan were excluded.
The story also suggests that the Jewish, communal practice of‘new month
meals’(also known as‘sanctification of the month’or‘intercalation of the
particularly important in this case, as Gadara was probably more pagan than Jewish—see below,
after n. 144.
(^139) Several interpretations are possible, e.g.‘cross over the river Jordan and make it a frontier
between you and them’.
(^140) Moskovitz (1995) 257 notes and discusses this incongruity, but remains unable to explain
it.
344 Calendars in Antiquity