BiblePlaces Blog: Turn the Other Cheek

Sunday, July 09, 2006

You hear about the fights in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I've never read as good of an account as this one.

The source is William E. Blackstone, The Jewish Era. Thanks to Jonathan Moorhead for sending it my way.

This immediately reminded me of a story in the Talmud about the priests fighting every morning for the opportunity to remove the ashes that had accumulated overnight (the beginning of Parshat Tzav). One time, 2 were racing up the Temple ramp, & one pushed the other, causing him to fall & break his leg. Such incidents became frequent, forcing the court to institute a more peaceful lottery system to decide which Kohen would remove the morning ashes.

By G.M. Grena, at Sun Jul 09, 09:58:00 AM
What is the date on this article?

By Bryan VanHaitsma, at Tue Jul 11, 09:24:00 AM
Bryan, it was written in the January 15, 1902 edition. Credit for the story is given to The Jewish Chronicle.

By Jonathan Moorhead, at Wed Jul 12, 10:17:00 AM