Commentary for Bava Batra 6:16

אמר מאן דריש (דברים יז, טו) מקרב אחיך תשים עליך מלך רבנן קם קטלינהו לכולהו רבנן שבקיה לבבא בן בוטא למשקל עצה מניה

and the beams ready, what are we to say? — He replied: It can happen that money is suddenly required for the redemption of captives, and they may sell the material for that purpose. If they could do that, [he said], they could do the same even if they had already built the synagogue?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And therefore they should never pull down the old one. ');">¹⁴</span> — He answered: People do not sell their dwelling-places.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And much less a synagogue. ');">¹⁵</span> This rule [about pulling down a synagogue] only applies if no cracks have appeared in it, but if cracks have appeared, they may pull down first and build afterwards. A case in point is that of R. Ashi, who, observing cracks in the synagogue of Matha Mehasia,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [A suburb of Sura which attained fame as a centre of learning in the days of R. Ashi. v. Obermeyer, Die Landschaft Babyloniens, 289.] ');">¹⁶</span> had it pulled down. He then took his bed there and did not remove it until the very gutters [of the new building] had been completed. But how could Baba b. Buta have advised Herod to pull down the Temple,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. infra. ');">¹⁷</span> seeing that R. Hisda has laid down that a synagogue should not be demolished until a new one has been built to take its place? — If you like I can say that cracks had appeared in it, or if you like I can say that the rule does not apply to Royalty, since a king does not go back on his word. For so said Samuel: If Royalty says, I will uproot mountains, it will uproot them and not go back on its word. Herod was the slave of the Hasmonean house, and had set his eyes on a certain maiden [of that house].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Mariamne, the daughter of Alexander, a son of Aristobulus II. According to Josephus, she was put to death by Herod after being married to him several years. ');">¹⁸</span> One day he heard a <i>Bath Kol</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A voice from heaven. V. Gloss. ');">¹⁹</span> say, 'Every slave that rebels now will succeed.' So he rose and killed all the members of his master's<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' [V. D.S. a.l.] ');">²⁰</span> household, but spared that maiden. When she saw that he wanted to marry her, she went up on to a roof and cried out, 'Whoever comes and says, I am from the Hasmonean house, is a slave, since I<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'this maiden'. ');">²¹</span> alone am left of it, and I am throwing myself down from this roof.' He preserved her body in honey for seven years. Some say that he had intercourse with her, others that he did not. According to those who say that he had intercourse with her, his reason for embalming her was to gratify his desires. According to those who say that he did not have intercourse with her, his reason was that people might say that he had married a king's daughter. Who are they, he said, who teach, <i>From the midst of thy brethren thou shalt set up a king over thee</i>,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Deut. XVII, 15. ');">²²</span> [stressing the word <i>'brethren'</i>]? The Rabbis! He therefore arose and killed all the Rabbis, sparing, however, Baba b. Buta, that he might take counsel of him.

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