Question
Hi. I actually have two questions.
First, I recently read in a NT commentary, that Rabban Gamaliel, when he died, was buried with roughly 83 lbs. of spices. Assuming the accuracy of the citation, I’d very much like to know the location of the text (in the Mishnah, or Talmud, etc.). Any idea?
My second question concerns the office of the medieval Babylonian Exilarch. According to a footnote in an Artscroll Gemara, the Yerushalmi states that the Exilarch was required to descend from David through the father, while Israel’s Nasi need only descend through the mother. I was wondering if you might know the location of the passage in the Yerushalmi (which, unfortunately, the Artscroll Gemara didn’t mention).
Answer
1. The Tosefta (Shabbat Ch.7;18) reports that when Rabban Gamliel died, seventy mana (a large coin) worth of his belongings (bed chairs, etc.) was burned a t his funeral (as a sign of honor and mourning) According to another tradition it was 80 mana. The gemorrah in Avodah Zarah 11a reports it as seventy mana tzuri (coins of Tzur). Could it be that the comentator you saw read Tzuri as Tzari which was a well known spice?
2. The Yerushalmi is Kelaim ch. 9 halacha 3.
