THE CONFLICT BETWEEN R . YOHANAN AND RESH LAQISH ON THE SUPREMACY OF THE PATRIARCHATE * REUVEN KIMELMAN According to the Talmud the conjunction of the Patriarchate and the Rabbinate saved Israel from Rome just as the Hasmoneans saved Israel from the Greeks ( B Meg lla — Munich MS ) . This was accomplished by making common cause with the urban aristocracy to create a bulwark against the disintegrating forces which plagued traditional cultures during the anarchy of the third century . The prime mover behind this alliance was the Patriarchate . Patriarchal policy was directed at mobilizing the financial , administrative , and intellectual resources of Palestinian Jewry in order to maintain communal solidarity under its auspices . As Professor E . Urbach wrote : The two uppermost social strata — the circle of the wealthy , who exercised economic and administrative rule on behalf of the State , and the Sages of the Sanhedrin , together With those who succeeded in being appointed as judges o...
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