The Social Significance of Expressions of Hierarchy, Equality, and Fraternity in Rabbinic Traditions about Moses and Aaron from the Land of Israel

Abstract

Abstract This article discusses rabbinic traditions about Moses and Aaron that address questions of hierarchy, status, envy, and fraternity between the brothers. It suggests that considering the time periods and places in these traditions were written adds a crucial dimension to understanding them. Information about the social and religious challenges of the era illustrates the social dynamics at the end of the Second Temple period and in the time of the Mishnah and Talmud. This reveals an aspect of the nature of the leadership crisis and shows the positions and desires of the emerging heirs to leadership. Such an historicist approach relies on the paradigm in the literature regarding Aaron’s character. It allows for optimal understanding of trends in treatment of these traditions among the sages in the Land of Israel.