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A Hasmonean King Stood Before Simeon ben Shetah's Court

A Hasmonean king sets his throne beside the sage. Judges hide their faces. An angel strikes until the king rises and learns who sits in judgment.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Stand on Your Feet
  2. Judges in All the Gates
  3. No Partiality, No False Seat
  4. A Righteous One You Shall Not Kill

The king of a Hasmonean house arrived with a throne of his own and set it beside Simeon ben Shetah. Wood scraped stone. Purple settled into place as if courts were furniture for royalty. The courtroom suddenly had two centers, and only one of them was legal under the Torah that named no king as immune from standing.

A Hasmonean King Stood Before Simeon ben Shetah's Court Click for full size

Simeon looked at the judges who sat with him. "If I send for the king, will you reprimand him?"

"Yes," they said, while the yes was still cheap.

They sent. He came. He sat as if the law were a guest in his palace rather than the other way around.

Stand on Your Feet

"Stand on your feet and give satisfaction," Simeon said.

"Do we judge a king?" the man answered, and the question hung like a challenge no one wanted to catch.

Simeon turned to the right. The judges there pressed their faces into the ground. He turned to the left. Those faces went down too. Courage had been easy in theory when the king was a name. In the room with a living crown it melted into the floor without a speech.

An angel came and struck them until their souls left. The king trembled in a silence full of empty seats. Empty seats do not argue. Empty seats accuse the living of what the dead can no longer fix.

"Stand on your feet and give satisfaction," Simeon said again, "since you are not standing before me, but before the One who spoke and the world came into being." "The two parties to the dispute shall stand before the Lord" (Deuteronomy 19:17). The king stood. Satisfaction was given. The court remembered its real audience, and the purple chair lost its second center.

Judges in All the Gates

Appoint judges in all your gates (Deuteronomy 16:18). Courts on Monday and Thursday in the cities. When a case sticks and local wisdom fails, send it up to the chamber of hewn stone where the higher court sits. "They shall judge the people with righteous judgment" means, for Rabbi Yehudah beRabbi Shalom, that they incline toward merit for Israel before God, not only toward conviction for the sake of looking strict.

Gideon learned the same craft in reverse when the generation was poor in deeds. No advocate for Israel could be found until he spoke merit, and then the angel said, "Go in this strength of yours" (Judges 6:14), the strength of the merit he had argued when no one else would open a mouth. A judge who only condemns has missed half the job. A judge who only flatters has missed the other half. The gate needs both eyes open.

No Partiality, No False Seat

"You shall not turn aside justice; you shall not show partiality" (Deuteronomy 16:19). Not for wealth. Not for honor. The poor must not stand while the rich sit as if legs were a tax on poverty. A sage must not seat beside him a man unfit for jurisdiction; doing so is like planting an asherah beside the altar, a holy place polluted by a false companion. Judges must feel the Divine Presence among them, God standing in the divine congregation (Psalm 82:1).

Jehoshaphat had already warned his courts in language that still stings. You are not rendering judgment for humans but for the Lord (2 Chronicles 19:6). Simeon's king learned it the hard way, with dead colleagues as tutors and an angel as the enforcement that human spines would not supply that day.

A Righteous One You Shall Not Kill

The Mekhilta tightens the same awe into procedure that protects even the disliked. "A clean one and a righteous one you shall not kill" (Exodus 23:7). If one witness saw sun-worship and another saw moon-worship, both saw idolatry and still cannot combine. The accused may be guilty in heaven's ledger. In the earthly court he is called righteous because the testimony fails the Torah's exact match. Two eyes that saw different idols cannot feed a single conviction without lying about what agreement means.

The king who wanted a special chair and the idolater who walks free on a technical mismatch live under one roof of law. Power does not get a softer bench. Suspicion does not get a lazier proof. The Presence that stands in the congregation is not impressed by purple or by zeal that skips the rules.

Simeon stayed seated until the king stood. That is the picture the Tanchuma leaves on the wall of every gate where Monday and Thursday still mean court, and where a throne is only wood until someone forgets.

Gideon argued merit. Simeon demanded feet on the floor. The Mekhilta demanded matching eyes for a capital charge. Three rooms, one awe. The Presence does not leave the congregation when a purple cloak enters, and the law does not loosen its grip when a king asks if kings are judged.

JudgesSimeon Ben ShetahJusticeHasmoneanCourt
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 7Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

(Deut. 16:19:) “You shall not turn aside justice; you shall not show partiality.” [Here is] a warning for the prince not to place one suited to be low, high; and one suited to be high, low. Another interpretation (of Deut. 16:19), “You shall not turn aside justice,” because of wealth; “you shall not show partiality,” because of honor, so that a poor person does not stand while a wealthy one sits. Another interpretation (of Deut. 16:19), “You shall not turn aside justice.” It is a warning to the sage not to seat someone beside him who is unfit for jurisdiction. If he should so seat someone [like this], it is as though he had planted an asherah. So near [this verse] is [the following] (in Deut. 16:21), “You shall not plant for yourselves [any tree as] an asherah [beside an altar of the Lord your God…].” (Deut. 16:19) “You shall not turn aside justice.” Let the judges always feel as if the Divine Presence is among them, as stated (in Ps. 82:1), “[God stands in the divine congregation;] he pronounces judgment in the midst of powers.” From here it follows for litigants that they conduct themselves in awe. There is a story about a certain person who had a lawsuit with a king, one of the kings of the Hasmonean dynasty. He came and stood before Simeon ben Shetah. He said to him, “I have a lawsuit with the king.” Simeon ben Shetah said to those judges who were judging along with him, “If I send for the king, will you reprimand him?” They told him, “Yes.” He sent for him. He came and put his throne beside Simeon ben Shetah. Simeon ben Shetah said to him, “Stand on your feet and give satisfaction." He said to him, “Do we judge a king?” [Simeon ben Shetah] turned to the right, and the judges [on the right] pressed their faces on the ground (to hide them). He turned to the left, and [those on the left] pressed their faces on the ground. The angel came and beat them on the ground, until their souls left them. Immediately the king trembled. Simeon ben Shetah said to him, “Stand on your feet and give satisfaction, since you are not standing before me, but before the One who spoke and the world came into being, as stated (in Deut. 19:17), ‘The two parties to the dispute shall stand before the Lord.’” He immediately stood on his feet and gave satisfaction. Hence the litigants need to conduct themselves in awe and the judges need to conduct themselves in awe; as they are rendering judgment, as it were, for the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore Jehoshaphat said to the judges (in II Chron. 19:6), “[Consider what you are doing], since you are not rendering judgment for humans but for the Lord.” R. Hama bar Hanina said, “Come and see! If there were no scriptural text written, it is not possible for him to say that flesh and blood judges its Creator. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the judges, ‘Let them conduct themselves in awe, as if you were judging Me. How? One fulfills a commandment before Me. [So] I have decreed over him to give him a hundred fields. If you pass judgment against him on one thing that I have decreed over him, I will give him other [fields] from what I possess; and I will credit it against you as though you had gotten it from Me.’”

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Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 4Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

Appoint for yourselves [in all of your gates] (Deuteronomy 16:18) You should appoint judges in all the gates; as courts convene twice a week in the cities, on Monday and on Thursday. And if the law was stuck in front of them (they were not able to determine it), they would ask the [high] court in the chamber of hewn stone. "And they shall judge the nation with righteous judgement," that they should incline the people towards righteousness. Rabbi Yehudah beRabbi Shalom said, "That they should incline towards and advocate merit for [the Jewish people] in front of the Holy One, blessed be He." From who do you learn [this]? From Gidon ben Yoash. As Israel was in distress in his days, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sought a person to advocate merit about them. But He did not find [anyone], as the generation was poor in commandments and in good deeds. Once he found the merit in Gidon, that he advocated merit about them, the angel immediately revealed himself to [Gidon]; as it is stated (Judges 6:12-14), "And the angel of the Lord [was revealed] to him.... And he said to him, 'Go with this strength of yours,'" with the strength of the merit that you advocated about My children. This is, "And they shall judge the nation with righteous judgement," that they should advocate merit for the generation.

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Mekhilta Tractate Kaspa 3:8Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Mechilta, translated by Rabbi Shraga Silverstein · CC-BY

(Exodus 23:7) says: "And a clean one and a righteous one you shall not kill." The Mekhilta applies this to a specific judicial scenario involving imprecise testimony.

Suppose one witness testified that a person worshipped the sun, and another witness testified that the same person worshipped the moon. Both witnesses agree that the accused committed idolatry, but they disagree about which idol was worshipped. Can their testimonies be combined to convict?

One might think yes, both confirm that idolatry occurred. The specific object of worship seems like a minor detail. But the Mekhilta says no. "A righteous one you shall not kill", the accused is "technically righteous" because the testimony against him is inconsistent. Two witnesses did not see the same act. Their accounts contradict on a material point.

In Jewish criminal law, witnesses must describe the same event. Seeing two different acts of idolatry does not constitute valid combined testimony for a single charge. Each witness saw something different. Their testimonies cannot be merged, and the accused must be acquitted.

The Torah calls this person "righteous" not because he is innocent, he may well be guilty. But because the legal system cannot convict him based on inconsistent evidence. The presumption of innocence protects even those who may actually be guilty, when the evidence fails to meet the Torah's exacting standards.

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