Before we try to understand their actions, we must understand the stature of whom we are discussing. The Chachamim teach that if we are considered like people, then the earlier generations of scholars are like angels, and if we are to consider them like people, then we are considered like donkeys. This statement was said with regard to the difference between one or two generations. When we speak of the holy Tana'aim, we cannot even begin to understand them on the level on which we judge people like ourselves. They were totally removed from jealousy, egoism, pettiness, etc., as we know it. One who does not accept this premise as absolute cannot start to understand anything which relates to personalities in the Torah, and surely cannot analyze, in good faith, the personal lives of the Tana'im. This does not mean that we need not try to understand, for obviously if it was recorded in the Gemara, it is for us to learn from, but until we have totally internalized the premise, it is impossible even to start.

In this particular case of an action of Tana'im which seems to our limited intellect to be a blatant disregard of common human decency, there are profound ideas being conveyed by the Gemara in a hidden way to those who are eligible to understand them. The Maharsha, Ben Yehoyada, and others address this issue and explain the meanings behind the action of these Tana'im, as well as the meaning behind the action of Rebbi Shimon ben Gamliel.

D. Zupnik

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