שמעון בן שטח

Shimon ben Shatach (c. 140–60 BCE) was among the heads of the chachamim in the days of Alexander Yannai, and together with Yehuda ben Tabbai he formed the third of the zugot. Most sources in Shas present him as Nasi of the Sanhedrin. He supported himself by his own labor in the linen trade, and the Bavli relates that he was the one who rebuilt the world of Torah after Yannai had killed the chachamim. He is described as having prevailed over the Tzedukim and secured the standing of the Perushim in the Sanhedrin; the scholion to Megillat Ta’anit marks the twenty-eighth of Tevet as a day of gladness for that victory. He was the brother of Queen Shlomtzion, and English sources render his name Simeon ben Shetach.

Three takanot are attributed to him. He ruled that the money of the ketubah remain with the husband for use in his business while all his property stands liened to it — making a hasty divorce far harder than when the sum sat with the wife’s father. He ordered that children be sent to learn, establishing yeshivot in the larger cities where the young would be taught Scripture together with the received teaching of the Torah. And he ruled that a metal vessel melted down and reworked keeps the tumah it carried before.

Much of what Shas brings from him concerns judges, witnesses and evidence. In Avot he teaches: be abundant in examining the witnesses, and be careful with your words, lest through them they learn to lie. He held that capital cases rest on eyewitnesses alone — though he once saw a man chase another with a drawn knife and the circumstances left no room for doubt, he would not judge him for his life without witnesses to the killing itself. The Yerushalmi in Chagigah tells that when he saw the need he acted by hora’at sha’ah against the sorcery sects of his day, and in Ashkelon eighty women were put to death in a single day. Relatives of those women brought a false charge against his son, who was stoned on their testimony even though the witnesses admitted the plot once the verdict was given.

He also enacted that a king of Yisrael neither judges nor is judged, after a servant of Yannai committed murder. When the king was summoned before the Sanhedrin, Shimon told him to stand, and his colleagues sank their faces to the ground; he said to them, masters of calculation you are — may the Master of thoughts exact payment from you. When his talmidim bought him a donkey from a Yishmaeli so that he might be free to learn, and a precious stone was found hanging at its neck, he refused their advice to keep it and returned the stone to its owner. Shimon ben Shatach Street in the center of Yerushalayim carries his name.