The Nine Days - The Story Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza Part One

We all know the story. Man throws party, mistakenly has servant invite wrong guy (Man's enemy instead of friend). You can read the story almost it its entirety in English here or in its entirety in the original Gemara here (scroll down to the fourth wide line at the colon - it starts with Amar Rabbi Yochanan) and on the next page here (through the ninth wide line), or here, ArtScroll's translation... (up to "and R' Meir descended from him" [p. 56a4).

This Gemara has always been very troubling. Extremely so. How is it that so many people screwed up so royally?! And I'm not just talking about the Ba'al HaSimcha, or Bar-Kamtza. I'm talking about the members of Chazal who were sitting there, those who were at the Bais Hamikdash when Bar-Kamtza brought the blemished animal, and R' Zecharia ben Avkilos. In other words, nearly (explanation shortly) everyone involved in this story.

First, of course, there's the apologetics we are all fed: Bar-Kamtza really should have left, he should have known better, he shouldn't have allowed the Ba'al HaSimcha to make a big scene. Blah, blah, blah. BS. Those are simply apologetics designed to make Bar-Kamtza seem worse than he already was. Perhaps he really didn't want to be embarrassed?

Then there's the other apologetics about Chazal. I looked up in the meforshim about this gemara. It's interesting that the ArtScroll Gemara (and here's a way to KNOW ArtScroll is simply wrong about things - makes you wonder how many things) (mis)quotes the Maharasha completely: "The Rabbis did not protest because they felt doing so would be to no avail." (OK, never mind the REALLY BAD GRAMMAR HERE.) This is absolutely NOT what the Maharasha says. AT ALL. IN ANY WAY. The Maharasha says, with lots and lots of doubt that the Rabbis did not protest because "one could say it is possible they were afraid to say anything because of Chanufa." Spelled out, this means one might be able to say that it's possible the rabbis said nothing because they were afraid of political ramifications if they seemed to side with Bar-Kamtza over the Ba'al HaSimcha, who, apparently, was an important political figure at the time. And the Maharasha sounded very iffy about this reason. VERY IFFY.

So, this is a very troubling Gemara. I found it interesting when I did a search online for this Gemara, I found many sites that quote this story, but not in its entirety. It leaves out the KEY to the whole shebang! All the sites I looked at ended with R' Yochanan's statement that R' Zecharia ben Avkilos' "anvanus" lit. humbleness, but here used as a euphemism for stubborness "destroyed our House (the Bais Hamikdash) and burned the Heichal (courtyard) and drove us out of our land." Unfortunately, the other sites leave out the key, as I mentioned, to this entire story.

You see, this entire Gemara is in code, and you have to see the whole picture to understand this code.

To Be Continued...