The Palestinian Talmud on Rabbinic Involvement in the Synagogue
y. Berakhot 9:1, 12d
R. Yoḥanan and R. Jonathan went to make peace in the southern settlements. They came to a place where they found the reader saying, “The great God, the strong and awe-inspiring, the noble and overpowering.” They stopped him and told him: You are not permitted to add to the formula the sages coined for benedictions.
y. Yoma 7:1, 44a
R. Yosi ordered Bar Ulla, the beadle of the synagogue of the Babylonians: If there is one Torah, roll it up behind a curtain. If there are two, take away one and bring the other.
y. Megillah 3:1, 73d
The people of Beth Shean asked R. Immi: May one take stones from one synagogue to build another synagogue? He said to them: It is forbidden. R. Ḥelbo said: R. Immi forbade it only to make them feel bad. R. Gorion said: The people of Magdala asked R. Simeon ben Lakish: May one take stones from one village to build in another village? He said to them: It is forbidden. R. Immi instructed: Even from east to west it is forbidden, because of the destruction of that place. May one sell a synagogue to buy a school? R. Joshua ben Levi’s word implies that it is permitted. [ . . . ] R. Samuel bar Naḥman in the name of R. Jonathan: You are saying that about a private synagogue. But with a public synagogue it is forbidden; I am saying that one at the end of the world has part in it. But did we not state: It happened that R. Eleazar ben R. Tsadok bought the synagogue of the Alexandrians and used it for all his needs? The Alexandrians made it from their own.
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
