to son but from teacher to disciple.
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But the desire that genetic replicability be homologous with pedagogical replicability persists. For a powerful signifier within the story of this desire and its failure, we need look no further than the following moment:
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 | | As for Torah, what did he mean? When Rabban Shim'on the son of Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua the Bald used to sit on benches, Rabbi El'azar the son of Rabbi Shim'on and our Rabbi used to sit in front of them on the ground and ask and answer. And the rabbis said, "We are drinking their water, and they sit on the ground!?" They built them benches and put them upon them. Rabban Shim'on ben Gamliel said, "I have one chick among you and you wish to cause him to be lost from me!"
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They moved Rabbi down again. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha said, "Shall he who has a father live, and he who has none shall die?!" They took Rabbi El'azar down as well. He became upset. He said, "They think we are equals. When they put him up, they put me up; when they put him down, they put me down." Until that day, when Rabbi would say something, Rabbi El'azar the son of Rabbi Shim'on used to say, "There is a tradition which supports you.'' From that day onward, when Rabbi said, ''This is my answer," Rabbi El'azar the son of Rabbi Shim'on said, "This is what you will answer; you have surrounded us with vain words, answers that are empty." Rabbi became upset. He came and told his father. He said, "Don't feel bad. He is a lion the son of a lion, and you are a lion the son of a fox."
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| | 22. See Eilberg-Schwartz (1990b, 20616 and 22934). Of course, the rabbinic interpretation of biblical "father" and "son" as "master" and "disciple" is common. See, for example, Sifre Deut. 34 (p. 61), 182 (p. 224), 305 (p. 327), and 335 (p. 385). The New Testament polemicizes against the Pharisees for turning their followers against their biological parents. Becoming a "disciple of the sages" often meant accepting a rabbinic father in place of one's biological father. See the story of R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus in
The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan
, par. 6 (Goldin 1955, 43), and parallels. However, this meritocracy is not simple, for the institution of the patriarchate, an institution of both temporal and religious power and prestige, is precisely a hereditary office. The issue of this institution and its hereditary nature is raised in our text in the story of Rabbi El'azar and Rabbi as children, cited immediately below in the text.
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| | But finally, it is Rabbi, not Rabbi El'azar, who carries the mantle not onlyof political power for his time but of central cultural prestige for the talmudic Judaism of the narrator's time as well. However, the institution of the patriarchate and its hereditary nature were a source of political and cultural conflict all through the early stages of the rabbinic period. The political dimensions of this cultural conflict are, of course, very significant but beyond the scope of the present work. For the passing of rabbinic offices from fathers to sons, and the tension of this hereditary principle with that of Torah meritocracy, see Alon (1977, 43657), Moshe Beer 1976, summarized in Moses Beer 1980, and Gafni 1986. I am grateful to Steven Fraade for these references.
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| | 23. He was Rabbi's father. Apparently, the concern is that by singling him out as talented, the Evil Eye would be attracted to him.
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