Who were the Sadducees? TB Eruvin 68

Who were the Sadducees? We know of different Jewish sects during the second Temple period from Talmudic sources, Josephus’ writings, and the Christian Testament. There were Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and the sicarii. The Pharisees morphed into the rabbis of the Mishnah. Amongst other beliefs, the Pharisees believed in the validity of the Oral Torah. The Essenes were the Dead Sea sect. The sicarii were nationalistic zealots whom upon Josephus blamed the second revolt against Rome.

“The Sadducees rejected the Oral Torah as proposed by the Pharisees. Rather, they saw the written Torah as the sole source of divine authority.^[11] The written law, in its depiction of the priesthood, corroborated the power and enforced the hegemony of the Sadducees in Judean society. According to Josephus, the Sadducees believed that: There is no fate; God does not commit evil; man has free will; "man has the free choice of good or evil"; the soul is not immortal; there is no afterlife; there are no rewards or penalties after death. The Sadducees did not believe in resurrection of the dead, but believed in the traditional Jewish concept of Sheol for those who had died.”  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadducees) They are associated with the priestly caste. Many of the early Maccabean rulers were Sadducees. Once the Temple was destroyed, they lost their base of power and ultimately disappeared from Jewish history.

We know that only Jews can make an eruv or renounce his rights to the courtyard. Gentiles cannot participate in an eruv nor renounce his rights to the courtyard. A Jew living in the same courtyard as a gentile needs to ask the gentile to rent his domain to the Jew. Because the Sadducee rejects the oral law and the very notion of an eruv, today’s daf TB Eruvin 68 asks: when it comes to an eruv, who is the Sadducee more akin to, the rabbinic Jew or the  gentile?

“The Mishna (back on TB Eruvin 61b dealing with this issue-gg) is incomplete. It is missing an important element, and this is what it is teaching: The legal status of a Sadducee is like that of a gentile, and Rabban Gamliel says: The legal status of a Sadducee is not like that of a gentile. And Rabban Gamliel further said: There was an incident involving a certain Sadducee who lived with us in the same alleyway in Jerusalem, who renounced his rights in the alleyway before Shabbat, and Father said to us: Hurry and take out your utensils to the alleyway to establish possession of it before he changes his mind and takes out his utensils, in which case he would render it prohibited for you to use the entire alleyway.

“And similarly, wasn’t it taught in a baraita that the status of a Sadducee is a matter of dispute between tanna’im: If one lives with a gentile, a Sadducee, or a Boethusian in the same alleyway, they render carrying prohibited for him. Rabban Gamliel says: A Sadducee or a Boethusian do not prohibit one from carrying. There was an incident involving a certain Sadducee who lived with Rabban Gamliel in the same alleyway in Jerusalem, and he renounced his rights to the alleyway before Shabbat. Rabban Gamliel said to his sons: Hurry and take out those utensils that you wish to take out, and bring in those utensils that you wish to bring in, before that loathsome person retracts his renunciation and takes out his utensils and prohibits you from using the alleyway, as he renounced his rights in your favor; this is the statement of Rabbi Meir.

“Rabbi Yehuda says: Rabban Gamliel spoke to them with a different formulation, saying: Hurry and do whatever you must do in the alleyway prior to Shabbat, before night falls and he prohibits you from using the alleyway.” (Sefaria.org translation)

 The Jerusalem Talmud interprets the disagreement between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda thusly. Even Rabbi Yehuda agrees that a Sadducee is able to renounce his rights and is not comparable to a Gentile in this issue of eruvin. However there is a distinction between a rabbinic Jew’s renunciation and a Sadducee’s renunciation. One can absolutely rely on the rabbinic Jews’ renunciation to be complete. One cannot rely on a Sadducee’s renunciation for if he wishes to retracted, his retraction is valid. The Shulkhan Arukh poskins that a Sadducee is not like a gentile and may renounce his rights according to Rabbi Yehuda’s understanding of Rabban Gamliel. However, one must not make an eruv with him because the Sadducee rejects the very notion of an eruv. (Orekh Hayyim, 385:1)