“We have a tradition from our fathers.”
Today’s Daf Yomi discussion considers the professions that supported the Second Temple when it stood in Jerusalem. We are introduced to Ben Bevai, who had a very particular skill, which was to braid shreds of discarded cloth into wicks for candelabrum. He was so good at his craft that he could calibrate the size and width of each wick so that it could burn an entire night.
When a group of prominent community leaders took offense at Rabbi Yosei’s request that they care for the needs of the community and oversee provisions for the poor, he berated them by stating that if a man as great as Ben Bevai could spend his life making wicks, they could take on the administrative duties requested of them which involved “