Midrash sobre Isaías 1:17

(Fol. 53) We are taught in a Baraitha: The conscientious priests withdrew altogether from it (the priestly shares); but the glutonous would accept and eat it. It once happened that a priest took his own share and his fellow's; he was nicknamed Ben Chamtzan (grasper) (Ib., b) till his death. Rabba b. R. Shila said: Which is the passage that proves this (that a Chamtzam is a disgraceful man?' It is said (Ps. 71, 4) O! my God, release me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the uprighteous and violent (Chametz) one. Raba said from here (Is. 1, 17) Learn to do well; seek for justice, relieve the oppressed.

Our Rabbis have been taught: The forty years during which Simeon the Just was High-priest the lot [for the Lord] always came into the High-priest's right hand, but thereafter it sometimes came into his right and sometimes into his left hand; the crimson colored wool [during the time of Simeon the Just] always became white, but thereafter it sometimes became white and sometimes it remained red; the westernmost light [of the candlestick in the Temple] burned always, but thereafter, it sometimes burned and sometimes went out; the fire of the altar [during the time of Simeon the Just] grew in strength, so that the priests never needed any extra wood on the altar besides the two pieces, which were there only to fulfil the command to have wood (with the sacrifice), but thereafter. the fire became weak so that it sometimes grew stronger and sometimes it did not, and the priests did not refrain from adding wood the entire day. During his lifetime a blessing was sent into the Omar, into the two loaves of bread, and into the show-bread, and a priest who obtained a share even as small as an olive, sometimes became satisfied, and sometimes it even happened that some was left over; but since then a curse was sent into the Omar, into the two loaves of bread and into the show-bread, so that every priest got only the size of a bean, from which the conscientious priests withdrew altogether; but the gluttonous accepted and ate it. It once happened that a priest took his own share and his fellow's; he was nicknamed Ben Khamtzan (grasper) (Ib. b) till his death. Rabba b. R. Shila said: Which is the passage that proves this (that a Chamtzam is a disgraceful man?) It is said (Ps. 71, 4) O! my God release me out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the unrighteous and violent (Chametz) one. Raba said from here (Is. 1, 17) Learn to do well; seek for justice, relieve the oppressed. Our Rabbis were taught: The year in which Simon the Just died, he told [his fellow priests] that he was to die that year. They asked him: "How dost thou know it?" He answered: "On the Day of Atonement I met an old man, dressed in white and covered in white, with whom I entered and left [the Holy of Holies]; but this year I met an old man attired in black and in a black turban, and he entered with me but did not go out with me." After the festival, he became sick for seven days and died. Thenceforth priests ceased to bless Israel with the Tetragrammaton, but used it in the simplified form.

It is taught: Thy nakedness be not uncovered (ibid.). Is, then, the nakedness of the priests uncovered? Does it not say: And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover the flesh of their nakedness? Therefore this verse implies that even as the Holy One, blessed be He, warned the priests not to take big strides to hasten into the Temple (and thus, even with pants on, “reveal” their nakedness to the floor), so He warned the judges that they should not be quick to render judgment, as is said: Seek justice, relieve the oppressed (ashru hametz) (Isa. 1:17). (That is,) ashre (“happy”) is the judge hehamitz (“who delays”) his judgment (does not hasten).