Kamsa and Bar Kamsa

Kamza and Bar Kamza is a Talmudic story from the Mischnatraktat Gittin, Folio 56a. It serves to illustrate the concept of groundless hatred (Hebrew שנאת חינם Ssinat Chinam ). The story describes a group of Torah scholars in the period immediately before the second destruction of the Temple in the year 70 It reads as follows:

As the story illustrates, the Torah scholars mentioned under Roman occupation had become the majority so corrupt that them the shame of a man seemed less important than the sacrifice of an animal after all the precepts of the Torah. This was true for them even then, if so, the whole nation would be in danger.

• Talmud