Gabbai

Gabbai (pl. gabbaim) is an Aramaic word that meant a tax collector. In Hebrew in Talmudic times it meant "collector of taxes or charity" or "treasurer". While a Gabbai was a tax gatherer it was also apparently the head of an important family of Benjamin resident at Jerusalem seen in Nehemiah 11:8 around B.C. 536.

According to Eldershiems The life and times of Jesus the messiah, chapter xvii the call, "It is of importance to notice, that the Talmud distinguishes two classes of publicans:'the tax-gatherer in general (Gabbai), and the Mokhes, or Mokhsa..." There was a "bitter hatred of the Rabbinists towards the class of tax-farmers (Moches)."

There is a non obsolete form used gabái ts'daká, wh ich is said to mean “charity collector” (גַּבַּאי צְדָקָה‎ ). Tzedakah or Ṣedaqah is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify charity.

Can we say that we are seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness when we seek the benefits of men who exercise authority one over the other? Benefits provided by the legal charity of the State would not be considered righteous, but would be the wages of unrighteousness.

The Hebrew is GamelBeitAlefYod. We do not see this word directly used in the Billical text according to many interpretations. There is the word GamelBeitAlef with a Strongs number 01360 Which means a cistern or a pit.

We see it used in Isaiah 30:14 "And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water [withal] out of the pit <01360>."

It actually appears as MemGamelBeitAlef and translated a pit or cistern that you cannot get water from because of an iniquity that causes something to break like the "breaking of the potters’ vessel".

Isaiah 30:13 "Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant."

The iniquity comes about because the people "despise this word, and trust in oppression".

Isaiah 30:12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

This perverseness was the effect going out of the way and turning from the path. Their reliance (stay) upon force does the opposite of a righteous Corban and makes the word of God to none effect meaning the Holy Spirit departs from Israel.

Isaiah 30:11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

All this was because the people were rebellious and would not hear that covetous practices were violating the law of God. They wanted ministers who would tickle their ears with smooth things and the wages of unrighteousness and would not hear that they were to love one another with freewill offerings and charity.

Isaiah 30:9 That this [is] a rebellious people, lying children, children [that] will not hear the law of the LORD: 10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

The Gabbia is doing his job it is still oppression and a system that covets your neighbors good through men who exercise authority one over the other through force rather than charity.

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In Jeremiah the word for pit or cistern appears as GimelBeitYodMem instead of GimelBeitAlefMem as we saw in Isaiah 30:14.

Jeremiah 14:3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits <01360>, [and] found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

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Ezekiel 47:11 But the miry places thereof and the marishes <01360> thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.

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Footnotes

A gabbai, more recently is also known as shamash. Some shamash or gabbai can can act as an assistant to a rabbi. The were also known as parnas or a warden performing duties as a beadle or sexton for a synagogue. It was a designated person who assisted in the running of ritual services in some way as a volunteer or paid position.

While, today a gabbai is someone who assists with the reading of the Torah. This roll shifted as welfare became the province of the State or national governments and religion became little more than superstitious rituals and opinions about God or gods.