YYA> about students of R Gamliel:
> 1. Who says they were in elementary school?
I meant that you need someone who is now in elementary school to start learning science if you want them to lead army research 20 years from now. Same for politics, etc.
> 2. Who says those were the leaders, and not the others?
I presume both will be. That is what I see the message of R Gamliel. My naive question is why he did not have students who were learning both, the way modern thinkers trying to do sometimes, like R Soloveitchik. Maybe at that time, when so much memorization was part of learning, there was just no place in one head for both?
> 3. The whole point of the Midrash is that they were killed by the Romans, many meforshim say BECAUSE IT WASN’T A GOOD IDEA despite the good intentions.
Stop taking Chazal out of context.
this is gemora, not midrash, right? I don’t think I am taking Gemora out of context. I might not have learnt this in depth, so there are relevant meforshim, please quote. I would appreciate of there are different opinions, please quote all of them.