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According to the Mishna on our daf, although ideally the minḥat ha-omer sacrifice brought on the second day of Passover was to be harvested near the Temple, once it was brought from Gaggot Tzerifin, a place far from Jerusalem. The Gemara quotes a baraita that attributes this to a particular historical event.
After the death of Shelomtzion ha-malka who bequeathed her kingdom to her son Hyrcanus, his brother Aristoblus contested the decision and succeeded in ousting his elder brother. With the encouragement of Herod’s father, Antipater, Hyrcanus gathered an army and attacked the city, forcing Aristoblus and his supporters to barricade themselves in Jerusalem. During this siege, which took place in 65 BCE, the Jews inside the city offered to purchase animals for daily sacrifices in the Temple in exchange for large sums of money.
The baraita relates that someone who was there who was knowledgeable in Greek wisdom hinted to the men outside the city that it was only the Temple service that kept Jerusalem from falling. The next day, in exchange for the coins that were sent down, instead of the promised sacrifice the soldiers sent back a pig, which reached out with its hooves halfway up the wall and caused the ground to shake. At that point the Sages established an enactment forbidding the raising of pigs in Israel and teaching Greek wisdom to children.
We explore the value of Greek wisdom according to the Rabbis.