Rabbi Eliezer

A plastered cistern

The Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai used to count the praises of his students. About Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos he said: a plastered cistern that does not lose a drop. A cistern is a pit that holds water, and the plaster keeps the water from leaking out. The Mishnah does not explain the praise.

On the scale against all the sages

The Mishnah then gives two versions of another saying of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. In the first, if all the sages of Israel were on one side of a scale and Eliezer ben Hyrkanos on the other, he would outweigh them all. A sage named Abba Shaul reports it differently in his name: if all the sages of Israel, and Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos with them, were on one side, and Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh on the other, Rabbi Elazar would outweigh them all. The Mishnah records both and does not choose.

A baraita (a teaching from the time of the Mishnah that was not put into the Mishnah) explains the verse "Justice, justice you shall pursue" to mean: go after the sages to the place where they sit and teach. It then lists sages and their places. The first name on the list is Rabbi Eliezer: go after him to Lod.

What he told his students when he was ill

Another baraita, in Berakhot, tells that when Rabbi Eliezer fell ill his students came to visit and asked him to teach them the paths of life, so that they would earn the life of the World to Come. He said: Be careful with the honor of your colleagues. Keep your children from "higayon" (the baraita does not explain this word, and this page does not translate it) and seat them between the knees of Torah scholars. And when you pray, know before Whom you are standing. For this you will earn the life of the World to Come.

"Two Torah scrolls being rolled up"

The baraita in Sanhedrin about his last illness tells that he put his two arms on his heart and said: Woe to you, my two arms, which are like two Torah scrolls being rolled up. I learned much Torah and I taught much Torah. Of what I learned, I took from my teachers not even as much as a dog laps from the sea. Of what I taught, my students took from me only as much as the little stick for eye paint takes from its tube.

"On whom can we lean?"

The last Mishnah in tractate Sotah quotes a sage it calls "Rabbi Eliezer the Great". He says, partly in Aramaic, that from the day the Temple was destroyed the sages began to be like the scribes, the scribes like the attendant, and the attendant like the ordinary people, and the ordinary people grow weaker and weaker, and nobody seeks. On whom can we lean? On our Father in heaven. This Mishnah does not give his father's name, and no passage opened for this page says that Rabbi Eliezer the Great is Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos.

Pirkei Avot is the tractate of the Mishnah that collects the sages' sayings on character. It says that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had five students, and it lists Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos first. The second on the list is Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya. This Mishnah gives his father's name, Hyrkanos. The fifth student in the same list is Rabbi Elazar ben Arakh, whose name is one letter different.

His father comes to cut him off

Avot d'Rabbi Natan goes on. His father Hyrkanos heard that he was learning with Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai and set out to cut him off from his property. That day Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was teaching in Jerusalem with all the great men of Israel sitting before him. He told Rabbi Eliezer to open and teach. Rabbi Eliezer said he could not, and they pressed him. He stood and taught, in this book's words, things that no ear had ever heard, and Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai kissed him on the head. Then Hyrkanos stood up and said he had come only to cut off his son Eliezer, and now all his property would go to Eliezer. (This is this book's telling. The baraita in Sukkah quoted on this page is a different source, and the two are not joined here.)

Ima Shalom, his wife

The Gemara says that Ima Shalom, the wife of Rabbi Eliezer, was the sister of Rabban Gamliel. From that event on she did not let Rabbi Eliezer "fall on his face". The Gemara does not explain the phrase here. The Gemara tells what happened one day in two versions. In one, that day was the start of a new month, and she mixed up a full month with a short one. In the other, a poor man came and stood at the door, and she took bread out to him. She found him fallen on his face and said: Get up, you have killed my brother. Just then a shofar sounded from the house of Rabban Gamliel to announce that he had died. Rabbi Eliezer asked her how she knew. She said she had a tradition from the house of her father's father: all the gates are locked except the gates of hurt done to a person.

A festival: all for Hashem or all for you

A baraita in Beitzah tells that Rabbi Eliezer sat and taught the laws of the festival all day. Groups of people walked out, one after another. He told his students that those who left were leaving lasting life and busying themselves with the life of the hour. The Gemara asks: but rejoicing on a festival is a mitzvah! It answers that Rabbi Eliezer "follows his own reasoning": he holds that rejoicing on a festival is optional. It brings a baraita. Rabbi Eliezer says that on a festival a person either eats and drinks or sits and learns. Rabbi Yehoshua says: divide it, half for Hashem and half for you. Rabbi Yochanan explains that both of them read the same two verses. One verse calls the festival a gathering "for Hashem your God" and another says it "shall be for you". Rabbi Eliezer holds: either all of it for Hashem or all of it for you. Rabbi Yehoshua holds: half and half.

"Akiva my student"

A baraita in Sanhedrin tells that when Rabbi Eliezer fell ill, four elders came to visit him: Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya and Rabbi Akiva. The first three each praised him. Rabbi Akiva said only: Suffering is dear. Rabbi Eliezer said: Hold me up, so that I can hear the words of Akiva my student, who said that suffering is dear. He then asked Rabbi Akiva where he had this from.

How he began, as Avot d'Rabbi Natan tells it

Avot d'Rabbi Natan is an early collection of teachings built around Pirkei Avot. It tells that Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos was twenty-two years old and had not learned Torah. He said he would go and learn in front of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. His father Hyrkanos told him he would not eat until he had plowed a full furrow, and he got up early and plowed it. He went and sat in front of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai in Jerusalem, until a bad smell came from his mouth. Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai asked him whether he had eaten that day, and he was silent. Later in the story Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai told him that just as a bad smell had come from his mouth, a good name in Torah would go out for him. This story is in this book. It is not in the Gemara passages opened for this page.

The oven of Achnai: the disagreement

The Gemara in Bava Metzia quotes a Mishnah about an oven that was cut into rings, with sand put between one ring and the next. Rabbi Eliezer rules that it is pure and the Sages rule that it is impure. The Gemara says that this is "the oven of Achnai". The Gemara asks what "Achnai" means. Rav Yehuda says in the name of Shmuel: they surrounded it with words like this akhna and ruled it impure. The Gemara does not say here what an akhna is. A short teaching adds that on that day Rabbi Eliezer gave every answer in the world, and they did not accept them from him.

Rashi: an akhna is a snake

Rashi is the main commentary on the Gemara. He explains the word: an akhna is a snake, which makes itself into a circle and puts its tail by its mouth. This is Rashi's explanation, not the Gemara's own words.

The carob tree, the stream and the walls

The story goes on. He said to them: If the law is as I say, let this carob tree prove it. The carob tree was uprooted and moved a hundred cubits, and some say four hundred. (A cubit is a measure of length, about the length of a forearm.) They said: One does not bring a proof from a carob tree. He said: Let the stream of water prove it. The water flowed backward. They said: One does not bring a proof from a stream. He said: Let the walls of the house of study prove it. The walls leaned to fall. Rabbi Yehoshua scolded the walls: If Torah scholars are arguing with each other about the law, what business is it of yours? The walls did not fall, out of respect for Rabbi Yehoshua, and did not straighten, out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer. The Gemara says they are still leaning.

The voice from heaven, and "It is not in heaven"

Then he said: If the law is as I say, let it be proved from heaven. A voice from heaven (in Hebrew, a bat kol) came out and said: What do you (the Sages) want with Rabbi Eliezer? The law is as he says everywhere. Rabbi Yehoshua stood up and said: "It is not in heaven." The Gemara asks what he meant, and an Amora (a sage of the Gemara) named Rabbi Yirmeya explains: the Torah was already given at Mount Sinai, so we pay no attention to a voice from heaven, because You already wrote in the Torah at Mount Sinai, "Follow the majority." The Gemara adds that a sage named Rabbi Natan met Eliyahu the prophet and asked what the Holy One was doing at that moment. Eliyahu said that He smiled and said, "My children have defeated Me."

What the sages did that day

The Gemara tells what followed. That day they brought everything that Rabbi Eliezer had ruled pure and burned it. They took a vote about him and, in the Gemara's word, "blessed" him. The Gemara does not explain the word here. (Rashi's explanation of it is in a later claim.) They asked who would go and tell him. Rabbi Akiva said he would go, so that an unfit person would not go and tell him, and the whole world be destroyed. Rabbi Akiva dressed in black and sat four cubits away from him. Rabbi Eliezer asked: Akiva, what is different about today? He answered: Rabbi, it seems to me that your colleagues are keeping apart from you. Rabbi Eliezer too tore his clothes, took off his shoes, and sat down on the ground.

His tears, and Rabban Gamliel at sea

His eyes ran with tears, and the world was struck: a third of the olives, a third of the wheat and a third of the barley. A short teaching adds that there was great anger that day, and every place where Rabbi Eliezer set his eyes was burned. Rabban Gamliel too was traveling on a ship (the passage does not say here who Rabban Gamliel was), and a wave rose to drown him. He said: It seems to me that this is only because of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanos. He stood up and said: Master of the world, You know that I did not act for my own honor, or for the honor of my father's house, but for Your honor, so that disagreements should not multiply in Israel. The sea became calm.

A Mishnah about Shabbat that the next claim needs

A Mishnah in Shabbat, in the chapter about circumcision on Shabbat, opens with Rabbi Eliezer. He says that if someone did not bring the tool for the circumcision before Shabbat, he brings it on Shabbat uncovered. The Mishnah adds that in a time of danger he covers it in front of witnesses. This claim gives only his view. It does not say whose view is the law.

His last illness, as the baraita in Sanhedrin tells it

A different baraita, in Sanhedrin, tells that when Rabbi Eliezer fell ill, Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues came to visit him. It was the eve of Shabbat. The baraita names his son, Hyrkanos, who came in that day. When the sages saw that his mind was clear, they came in and sat before him at a distance of four cubits. He asked why they had come, and they said: to learn Torah. He asked why they had not come until now, and they said they had not had time. He said he would be surprised if they died a natural death. Rabbi Akiva asked about his own, and he answered that it would be harder than theirs.

His last word, and Rabbi Akiva's mourning

The sages asked him laws of purity. The last question was about a shoe that is still on the shoemaker's form. He answered, "It is pure", and the baraita says his soul left him in purity. Rabbi Yehoshua stood up and said: The vow is released, the vow is released. The baraita does not explain these words. After Shabbat, the baraita says, Rabbi Akiva "met him", Rabbi Eliezer, between Caesarea and Lod. (Rashi's explanation is in the next claim.) Rabbi Akiva was striking his own body until his blood ran to the ground. He began to speak about him in the row and said: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen. I have many coins, and no money changer to sort them."

Rashi on the meeting and the coins

Rashi explains these last lines. "Between Caesarea and Lod": they were carrying Rabbi Eliezer's bier from Caesarea to Lod. "The row": people made a row around the bier to eulogize him. The coins and the money changer: Rabbi Akiva meant that he had many questions to ask and nobody to ask them to. This is Rashi's explanation, not the baraita's own words.

"I never said a thing I did not hear from my teacher"

A baraita in Sukkah tells that Rabbi Eliezer spent Shabbat in the Upper Galilee and was asked thirty laws about the sukkah. For twelve he answered "I heard", and for eighteen "I did not hear". A sage named Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Yehuda says the numbers were the other way around. They said to him: Are all your words only what you heard? He answered that they had forced him to say a thing he had not heard from his teachers, and then listed his own habits. Nobody ever came to the house of study before him. He never slept there. He never left a person there and went out. He never spoke idle talk. And he never said a thing that he had not heard from his teacher.

His teacher did the same

The next lines in Sukkah say the same things about Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. Among them: he never spoke idle talk, nobody came to the house of study before him, and he never said a thing he had not heard from his teacher. The passage ends: and so his student Rabbi Eliezer did after him.

Why he answered without answering

The Gemara in Yoma lists questions that people asked Rabbi Eliezer and that he did not answer directly. They asked him about So-and-so: what will become of him in the World to Come? He said: You have asked me only about So-and-so. The Gemara then gives the reason itself. It was not that he was putting them off with words. It was that he never said a thing he had not heard from his teacher.

Only four? The Gemara says there are many more

The Gemara does not leave Shmuel's number as it stands. It asks whether there are really no more, and brings another Mishnah where Rav Yehuda says in the name of Shmuel that the law follows Rabbi Eliezer. It answers that Shmuel's four are only in the Order of Taharot, the part of the Mishnah about purity. In the other Orders there are many.

"Rabbi Eliezer is a shamuti"

The Gemara there has an Amora (a sage of the Gemara) quote Reish Lakish in the name of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. That is how the name is written in this passage, and the passage does not say more about who he is. Once people forgot to bring the knife before Shabbat and brought it on Shabbat, and this was hard for the sages: how could people leave the words of the sages and act like Rabbi Eliezer? They gave two reasons. First, Rabbi Eliezer is a "shamuti". Second, when one sage disagrees with many, the law follows the many. The Gemara does not explain the word "shamuti" here. The passage then gives the answer. An Amora named Rabbi Oshaya said that he asked a man the Gemara calls Rabbi Yehuda HaGozer, who told him that it happened in an alley whose residents had not joined together, and they brought the knife from one end of the alley to the other. (Rashi and Tosafot explain "shamuti". See the next three claims.)

Rashi in Niddah: the word is about a ban

In Niddah, Rashi explains "shamuti" from the Aramaic word shamta, which means a ban, when the sages tell people to keep away from someone. He points to the story in Bava Metzia, where the sages "blessed" Rabbi Eliezer. So Rashi reads that "blessing" as a ban. This is Rashi's explanation, not the Gemara's own words.

Rashi in Shabbat adds a second explanation

On the passage in Shabbat, Rashi first says: they "blessed" him, as told in Bava Metzia. He does not use the word shamta here. Then he adds that the Talmud Yerushalmi (the Talmud written in Eretz Yisrael) explains the word differently: he was one of the students of Shammai. Rashi gives both and does not choose between them here.

Tosafot: the word means a student of Shammai

Tosafot are the commentaries printed on the page opposite Rashi, written by rabbis of France and Germany after him. In Niddah they quote Rashi and ask a question: the Gemara would not likely use a word for a ban, and the story in Bava Metzia itself uses only the word "blessed". They bring the explanation of Rabbeinu Tam and Rashbam, two of the rabbis of Tosafot: "shamuti" means that he was one of the students of Shammai. They bring a passage from the Talmud Yerushalmi, in tractate Terumot, as support.

In his lifetime they followed Rabbi Yehoshua

The Gemara in Niddah discusses a Mishnah where Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua disagree. A baraita says that all the days of Rabbi Eliezer people acted according to Rabbi Yehoshua, and after Rabbi Eliezer died, Rabbi Yehoshua put the matter back as it had been, which the Gemara takes to mean according to Rabbi Eliezer. The Gemara asks why this was not done while he was alive. It answers: Rabbi Eliezer is a "shamuti", and Rabbi Yehoshua reasoned that if people acted like him in one matter they would act like him in others, and out of respect for Rabbi Eliezer nobody would be able to stop them. After he died it was possible to stop them, so the matter was put back.

Shmuel: the law follows him in four cases

Rav Yehuda says in the name of Shmuel, an Amora of Bavel: the law follows Rabbi Eliezer in four cases. The first is the one just discussed in Niddah, and the Gemara lists the others.