Rabbi Yochanan

The Gemara in Bava Metzia calls him "bar Nafcha", which means "son of the smith". Rabbi Zeira tells that Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Chanina appeared to him at night and told him who is placed next to whom. Rabbi Yochanan is next to Rabbi Yannai. Rabbi Zeira asked why Rabbi Yochanan is not next to Rabbi Chiya. The answer was: in a place of sparks and burning fire, who can bring bar Nafcha in there?

The Gemara asks why Rabbi Yochanan minded so much. It answers with a teaching of Rav: King David asked Hashem that his teachings be said in his name in this world. It then adds a teaching that Rabbi Yochanan himself passed on in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai: when people say a Torah scholar's teaching in his name in this world, his lips move in the grave.

He said that the heart of the early generations was as wide as the doorway of the Ulam, the entrance hall of the Temple, and the heart of the later ones as wide as the doorway of the Heikhal, the Temple's main hall. "And we", he said, are like the eye of a fine needle.

Rabbi Yannai was his teacher. In the Gemara in Yevamot, Rabbi Yannai reports a ruling, and Rabbi Yochanan calls him "Rabbi", which means "my teacher", and points out that the ruling can already be found in a Mishnah. (The Mishnah is the collection of laws that the Gemara explains.) Rabbi Yannai answers: if I had not lifted the piece of pottery for you, would you have found the pearl under it?

He learned Torah from Rabbi Hoshaya (this passage spells the name Rabbi Oshaya). He remembered how crowded it was: the students sat four to a cubit, a space about as long as a forearm. On the same page he says that Rabbi Oshaya in his generation was like Rabbi Meir in his: his friends could not get to the bottom of his thinking.

He never knew his parents. The Gemara in Kiddushin says that his father died while his mother was pregnant with him, and his mother died when he was born. In a discussion of how hard it is to honor parents properly, he says: happy is the one who never saw them.

He lost children. The Gemara in Berakhot quotes him as saying "this is the bone of the tenth son", and it brings this as a case of a person who had children and they died.

The meeting at the Jordan

One day Rabbi Yochanan was bathing in the Jordan River, and Reish Lakish saw him and jumped into the Jordan after him. Rabbi Yochanan told him: your strength should be for Torah. He said that if Reish Lakish would turn back, he would give him his sister in marriage, and Reish Lakish accepted.

Reish Lakish began as his student. After the meeting at the Jordan, the Gemara says that Rabbi Yochanan taught him Scripture, taught him Mishnah, and made him a great man.

After that argument Rabbi Yochanan was hurt, and Reish Lakish became ill. Rabbi Yochanan's sister came crying. She said to him: do it for the sake of my children. He answered with a verse from Yirmiyahu: leave your orphans, I will keep them alive. She said: do it for the sake of my widowhood. He answered with the rest of the verse: let your widows trust in Me. The Gemara records no other answer from him.

Rabbi Elazar was his student. Rabbi Yaakov bar Idi calmed Rabbi Yochanan with a comparison. Yehoshua did not say "Moshe told me this" every time he taught, and everyone knew it was Moshe's Torah. In the same way, he said, your student Rabbi Elazar teaches without a name and everyone knows it is yours. (This passage says only "Rabbi Elazar". The passage about Reish Lakish's death gives the full name, Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat.)

When is a sword finished?

One day the study hall argued about a sword, a knife, a dagger, a spear and sickles. They can become impure only once they are finished, so when is that? Rabbi Yochanan said: when they are hardened in the furnace. Reish Lakish said: when they are polished in water. Rabbi Yochanan said to him, "A robber knows his robbery." The Gemara does not explain these words here (see the next item). Reish Lakish answered: and what good did you do me? There they called me master, and here they call me master. Rabbi Yochanan said: I did you good, because I brought you under the wings of the Shekhinah, the presence of God.

The robber line: Rashi's explanation

Rashi, the main commentary on the Gemara, explains what Rabbi Yochanan meant: because you were a robber, you are an expert in the tools of that trade. On Reish Lakish's answer, "there they called me master", Rashi explains: I was the master and head of the robbers.

Twenty-four questions

Reish Lakish died and Rabbi Yochanan grieved deeply. The Rabbis asked who would go to settle his mind, and sent Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, whose teachings were sharp. Whatever Rabbi Yochanan said, Rabbi Elazar told him that there is a baraita that supports him. (A baraita is a teaching from the time of the Mishnah that was not put into the Mishnah.) Rabbi Yochanan said: are you like the son of Lakish? When I said something, the son of Lakish would ask me twenty-four questions and I would give him twenty-four answers, and so the teaching opened up. And you say there is a baraita that supports me. Do I not know that what I say is right?

Where are you, son of Lakish?

Rabbi Yochanan went about tearing his clothes and crying, "Where are you, son of Lakish?" He cried out until his mind left him. The Rabbis prayed for mercy for him, and he died.

He and Ilfa: staying to learn

Ilfa and Rabbi Yochanan learned Torah together and were very poor, so they set out to go into business. They sat down to eat under a shaky wall, and Rabbi Yochanan heard two angels speaking. One said: let us throw this wall on them and kill them, because they leave "the life of the World to Come" and busy themselves with "the life of the hour". The other said to leave them, because the hour stands for one of them. Ilfa heard nothing, so Rabbi Yochanan understood that it meant him. He went back and Ilfa did not. By the time Ilfa came, Rabbi Yochanan "reigned". People said to Ilfa: if you had sat and learned, would you not be the one who reigns?

What "reigned" means: Rashi's explanation

The Gemara says only that Rabbi Yochanan "reigned". Rashi explains: they appointed him head of the yeshiva over them.

Give me your hand

Rabbi Chiya bar Abba was ill and Rabbi Yochanan went in to visit him. He asked: is your suffering dear to you? Rabbi Chiya bar Abba answered: not it and not its reward. Rabbi Yochanan said, "Give me your hand." He gave him his hand, and Rabbi Yochanan raised him up.

A teaching said without his name

Rabbi Elazar taught a law in the study hall and did not say it in Rabbi Yochanan's name. Rabbi Yochanan heard and was upset. Rabbi Ammi and Rabbi Assi went in to him and told him a story about an argument between two earlier sages. He became more upset.

The law follows an anonymous Mishnah

The Gemara in Shabbat quotes a rule in his name: the law follows a "stam Mishnah", a Mishnah taught with no sage's name on it. On this page the Gemara uses the rule to test one of his own rulings. The ruling seems to go against such a Mishnah, so it asks: did Rabbi Yochanan really say that? But he said that the law follows an anonymous Mishnah. Rabbi Zeira answers by reading that Mishnah as a narrower case, "so as not to break the words of Rabbi Yochanan".

Two reports of his rule that do not match

In Ketubot, Rabbi Abba bar Yaakov reports that Rabbi Yochanan ruled like Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel in a certain case. The Gemara asks: did he really say this? Rabbah bar bar Chana reported in his name a general rule, that wherever Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel taught in our Mishnah the law follows him, except in three cases. The Gemara answers that these are two Amoraim who disagree about what Rabbi Yochanan held.

Two Tannaim "said the same thing"

The Tannaim are the sages of the Mishnah. In Menachot, Rabbi Reuven sends word in Rabbi Yochanan's name that the names in a certain teaching should be switched. The Gemara says that Rabbi Yochanan "follows his own reasoning", because he said that Rabbi Yosei HaGelili and one of Rabbi Yishmael's students "said the same thing". The Gemara identifies the student as Rabbi Yoshiya, and then brings his teaching.

Half a measure is forbidden by the Torah

The Torah punishes eating forbidden food only from a set amount. What about less than that amount? Rabbi Yochanan says it is forbidden by the Torah, and Reish Lakish says it is not forbidden by the Torah itself. (The Gemara goes on to say that, for Reish Lakish, it is forbidden by the Rabbis.) The Gemara gives Rabbi Yochanan's reason: the small amount can join with more to make the full amount, so the person is eating something forbidden.

A right to the fruit is like owning the land

A man sells his field only for its produce. Does the buyer read the declaration of thanks when he brings the first fruits to the Temple? Rabbi Yochanan says he brings them and reads it, because owning the right to the produce is like owning the land itself. Reish Lakish says he brings them and does not read it.

But in three cases the law follows Rav

The same rule has a limit. In a similar case Rav Papa says that he might have made a mistake and answered with the rule "Rav and Rabbi Yochanan: the law follows Rabbi Yochanan". But Rava said that the law follows Rav in these three cases, whether that makes the law easier or stricter.

Against Rav, the law follows him

Rav was an Amora of Bavel. In Beitzah a man asks Rav Ada bar Ahava a question about eggs, and Rav Ada bar Ahava answers him: what are you thinking, that when Rav and Rabbi Yochanan disagree the law follows Rabbi Yochanan? He speaks of it as a rule that was already known, and then explains that even Rabbi Yochanan would not permit what the man wanted.

Against Shmuel, the law follows him

Shmuel was an Amora of Bavel. In Eruvin, Rava gives a ruling, and Ravina challenges him: are you relying on what Shmuel said? But when Shmuel and Rabbi Yochanan disagree, the law follows Rabbi Yochanan, and Rabbi Yochanan ruled the other way. Rava then changes his ruling.

Three cases where the law follows Reish Lakish

Rava says that the law follows Reish Lakish "in these three" disputes with Rabbi Yochanan, and the Gemara lists them. The third one, on the next page of Yevamot, is a case where Rabbi Yochanan's reason is that a right to the produce is like owning the thing itself. The Gemara here lists only these three cases. It does not state a general rule for all their other disputes.