Joshua ben Hananiah

He was of Levitical descent,[2] and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers.[3] His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa ben Harkinas, relates,[4] she carried the child in his cradle into the synagogue, so that his ears might become accustomed to the sounds of the words of the Torah. It was probably with reference to his pious mother that Yohanan ben Zakkai thus expressed himself concerning Joshua ben Hananiah: "Hail to thee who gave him birth".[5] According to another tradition[6] Yohanan ben Zakkai praised him in the words of Ecclesiastes (4:12), "And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Perhaps he meant that in Joshua the three branches of traditional learning, Midrash, Halakha, and Aggadah, were united in a firm whole; or possibly he used the passage in the sense in which it was employed later,[7] to show that Joshua belonged to a family of scholars even to the third generation.

Joshua's permanent residence was in Peki'in,[8] a place between Yavne and Lydda, where he followed the trade of a tailor.[9] This occupation did not in any degree diminish the respect paid to him as one of the influential members of the academy at Yavne.

Joshua ben Hananiah was one of the five who formed the inner circle of Yohanan's pupils.[5] In enumerating them, tradition places him at the head together with Eliezer ben Hurcanus. Tradition also frequently mentions these two together as upholders of opposite views. They were both present at the celebration of the circumcision of Elisha ben Abuyah (Acher), in Jerusalem, and diverted themselves by connecting passages in the Torah with others in the Prophets and the Hagiographa.[10] It was also Eliezer and Joshua who rescued Yohanan ben Zakkai from the besieged city and brought him into the camp of Vespasian.

After the death of Yohanan ben Zakkai c. 80 CE, Joshua was the heartiest supporter of Gamaliel II's efforts to bring about the predominance of the views of Hillel the Elder's followers over those of Shammai's, and thus to end the discord which had so long existed between the schools. But he was the very one whom Gamaliel humiliated on a certain occasion when the authority of the president was in question.[11] Joshua's pliant disposition did not shield him from humiliation by Gamaliel a second time, and the wrong done to Yehoshua was the cause of Gamaliel's removal from office. He soon obtained Joshua's forgiveness, and this opened the way for his reinstatement; but he was now obliged to share his office with Eleazar ben Azariah, who had originally been appointed his successor.[12]

Joshua esteemed Eleazar very highly, and on one occasion called out in his emphatic manner: "Hail to thee, Father Abraham, for Eleazar ben Azariah came forth from thy loins!"[13] When it became necessary to present the case of the Palestinian Jews at Rome, the two presidents, Gamaliel and Eleazar, went as their representatives, and Joshua ben Hananiah and Akiva accompanied them. This journey of the "elders" to Rome, and their stay in the Imperial City, furnished material for many narratives. In one of these the Romans call on Joshua ben Hananiah to give proofs from the Bible of the resurrection of the dead and of the foreknowledge of God.[14] In another, Joshua comes to the aid of Gamaliel when the latter is unable to answer the question of a "philosopher".[15] In tractate Horayot, in an anecdote concerning a sea voyage undertaken by Gamaliel and Joshua, the astronomical knowledge of the latter is put to use. He is said to have calculated that a comet would appear in the course of the voyage.[16]

After Gamaliel's death,[17] the first place among the scholars fell to Joshua, since Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was under a ban. Joshua wished to do away with a regulation of Gamaliel's, but met with opposition on the part of the council.[18] Joshua stood by the death-bed of his colleague Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and called to him: "O master, thou art of more value to Israel than God's gift of the rain; since the rain gives life in this world only, whereas thou givest life both in this world and in the world to come".[19] When, after Eliezer's death, the other law scholars, Eleazar ben Azariah, Tarfon, and Akiva, contested some of his opinions, Joshua said to them: "One should not oppose a lion after he is dead".[20] Eleazar, also, seems to have died some time before Joshua.

It is related that when Joshua ben Hananiah was about to die, the scholars standing round his bed mourned, saying: "How shall we maintain ourselves against the unbelievers?" Joshua comforted them with words from Jeremiah 49:7: "If counsel has been taken away from the children [of God, i.e. Israel], the wisdom of these [the enemy] has also perished".[21]

After his death Joshua's importance was extolled in the words: "Since Rabbi Joshua died, good counsel has ceased in Israel."[22] Not long after Joshua's death the thinkers were superseded by the men of action, and Simon bar Kokhba, enthusiastically greeted by Joshua's most influential pupil, Rabbi Akiva, raised the flag of rebellion against Rome. That this step had not been taken earlier was due to Joshua's influence.

Joshua ben Hananiah's exegetical controversies with two of his most prominent contemporaries occupy an important place in the aggadic tradition. These two are his colleague Eliezer ben Hurcanus, who is frequently also mentioned in the Halakha as holding an opposite opinion, and Eleazar of Modi'im, who belonged to the school of Yavne and was especially known as the author of aggadic expositions of the Bible. The controversies between Eliezer and Joshua refer to cosmology, to eschatology, comprising views on the period as well as on the world to come and the resurrection, and to the interpretation of various Biblical passages.

The controversies between Joshua ben Hananiah and Eleazar of Modi'im are found in the Mekhilta on Exodus, and they form at the same time a continuous double commentary on the sections concerning the stay of the Israelites at Marah, the miracle of the manna, the fight with Amalek, and the visit of Jethro.[42] In these controversies Joshua, as a rule, stands for the naturalistic, literal meaning of the words and the historical interpretation of the contents, putting emphasis on the meaning demanded by the context.

The Alexandrian Jews addressed twelve questions to Joshua.[43] They fall into four groups:

1. three halakhic
2. three aggadic
3. three foolishly ignorant questions (a sort of parody on the questions of halakic casuistry)
4. three questions taken from practical life.

Eleven questions also were addressed to him concerning the special position of woman in physical, spiritual, social, and religious matters.[44] Some of these with his answers are:

• "Why is a man easy, a woman difficult, to persuade?"

"Man was created out of earth, which easily dissolves in water; woman was created from bone, which is not affected by water."

• "Why does a man have his head uncovered while a woman has hers covered?"

"Whoever has committed a sin is ashamed before people; thus woman is ashamed on account of Eve's sin, and consequently covers her head."

• "Why do women take precedence in funeral processions?"

"Because they have brought death into the world."

After the destruction of the Second Temple, Joshua opposed the exaggerated asceticism with which many wished to show their grief, e.g., in going without meat and wine because the altar on which they had sacrificed animals and poured libations of wine had been destroyed. He represented to them that to be consistent they ought to eat no figs or grapes, since no more first-fruits were offered, and that they ought even to refrain from bread and water, since the festival of drawing water (nisukh hammayim)[45] had been discontinued, and the showbread as well as the two loaves of the feast of first-fruits could no longer be sacrificed.[46] With such arguments Joshua supported the efforts of his teacher to make the grief at the loss of the Temple, which until then had been the center of religious life, less bitter.

One time, when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai was walking in Jerusalem with Rebbi Yehoshua, they arrived at where the Temple in Jerusalem now stood in ruins. "Woe to us" cried Rabbi Yehoshua, "for this house where atonement was made for Israel's sins now lies in ruins!" Answered Rabban Yochanan, "We have another, equally important source of atonement, the practice of gemilut hasadim (loving kindness), as it is stated 'I desire loving kindness and not sacrifice.'

— Avot of Rabbi Natan

His opposition to asceticism, however, was due also to his mild and temperate nature, which caused him to say in regard to the severe regulations which had been adopted by the school of Shammai shortly before the destruction of the sanctuary: "On that day they overstepped the boundary." As he declared in a dispute on this subject with his colleague Eliezer ben Hurcanus, "they have poured water into a vessel full of oil, thus causing the costly oil to run to waste".[47] Joshua saw the greatest danger to the community in the sickly offshoots of piety. The following he calls "enemies of general prosperity":

• the foolishly pious (pious at the wrong time)
• sly sinners
• the woman who shows an overpious bearing
• the hypocrites who pretend to be saints[48]

In his motto of life[49] he recommends temperance and the love of mankind as a security for individual happiness. An evil eye (grudging), evil inclination (passion), and hatred of mankind, he says, remove people from the world. In the same spirit he answers the question put by Yohanan ben Zakkai to his pupils as to the best standard of conduct. He declares that one should seek association with a good companion and avoid a bad one.[49] Various anecdotes illustrate the opposition between Joshua, who represented the teachings of Hillel, and his colleague Eliezer, who represented the teachings of Shammai, much in the same way as the opposition between Hillel and Shammai is depicted elsewhere.[50]

Joshua ben Hananiah was regarded by posterity as a man always ready with an answer, and as the victorious representative of Jewish wit and wisdom. This is shown in the accounts of his conversations with heathens and in other narratives. He himself tells of three encounters in which he had to yield the palm to the wit of a woman and a child. He introduces the story in these words: "No one ever overcame me except a woman, a boy, and a maid".[51] Joshua explains the end of Psalms 9:18 to mean that there are even among the Gentiles pious people who will have a share in the life everlasting.[52] "The Psalms", he also said, "do not refer to the personal affairs of David, but to the affairs of all Israel."[53] If a man learns a halakhic sentence in the morning and two sentences in the evening, and he is busy the whole day at his trade, it will be accounted to him as though he had fulfilled the whole Torah.[54] Holidays are intended to be employed half for worldly enjoyment, half for study.[55] From Ruth 2:19 it may be concluded that the poor person who receives does more for the giver than the giver does for the recipient.[56]

• Bacher, Wilhelm. Die Agada der Tannaiten. Erster Band: Von Hillel bis Akiba (in German) 2nd ed. (Strassburg: Trübner, 1903), p. 123–187, 196–210
• Brüll, Jakob. Einleitung in die Mishna (Two parts, 1876/1885)
• Derenbourg, Joseph. Essai sur l'Histoire et le Géographie de la Palestine, d'après les Thalmuds et les autres sources rabbiniques. Première partie. Histoire de la Palestine depuis Cyrus jusqu'à Adrien (Paris, 1867)
• Frankel, Zacharias. Darke ha-Mishnah (1859; reprint: Tel Aviv: Sinai, 1959)
• Graetz, Heinrich. Geschichte der Juden von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf den Gegenwart, Vol. 4 (Vierte Band): Geschichte der Juden vom Untergang des jüdischen Staates bis zum Abschluss des Talmud (Berlin: Veit, 1853), p. 29-46
• Lewysohn, Abraham. Toledot R. Yehoshua' b. Hananiah, in Naphtali Keller's Bikkurim, vol. 1 (1864), p. 26–35
• Weiss, Isaac Hirsch. Dor-dor ve-dorshav, vol. 2 (1876)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Joshua b. Hananiah". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.