Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish: Tiberias Teaches
While Sura and Nehardea were growing in Babylonia, Rabbi Yochanan taught in Tiberias, and his opponent in argument was a former bandit who became his brother-in-law and his chief interlocutor. Their debate is the ground of the Jerusalem Talmud.
After Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi the centre of learning in the Land of Israel passes to Tiberias, and for two generations Rabbi Yochanan is its head.
How they met. Rabbi Yochanan was bathing in the Jordan; Reish Lakish, then the leader of a band of robbers, saw him and leapt in after him. "Your strength is fit for Torah," said Rabbi Yochanan. "Your beauty is fit for women," he answered. Rabbi Yochanan offered him his sister in marriage if he would study. He agreed (Bava Metzia 84a).
How it ended. Years later they argued from what moment weapons become susceptible to impurity. Rabbi Yochanan said: "A bandit knows his banditry." Reish Lakish answered: there they called me leader, and here they call me leader—what have you given me? He took to his bed from the insult and died. Rabbi Yochanan could not be comforted: they brought him another to talk with, who agreed with him in everything, and he cried out: "The son of Lakish would raise twenty-four objections to every word of mine, and you only agree." He lost his mind and died.
Why it stands on the timeline. Not as a moral but as an explanation: in Jewish learning argument is not an obstacle to agreement but its method. The Gemara tells this story to show what it costs to lose the one who objects.
Out of Rabbi Yochanan's school came Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi; on their arguments stands the Jerusalem Talmud, which would be put together in Tiberias a generation later.
How we know
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Metzia 84a — the meeting at the Jordan, the words about strength and beauty, the quarrel and the death of both
Rishonim
- The Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — the order of the generations of Amoraim and the headship in Tiberias
Basis: Talmud and midrash.
People and places
Rabbi Yochanan · Reish Lakish · Tiberias · Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat · Rabbi Ami · Rabbi Asi · Jerusalem Talmud · Amoraim · Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi