Nakdimon ben Gurion נקדימון בן גוריון
the rich man of Jerusalem for whom the sun broke through
His name was Buni, and he was called Nakdimon ("the one who broke through") because the sun broke through for his sake. In a pilgrimage year water ran short in Jerusalem, and he borrowed twelve wells from a nobleman, undertaking to return water or money by a set day. The day came clear and dry; the nobleman was already on his way to the bathhouse, smiling. Nakdimon went into the Temple and prayed—and it poured until the wells overflowed. The nobleman said: the sun has set, your water is mine already. Then Nakdimon prayed again, and the clouds parted and the sun came out; the nobleman himself admitted that he was the debtor (Taanit 19b–20a).
He was one of the three rich men of Jerusalem who offered to feed the city for twenty-one years of siege. The zealots burned their storehouses so that nothing should remain to the people but war—and the famine began (Gittin 56a). His daughter the Talmud later sees gathering barley from under the hooves of cattle, and Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai weeps over her: this is what became of the house whose charity the whole city remembered (Ketubot 66b).
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
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Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Taanit 19b–20a — the twelve wells and the sun
- Gittin 56a — the three rich men and the burned storehouses
- Ketubot 66b — his daughter gathering barley from under the hooves
Basis: Talmud and midrash.