Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa רבי חנינא בן דוסא
man of deed, whose prayers were answered
Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was the last of the "men of deed", of whom the Mishnah says that with his death the quality departed (Sotah 9:15). He was a disciple of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, and when Yochanan's son fell ill he asked Chanina to pray: "he put his head between his knees"—and the boy recovered. His wife asked, "Is he greater than you?"—"No, but he is like a servant before the king, and I like a minister" (Berakhot 34b).
His poverty is told without adornment: every Sabbath eve his wife would heat the oven and put nothing in it, so the neighbours should not guess it was empty (Taanit 24b–25a). To him is ascribed the saying on what makes learning hold: "He whose deeds exceed his wisdom, his wisdom endures; he whose wisdom exceeds his deeds, it does not endure" (Avot 3:9).
A heavenly voice, by tradition, said of him: "The whole world is sustained for the sake of Chanina My son, and for Chanina a measure of carobs suffices from one Sabbath eve to the next" (Taanit 24b). The sources give no years; the generation is the first, a contemporary of the destruction of the Second Temple.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berakhot 34b — the prayer for Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's son
- Taanit 24b–25a — the empty oven and the measure of carobs
- Mishnah, Sotah 9:15 — «when Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa died, the men of deed ceased»
Basis: Talmud and midrash.