Rabbi Tzadok רבי צדוק
a priest who fasted forty years over Jerusalem
Rabbi Tzadok was a priest of the Temple's last generation. For forty years he fasted to avert the destruction, and wasted away until food could be seen through his throat (Gittin 56a). Among the three requests Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai made of Vespasian was "physicians to heal Rabbi Tzadok" (Gittin 56b): the teacher of the generation weighed one ailing elder as equal to Yavne and its sages.
His words in Pirkei Avot—"do not make the Torah a crown for self-glory, nor a spade to dig with" (Avot 4:5)—became the rule for all who teach Torah not for a livelihood.
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
- Gittin 56a–b — forty years of fasting; the request for physicians
- Avot 4:5 — «do not make the Torah a crown…»
Basis: Talmud and midrash.