Rav Yosef רב יוסף
"Sinai"—the one who remembers everything; he declined the office and yielded it
"Sinai and the uprooter of mountains—which is preferable?" The dispute in Berakhot 64a is about two kinds of strength: to remember everything, and to be able to analyse anything. The answer favoured memory—"everyone needs the owner of the wheat," the man who has the material itself. Rav Yosef, however, did not take the office, and Rabbah headed Pumbedita; only after his death did Rav Yosef lead the academy, and not for long.
He went blind. The Talmud says so without emphasis and reports the consequences matter-of-factly: he forgot part of what he had learned, and his students, Abaye above all, would remind him of his own words. There are places where he asks, "did I say that?"—and is told that he did.
The Aramaic translation of the Prophets, traditionally called Targum Yonatan, is associated with him, as are a great many formulations that entered the law.
His statement that a blind man is exempt from the commandments the Gemara reports together with the fact that he refused the exemption for himself.
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Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berakhot 64a — “Sinai” against “the uprooter of mountains”; the refusal of office
- Kiddushin 31a — his blindness and his refusal of the exemption
Basis: Talmud and midrash.