Joshua Ben Hananiah

Rabbinical Eras
Zugot Tannaim Amoraim Savoraim Geonim Rishonim Acharonim

Joshua ben Hananiah (Hebrew: יהושע בן חנניה d.131C.E.) was a leading rabbinical sage of the first half-century following the destruction of the Temple.

A disciple of Johanan ben Zakkai, he was an opponent of acenticism who represented the liberal school of Hillel against the strict legalism of Shammai in disputes with Johanan's other leading pupil, Eliezer ben Hyrcanus.

Early years

Rabbi Joshua was of Levitical descent (Ma'as. Sh. v. 9), and had served in the Temple of Jerusalem as a member of the class of singers. His mother intended him for a life of study and carried the child in his cradle into the synagogue, so that his ears might become accustomed to the sounds of the words of the Torah. According to another tradition (Ab. R. N. xiv).

Joshua became one of the inner circle of the pupils of Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai (Ab. ii. 8). Rabbai Johanan praised him in the words from [[Ecclesiastes 4:12: "And a threefold cord is not quickly broken," thought to mean in Joshua, the three branches of traditional Jewish learning at the time—Midrash, Halakah, and Aggadah—were united in a firm whole. Tradition places him at the head of Johanan's disciples along with Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. These two are also frequently mentioned as upholders of opposite views. Eliezer and Joshua cooperated together, however, to rescue their teacher from the besieged city of Jerusalem in the closing days of the Jewish Revolt.

An Opponent of Asceticism

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem Joshua opposed the exaggerated asceticism with which many wished to show their grief, such as going without meat and wine because the sacred altar, on which they had sacrificed animals and poured libations of wine, had been destroyed. He argued that to carry this policy to its logical conclusion, they ought to eat no figs or grapes either, since no more first-fruits were offered, and that they ought even to refrain from bread, since the loaves of the feast of first-fruits could no longer be sacrificed (Tosef., Sotah, end; B. B. 60b). With these arguments Joshua hoped to make his people's grief at the loss of the Temple, the center of their religious life, less bitter. In this attitude, tradition holds that he upheld the attitude of his master:

One time, when Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai was walking in Jerusalem with Rabbi Joshua, they arrived at where the Temple in Jerusalem now stood in ruins. "Woe to us" cried Rabbi Joshua, "for this house where atonement was made for Israel's sins now lies in ruins!" Answered Rabban Yohanan, "We have another, equally important source of atonement, the practice of loving-kindness, as it is stated "I desire loving-kindness and not sacrifice."(Avoth deRabbi Nathan).

Joshua's opposition to asceticism is also thought to be due to his mild and temperate nature. In regard to the severe regulations which had been adopted by the strict school of Shammai shortly before the destruction of the Temple, he said: "On that day they overstepped the boundary." Joshua saw the greatest danger to the community in the sickly offshoots of supposed piety. Classes of people he condemned as "enemies of general prosperity" included:

• foolishly pious men
• sly sinners who appear pious
• women who show an over-pious bearing
• hypocrites who pretend to be saints (Sotah iii. 4, 21b; Yer. Sotah 21b).

When Johanan ben Zakkai aked his pupils concerning the best standard of conduct, Joshua answered that one should seek association with a good companion and avoid a bad one. He recommended temperance and the love of mankind as the best assurance of individual happiness. Grudging, lustful passion, and hatred of mankind, he declared, bring only loss and ultimately death (Ab. ii. 11). Various anecdotes illustrate the opposition between Joshua, who represented the teachings of Hillel, and his colleague Eliezer, who represented the teachings of Shammai, much in the same way as the opposition between Hillel and Shammai is depicted elsewhere (Gen. R. lxx., beginning; Eccl. R. i. 8; Kid. 31a).

Joshua's permanent residence was located between Jamnia and Lydda, where he was a sewer by trade (Yer. Ber. 7d). This seemingly menial occupation, however, did not diminish the respect paid to him as one of the influential members of the emerging rabbinical academy at Jamnia.

Relations with Gamaliel II

After the death of Johanan ben Zakkai (c. 90 C.E.), Rabbi Joshua was a supporter of the efforts of Gamaliel II, the president of the academy, to promote of the views of Hillel's followers over those of Shammai's and end the discord which had so long existed between the schools. Nevertheless, the two scholars clashed severely on questions of authority, with Joshua apparently feeling that Gamaliel was too heavy-handed. On one occasion, Gamaliel humiliated Joshua when the authority of the president was in question (R. H. 25a; Yer. R. H. 58b). A subsequent similar public wrong done to Joshua by Gamaliel was considered such an offense that it occasioned Gamaliel's temporary removal from office. He soon obtained Joshua's forgiveness, and this opened the way for his reinstatement. However, Gamaliel was now obliged to share his office with Eleazar ben Azariah, who had earlier been appointed his successor (Ber. 28a).

When it became necessary to present the plight of the Palestinian Jews at Rome, the co-presidents, Gamaliel and Eleazar, went as their primary representatives, with rabbis Joshua and Akiba accompanying them. This journey of the "elders" to Rome furnished material for many narratives. In one of these, the Romans call on Joshua ben Hananiah to give proofs from the Bible of the resurrection of the dead and of the foreknowledge of God (Sanh. 90b). In another, Joshua comes to the aid of Gamaliel when the latter is unable to answer the question of a philosopher (Gen. R. xx.). In one anecdote, concerning a sea voyage undertaken by Gamaliel and Joshua, the astronomical knowledge of the latter is put to good use, as he is said to have calculated that a comet would appear in the course of the voyage (Hor. 10a).

Council president

After Gamaliel's death, the presidency of the rabbinical council fell to Joshua, since Eleazar ben Azariah had apparently already died and Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was under a ban of excommunication due to his irascible opposition the will of the majority and sewing the seed of disunity among his own disciples.

Later, Joshua hearing of Eliezer's mortal illness Joshua went to his deathbed despite the ban against him and sought to console him: "O master, thou art of more value to Israel than God's gift of the rain," he declared, "since the rain gives life in this world only, whereas thou givest life both in this world and in the world to come" (Mek., Yitro, Bachodesh, 10; Sifre, Deut. 32). After Eliezer's death Joshua rescinded the excommunication. Later, when other scholars contested some of his opinions, Joshua said to them: "One should not oppose a lion after he is dead" (Gittin 83a; Yer. Git. 50a).

Under Hadrian

In the beginning of Hadrian's rule, Joshua acted as the leader of the Jewish people and a proponent of peace. When the permission to rebuild the Temple was again refused, he turned the excited people away from thoughts of revolt against Rome by a speech in which he skilfully made use of Aesop's fable of the lion and the crane (Gen. R. lxiv., end). About the same time, Joshua, ever the Hillelite, used his eloquence to prevent the whole area of the Temple from being pronounced unclean because one human bone had been found in it (Tosef., 'Eduy. iii. 13; Zeb. 113a). Joshua lived to witness Hadrian's visit to Palestine, and in 130 C.E. he followed the emperor to Alexandria.

The conversations between Joshua and Hadrian, as they have been preserved in the Talmud and the Midrash, have been greatly exaggerated by tradition, but they nevertheless present a fair picture of the intercourse between the witty Jewish scholar and the active, inquisitive emperor.

In Palestinian sources Joshua answers various questions of the emperor: how God created the world (Gen. R. x.), concerning the angels (ib. lxxviii., beginning; Lam. R. iii. 21), as to the resurrection of the body (Gen. R. xxviii.; Eccl. R. xii. 5), and with reference to the Ten Commandments (Pesiḳ. R. 21). In the Babylonian Talmud three conversations are related, in which Joshua silences the emperor's mockery of the Jewish conception of God by proving to him God's incomparable greatness and majesty (Ḥul. 59b, 60a). Joshua also rebukes the emperor's daughter when she makes a mocking comment about the God of the Jews (ibid. 60a). In another place she is made to repent for having mocked Joshua's appearance (Ta'an. on Ned. 50b). In a dispute with a Jewish Christian, Joshua dramatically maintained that God's protective hand was still stretched over Israel (Hagigah 5b).

Opposes Judæo-Christians

Some of the questions addressed to Joshua by the Athenian wise men, found in a long story in the Babylonian Talmud (Bek. 8b et seq.), contain polemical expressions concerning Christianity (Moritz Güdemann, Religionsgeschichtliche Studien, pp. 89, 136 et seq.). The historical basis for this remarkable tradition is found in Hadrian's association with Joshua b. Hananiah, in Joshua's visit to Athens, and in his intercourse with Athenian scholars and philosophers. Its conclusion is an echo of the myth of the Danaides, and it is supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the "wise men of the Jews" over the "elders of Athens." Embodied in this tradition are the stories in which the wit of Athens is conquered by the cleverness of the men of Jerusalem (Lam. R. i. 1, s.v. "Rabbati"). In one of these the pupils of Johanan b. Zakkai make sport of an Athenian. That the tradition contains in parts polemics against Christianity is explained by the fact that Joshua b. Hananiah fought the heresy of the Judæo-Christians. The same spirit is manifested in the story concerning his nephew Hananiah (Eccl. R. i. 25). It is related that when Joshua ben Hananiah was about to die, the scholars standing round his bed mourned, saying: "How shall we maintain ourselves against the unbelievers?" Joshua comforted them with words from Jer. xlix. 7: "If counsel has been taken away from the children [of God, i.e.,Israel], the wisdom of these [the enemy] has also perished" (Ḥag. 5b).

After his death Joshua's importance was extolled in the words: "Since Rabbi Joshua died, good counsel has ceased in Israel" (Baraita, Sotah, end). Not long after Joshua's death the thinkers were superseded by the men of action, and Bar Kokba, enthusiastically greeted by Joshua's most influential pupil, Akiba b. Joseph, raised the flag of rebellion against Rome. That this step had not been taken earlier was due to Joshua's influence.

His Exegesis

In the haggadic tradition Joshua b. Hananiah's exegetical controversies with two of his most prominent contemporaries occupy an important place. These two are his colleague Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, who is frequently mentioned in the Halakah also as holding an opposite opinion, and Eleazar of Modi'im, who belonged to the school of Jabneh and was especially known as the author of haggadic expositions of the Bible. The controversies between Eliezer and Joshua refer to cosmology, to eschatology, comprising views on the period as well as on the future world and the resurrection, and to the interpretation of various Biblical passages.

The controversies between Joshua b. Hananiah and Eleazar of Modi'im are found in the tannaitic midrash to Exodus, and they form at the same time a continuous double commentary on the sections concerning the stay of the Israelites at Marah (Ex. xv. 22-27), the miracle of the manna (ib. xvi.), the fight with Amalek (ib. xvii.), and the visit of Jethro (ib. xviii.). In these controversies Joshua, as a rule, stands for the literal meaning of the words and the historical interpretation of the contents, putting emphasis on the meaning demanded by the context.

The Alexandrian Jews addressed twelve questions to Joshua (Niddah 69b). They fall into four groups:

1. three halakic
2. three haggadic
3. three foolishly ignorant questions (a sort of parody on the questions of halakic casuistry)
4. three questions taken from practical life.

Eleven questions also were addressed to him concerning the special position of woman in physical, spiritual, social, and religious matters (Gen. R. xvii., end). Some of these with his answers are:

• "Why is a man easy, a woman difficult, to persuade?"

"Man was created out of earth, which easily dissolves in water; woman was created from bone, which is not affected by water."

• "Why does a man have his head uncovered while a woman has hers covered?"

"Whoever has committed a sin is ashamed before people; thus woman is ashamed on account of Eve's sin, and consequently covers her head."

• "Why do women take precedence in funeral processions?"

"Because they have brought death into the world."

Sayings

Joshua ben Hananiah was regarded by posterity as a man always ready with an answer, and as the victorious representative of Jewish wit and wisdom. This is shown in the accounts of his conversations with heathens and in other narratives. He himself tells of three encounters in which he had to yield the palm to the wit of a woman and a child. He introduces the story in these words: "No one ever overcame me except a woman, a boy, and a maid" (Er. 53b; comp. Lam. R. i. 1, section "Rabbati," end). Joshua explains the end of verse 18 of Ps. ix. to mean that there are even among the Gentiles pious people who will have a share in the life everlasting (Tosef., Sanh. xiii. 2; comp. Sanh. 105a). "The Psalms," he also said, "do not refer to the personal affairs of David, but to the affairs of all Israel" (Pes. 117b). If a man learns a halakic sentence in the morning and two sentences in the evening, and he is busy the whole day at his trade, it will be accounted to him as though he had fulfilled the whole Torah (Mek., Beshallaḥ, Wayassa', 2). Holidays are intended to be employed one-half for worldly enjoyment, one-half for study (Pes. 68b; Betzah 15b). From Ruth ii. 19 it may be concluded that the poor person who receives does more for the giver than the giver does for the recipient (Lev. R. xxxiv.; Ruth R. ad loc.).

Rabbis of the Mishnah

Hillel   Shammai           Teacher → Student                                                                             Gamaliel the Elder               Johanan b. Zakai                 Father → Son                                                                                 R. Gamaliel   Jose the Galilean   Eliezer b. Hyrcanus   Joshua b. Hananiah   Eleazar b. Arach   Eleazar b. Azariah                                                                         Elisha b. Abuyah       Akiva   Ishmael b. Elisha   Tarfon                                                                                                 Meir   Judah b. Ilai   Jose b. Halafta   Shimon b. Yohai                                                                                             Judah HaNasi   Hiyya   Oshiah

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

• Frankel, Darke;
• Heinrich Graetz;
• Weiss, Dor;
• Brüll, Einleitung;
• Joseph Derenbourg, Histoire;
• Bacher, Agada der Tann. 2d ed., 123-187, 196-210;
• A. Lewysohn, Toledot R. Yehoshua' b. Hananiah, in Keller's Bikkurim, i. 26-35.

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

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