Joshua ben Hananiah

Joshua ben Hananiah (Hebrew: יהושע בן חנניה Yəhōšūaʿ ben Ḥănanyā; d. 131 CE), also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the eighth-most-frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah.

He was of Levitical descent, and served in the sanctuary as a member of the class of singers. His mother intended him for a life of study, and, as an older contemporary, Dosa ben Harkinas, relates, she 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. It was probably with reference to his pious mother that Yohanan ben Zakkai thus expressed himself concerning Joshua ben Hananiah: "Hail to thee who gave him birth". According to another tradition Yohanan ben Zakkai praised him in the words of Ecclesiastes (4:12), "And a threefold cord is not quickly broken." Perhaps he meant that in Joshua the three branches of traditional learning, Midrash, Halakha, and Aggadah, were united in a firm whole; or possibly he used the passage in the sense in which it was employed later, to show that Joshua belonged to a family of scholars even to the third generation.

Joshua's permanent residence was in Peki'in, a place between Yavne and Lydda, where he followed the trade of a needle-maker. This occupation did not in any degree diminish the respect paid to him as one of the influential members of the academy at Yavne.

Joshua ben Hananiah was one of the five who formed the inner circle of Yohanan's pupils. In enumerating them, tradition places him at the head together with Eliezer ben Hurcanus. Tradition also frequently mentions these two together as upholders of opposite views. They were both present at the celebration of the circumcision of Elisha ben Abuyah (Acher), in Jerusalem, and diverted themselves by connecting passages in the Torah with others in the Prophets and the Hagiographa. It was also Eliezer and Joshua who rescued Yohanan ben Zakkai from the besieged city and brought him into the camp of Vespasian.^{[citation needed]}

After the death of Yohanan ben Zakkai c. 80 CE, Joshua was the heartiest supporter of Gamaliel II's efforts to bring about the predominance of the views of Hillel the Elder's followers over those of Shammai's, and thus to end the discord which had so long existed between the schools. But he was the very one whom Gamaliel humiliated on a certain occasion when the authority of the president was in question. Joshua's pliant disposition did not shield him from humiliation by Gamaliel a second time, and the wrong done to Joshua was the cause of Gamaliel's removal from office. He soon obtained Joshua's forgiveness, and this opened the way for his reinstatement; but he was now obliged to share his office with Eleazar ben Azariah, who had originally been appointed his successor.

Joshua esteemed Eleazar very highly, and on one occasion called out in his emphatic manner: "Hail to thee, Father Abraham, for Eleazar ben Azariah came forth from thy loins!" When it became necessary to present the case of the Palestinian Jews at Rome, the two presidents, Gamaliel and Eleazar, went as their representatives, and Joshua ben Hananiah and Akiva accompanied them. This journey of the "elders" to Rome, and their stay in the Imperial City, 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. In another, Joshua comes to the aid of Gamaliel when the latter is unable to answer the question of a "philosopher". In tractate Horayot, in an anecdote concerning a sea voyage undertaken by Gamaliel and Joshua, the astronomical knowledge of the latter is put to use. He is said to have calculated that a comet would appear in the course of the voyage.

After Gamaliel's death, the first place among the scholars fell to Joshua, since Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was under a ban. Joshua wished to do away with a regulation of Gamaliel's, but met with opposition on the part of the council. Joshua stood by the death-bed of his colleague Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and called to him: "O master, thou art of more value to Israel than God's gift of the rain; since the rain gives life in this world only, whereas thou givest life both in this world and in the world to come". When, after Eliezer's death, the other law scholars, Eleazar ben Azariah, Tarfon, and Akiva, contested some of his opinions, Joshua said to them: "One should not oppose a lion after he is dead". Eleazar, also, seems to have died some time before Joshua.

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 Jeremiah 49:7: "If counsel has been taken away from the children [of God, i.e. Israel], the wisdom of these [the enemy] has also perished".