There is no doubt that, according to the Talmud, one of the greatest sages of all time was Hillel. How was his greatness measured? The accomplishments of his students:
The sages taught: Hillel the Elder had 80 students. Thirty of them were worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon them as on Moses our teacher; 30 of them were worthy that the sun should stand still for them as for Joshua bin Nun, and 20 were on an intermediate level. The greatest of all was Yonatan ben Uzziel, and the least of them was Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai.
According to this beraita, Hillel’s greatest students were worthy of the kinds of miracles performed for Moses while his weakest students were worthy of the kinds of miracles performed for Moses’ successor, Joshua.
A classic joke asks: What do you call the person who graduates last in their class from medical school? Answer: Doctor. Perhaps humor is the best way to interpret the Talmud’s assertion that the weakest student in Hillel’s school was Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, the savior of rabbinic Judaism after the destruction of the Temple. Not only did he save Judaism, his resume was exemplary:
They said about Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai that he did not neglect Bible, Mishnah, Talmud, halakhot, aggadot, minutiae of the Torah, minutiae of the scribes, kal vahomer, verbal analogies, the calculation of seasons, gematria, parables of launderers, parables of foxes, the conversation of demons, the conversation of palm trees, the conversation of ministering angels, a great matter and a small matter. A great matter is the design of the divine chariot, and a small matter is the discussions of Abaye and Rava.
Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai was an expert in not only the expansive corpus of rabbinic literature and its interpretive methodologies, but also the advanced math and science required to calculate the calendar and understand gematria. Beyond that, he was an expert in different kinds of speech, from the parables of launderers and foxes to the conversation of palm trees; and even the conversations of angels and demons.
What does it mean to speak all these “languages”? Rashbam explains that by “the parables of launderers,” the rabbis meant that Rabbi Yohanan could use popular analogies to teach Torah. He glosses “the conversation of demons” by saying Rabbi Yohanan knew how “to disclaim them, and the practical application is in making amulets for healing.” But while Rashbam focuses on how Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai could speak these different kinds of speech in order to help his community, I think we can also think about all these different modes of speech as opportunities to listen.
If Rabbi Yohanan knew the parables of launderers, that meant that he was going out and speaking to launderers and learning from them. To know the parables of foxes and the speech of palm trees, he had to go out into nature, and really observe and listen to everything going on around him. To be able to understand the conversation of angels and demons, the manifestations of God’s Divine Chariot on earth, and the discussions of two rabbis who lived 200 years after his death, he had to be attuned to that which may be invisible and beyond the normal human senses.
We might have expected the rabbis to see the Torah as containing all worthwhile knowledge, but they don’t. The Talmud’s explanation of Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai’s greatness is an important reminder of the power of paying attention, of really listening to and learning from not only the great texts of our tradition but also the fullness of the world in which we live out its teachings. And, as Hillel (with whom we began this discussion) reminds us, of imparting what we’ve learned to the next generation.
Read all of Bava Batra 134 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 6, 2024. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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