Today’s daf offers a story that raises important questions about credentials, honor and what it means to be a rabbi:
Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim was striving to ordain Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Hanina, but he was not successful.
None of the usual commentators offer an explanation for why Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim was trying so hard to ordain Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Hanina. According to Chanoch Albeck’s chronology of talmudic rabbis, Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim was actually a generation younger than Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Hanina. This might be a case where a younger man sees the wisdom and experience in an older man whom others have apparently overlooked and wants him to get the recognition he deserves. But for all of Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim’s belief in Rabbi Yosei, the Talmud tells us, he just couldn’t get Rabbi Yosei credentialed.
One day, Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim was sitting before Rabbi Yohanan. Rabbi Yohanan said to them: Is there one who knows whether the halakhah is in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha?
Sitting in the rabbinic community learning from Rabbi Yohanan, Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim sees an opportunity to finally get his student ordained. He does it in a surprising manner:
Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim said to him: This one, Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Hanina, knows. Rabbi Yohanan said to him: If so, let him say. Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim said to him: Let the master ordain him first. Rabbi Yohanan then ordained him.
Rabbi Yohanan wants to know the answer to his question so badly that he actually agrees to ordain Rabbi Yosei. After all these years, the teacher has succeeded in getting his student ordained!
Rabbi Yohanan said to him: My son, tell me what you heard. Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Hanina, said to him: This is what I heard: That Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha concedes to Rabbi Natan.
For the purposes of this story (though not this tractate), the specific point of law — a question about whether witnesses must testify together — is incidental. The salient point is that Rabbi Yosei supplied the answer: The halakhah is not in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha. But Rabbi Yohanan is not impressed with the new rabbi’s answer:
He said: For this I needed to ordain him? Now regarding the main element of testimony, i.e., observing the incident, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha says we do not need the witnesses to see it together, and if they don’t have to be together when viewing, with regard to their statement in court, is it necessary to say that they don’t have to be together?!
Rabbi Yohanan insists that Rabbi Yosei’s statement is obvious, and doesn’t really add anything new to the conversation. Nevertheless:
Rabbi Yohanan said to him: Since you ascended, you will not descend.
According to Rabbi Yohanan, Rabbi Yosei’s statement does not actually add anything to the conversation, since it could be easily derived from a different statement of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korha. But even though Rabbi Yosei’s contribution wasn’t necessarily worthy of the honor of ordination, Rabbi Yohanan does not try to revoke his new title. Rabbi Yosei remains Rabbi Yosei.
Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim’s belief in his student eventually does lead to his student getting ordained. But it’s not clear from the story whether Rabbi Yosei actually deserved the credentials. His ordination seems to have been accomplished on a whim, and motivated more by coercion and frustration than actual value and admiration. This story raises a number of questions about what it means to be a rabbi, and to be called a rabbi by the rabbinic community. The Talmud ends this discussion with an attempt to resolve at least some of these questions:
Rabbi Zeira said: Conclude from it a great man, once he is ordained, he is ordained.
Rabbi Zeira concludes that in order to have kept his ordination, Rabbi Yosei must have been a great man, someone actually worthy of ordination — even if his answer to this one question wasn’t the greatest. And indeed, we know from both the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds that Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Hanina did in fact become a great sage, one who held his own even against Rabbi Yohanan himself. So even if the method of ordination was unorthodox, Rabbi Shimon ben Elyakim’s belief in his student, it turns out, was not misplaced after all.
Read all of Sanhedrin 30 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 16, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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