רבי יוחנן

Rabbi Yochanan is the pillar of the Jerusalem Talmud, and one whose beauty and suffering alike became a symbol. The greatest of the sages of the Land of Israel in his generation, head of the academy in Tiberias, around whom most of the Jerusalem Talmud was built. The Sages described the splendor of his face, yet his life was strung with grief: he buried ten sons, and bore his breaking with valor.

Famous is his friendship with Reish Lakish, who was at first a chief of bandits, and Rabbi Yochanan brought him back in repentance and taught him Torah until he became one of the great Amoraim and his partner in dialectic. And when Reish Lakish died following a painful argument between them, Rabbi Yochanan lost his mind from grief, 'son of Lakish, where are you,' for he lacked the opponent who had sharpened him.

From this story a deep teaching emerges: Rabbi Yochanan sought not one who would agree with him but one who would challenge him, 'the son of Lakish would raise against me twenty-four difficulties' (Bava Metzia 84a). He taught that the incisive opponent is a gift, and that true study-partnership builds both sides.

What do we learn from him? That spiritual greatness does not cancel human pain, and that one can bear heavy grief and still establish Torah for generations. Rabbi Yochanan teaches that the disputing friend is more precious than the agreeing one, for he is the one who sharpens the truth, and that the love of a study-partnership, when it is real, is unbearable when it is cut off.