Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua [Kohen]

דור רביעי לתנאים, סתם ר' אלעזר המובא במקור תנאי ללא שם אביו, הוא התנא ר' אלעזר בן שמוע. היה כהן והלך ללמוד תורה עם ר' יוחנן הסנדלר אצל ר' יהודה בן בתירא ור' יהודה בן שמוע. [ספרי פרשת ראה] אחר כך הלך ללמוד אצל רבי עקיבא.

A fourth-generation Tanna, the anonymous Rabbi Elazar mentioned in a Tannaitic source without his father's name, is the Tanna Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua. He was a Kohen and went to study Torah with Rabbi Yohanan HaSandlar under Rabbi Yehudah ben Batyra and Rabbi Yehudah ben Shammua. [Sifrei Parashat Re'eh] Afterwards, he went to study under Rabbi Akiva.

Rabbi Yehudah ben Bava ordained him for the rabbinate, and he was the teacher of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and lived to a ripe old age.

In his great yeshiva, so many students multiplied that the place was too small to contain them.

Thus Rabbi testified: When we were studying Torah with Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua, we would sit six by six within an amah. Maharsha explained: This was a miracle, like those places about which it was said that the small contained the many. [Eruvin 53b]

“Who – Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua was the last of the Ten Martyrs and was killed on Friday night when he reached 'Bara Elokim La'asot' in the Kiddush,” a Divine voice proclaimed: “Fortunate are you, Elazar my son, in this world your soul was likened to God, and your soul departed with God.”

His Wisdom

Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua was walking along the shore of the Great Sea and saw a ship in the distance being tossed about in the sea, meaning it was swaying and about to sink. Not many moments passed before the ship sank with all that was in it. Rabbi Elazar saw a man sitting on a plank from one of the ship's timbers, approaching the shore wave by wave. That man was naked as the day he was born and was hiding himself on the seashore due to shame.

By chance, a large group of pilgrims to Jerusalem arrived at the spot. The man saw them and said: I am of the children of Esau, your brethren; please give me a garment to cover my body. Our ship sank, and nothing remains but me. They said to him: May it be the will that all your nation experiences this, and they did not give him what he requested.

He looked around and saw Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua, who was walking. He said to him: I see that you are an old and respected man of Israel, and you are wise and recognize the worth of people. Please give me a garment so that I can cover my naked body!

Rabbi Elazar was wearing seven garments of honor. He took one of his garments and gave it to that Gentile.

Rabbi Elazar brought him to his house, fed him and gave him drink, and gave him two hundred dinars. He then took him fourteen parsaot (approximately 100 km) and showed him great honor until he brought him back to his home. Some time later, the emperor died, and that man was appointed emperor. That Gentile remembered what those pilgrims had done to him and decreed to execute the men of the city and enslave their women, because they had not given him a garment when he was rescued from the sea. The people of the city said to Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua: Go appease that emperor and ask for mercy on our behalf! Rabbi Elazar said to them: You know that this kingdom, meaning the kingdom of Edom, does not do things for free! What do you have to bring as recompense to bribe them! They gave him four thousand dinars.

Rabbi Elazar went up to the emperor's palace and stood at the entrance to the courtyard and said to the guards: Go tell the emperor, a certain Jew is before the gate, wishing to inquire about the emperor's welfare! They went and told the emperor, and he told them: Let him in. As soon as Rabbi Elazar entered the room, the emperor recognized him and fell from his throne before Rabbi Elazar! The emperor asked him what he was doing and why he troubled himself to come to him? Rabbi Elazar said to him: I came to ask for mercy for that city and that the decree be annulled from them!

The emperor said to Rabbi Elazar: Is it not written in your Torah, “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord!” [Deuteronomy 23:4] And why? “Because they met you not with bread and with water!”

And it is also written: “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother!” Am I not a son of Esau, your brother? And you did not show kindness to me! And one who transgresses the words of the Torah is liable to death?!

Rabbi Elazar said to him: Even though they are indebted to you, leave them alone and have mercy on them.

The emperor replied: Do you not know that the kingdom does nothing for free?

Rabbi Elazar said to him: I have with me four thousand dinars; take them and have mercy on them!

The emperor replied: These four thousand dinars shall be yours in place of the two hundred dinars you brought me, and the entire city shall be saved thanks to you and thanks to the food and drink with which you fed and gave me to drink.

Go, enter my treasury and take from there seventy garments in place of the garment with which you covered me, and go in peace to your nation, and I will spare them for your sake. And he quoted over him the verse: “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” [Kohelet Rabbah 11:2] [Ecclesiastes 11:1]

From His Praises and Sayings

It was taught: His students asked Rabbi Elazar: What should a person do to be spared from the pangs of Messiah? He said to them: Let him engage in Torah and acts of kindness.

Rabbi Elazar said: Every person is born for toil, as it is said: “For man is born to toil.” [Job 5:7]

I do not know whether he was born for the toil of the mouth, or for the toil of labor! When it says: “For his mouth burdens him” [Proverbs 16:26] it means he was born for the toil of the mouth.

And still I do not know whether for the toil of Torah or for the toil of idle chatter! When it says: “This book of the Torah shall not depart from your mouth” [Joshua 1:8] it means, he was born for the toil of Torah. [Sanhedrin 99b]

Rabbi Yohanan said: The heart of the early sages was as wide as the entrance of the Heichal (sanctuary) for engaging in Torah, and that of the later sages was as wide as the entrance of the Ulam (hall). The early ones are: Rabbi Akiva, and the later ones: Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua. Rav called him “Tuvyana deHakimi” and Rashi explained: blessed among the wise, and some say exceptional in wisdom. His students asked Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua: By what merit have you lived long?

He said to them: I never used the synagogue as a shortcut (kafandaria), meaning: I never passed through the synagogue to shorten my path.

I never stepped over the heads of the holy congregation (Am Kodesh), meaning: when the students were sitting on the ground in the study hall, one who passed through them to his place appeared to be stepping over the heads of the people. Therefore, he either came early to the study hall before them or, if he was late, he sat outside.

I never raised my hands (for the priestly blessing) without a blessing (recited beforehand), perhaps they had not instituted a blessing before raising the hands, and Rabbi Elazar instituted this blessing. [Sotah 39a]

His Resourcefulness

When Rabbi Elazar was seized by the Romans, they forced him to worship idols, but he refused! The hegemon sentenced him to death.

The hegemon said to Rabbi Elazar: An old man like you engaging in Torah! These are idle matters!

Rabbi Elazar replied, “The Judge is faithful to me,” and Rabbi Elazar justified the divine judgment upon himself.

The hegemon thought that Rabbi Elazar was referring to him, that he was the judge, and that he justified him that Torah was idle matters! The hegemon said to him: Since you justify me, I exempt you from punishment and released Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi Elazar returned home very worried and asked himself, why did such an incident happen to me! And he examined his deeds. While he was pondering, his students came to comfort him, but he did not wish to be comforted.

Rabbi Akiva said to him: Our Rabbi, will you permit me to say one thing you taught us! He gave Rabbi Akiva permission to speak. Rabbi Akiva said to him: Rabbi, perhaps you heard words of heresy and enjoyed them, and because of this you were seized?

Rabbi Elazar replied to Rabbi Akiva: You have reminded me of the incident.

Once I was walking in the market of Tzippori and found one of the disciples of Yeshua the Nazarene, whose name was Yaakov Ish Kfar Sakhnia. That man said to Rabbi Elazar: It is written in your Torah that it is forbidden to donate unclean money to the Temple, meaning money earned through dishonest means, and it is called stinking money from which a bad smell emanates.

That man asked me: Is it possible to make a toilet for the High Priest from this money? For seven days before Yom Kippur, the High Priest remains in the Chamber of Parhedrin and does not return to his home, and they would also prepare a toilet for him there? I did not answer him anything.

That man said to me, thus Yeshua the Nazarene taught us: Filthy money should go to a filthy thing! If so, it is possible to make a toilet for the High Priest.

Rabbi Elazar said, I enjoyed his answer somewhat, therefore I was somewhat inclined to heresy and transgressed what is written in Proverbs: “Remove your way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,” [Proverbs 5:8] and we expound: “Keep far from heresy.” Rabbi Elazar said to Rabbi Akiva, Fortunate are you who have comforted me. [Avodah Zarah 16b]