Yehoshuʿa Ben Ḥananyah

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YEHOSHUʿA BEN ḤANANYAH

YEHOSHUʿA BEN ḤANANYAH (first and second centuries ce), Palestinian tanna who taught in Jerusalem and later at Yavneh and Peqiʿin. Legend has it that when he was a child his mother carried him to the study hall so that he would become accustomed to hearing words of the Torah (J.T., Yev. 3a). Because he was a Levite, it is assumed that he sang in the Temple before it was destroyed. He is said to have made his living as a needlemaker or blacksmith.

Yehoshuʿa achieved prominence as a leading rabbinic authority of his day. He was one of the five prominent disciples of Yoḥanan ben Zakkʾai (Avot 2.8). With Eliʿezer ben Hyrcanus, Yehoshuʿa is alleged to have carried Yoḥanan ben Zakkʾai out of Jerusalem in a coffin in 68 ce during the siege of the city by the Romans (B.T., Git. 56a). During Yehoshuʿa's later career he was the center of contention within rabbinical circles. Several sources recount how he was humiliated by the nasiʾ Gamliʾel (B.T., R. ha-Sh. 25a). Yehoshuʿa's dispute with Gamliʾel over whether the evening prayer was compulsory or voluntary brought about the events that led to the deposition of Gamliʾel and the ascension of Elʿazar ben ʿAzaryah to the office of nasiʾ (B.T., Ber. 28a).

Yehoshuʿa was involved in many legal disputes with Eliʿezer ben Hyrcanus; one celebrated argument concerned the ritual cleanness of the ovens of ʿAkhnʾai (a kind of tiled oven). Yehoshuʿa ruled that the ovens were ritually unclean; Eliʿezer said that the ovens could not become ritually unclean (B.T., B.M. 59a–b). Eliʿezer announced that a heavenly voice had declared his own position correct. Yehoshuʿa responded with the famous declaration: "It [the Torah] is not in heaven" (a quotation from Dt. 30:12)—that is, the rabbis alone have the authority to decide matters of law, not a supernatural voice or even a direct revelation.

An important teaching attributed to Yehoshuʿa shows a positive attitude toward outsiders: He declared that pious Gentiles will be able to enter heaven (Tosefta, San. 13.2). According to tradition, he engaged in many discourses with political figures and various groups, including the Roman emperor Hadrian, the elders of Athens, and the Jews of Alexandria.

Recent scholarship has questioned the legitimacy of attempts at reconstructing the lives of Yehoshuʿa and his fellow rabbis from the scattered traditions in rabbinic literature. No systematic analysis has been made of Yehoshuʿa's philosophical or religious beliefs.

Bibliography

Joshua Podro's The Last Pharisee: The Life and Times of Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananyah (London, 1959) is an early attempt at Yehoshuʿa's biography. William S. Green's The Traditions of Joshua ben Hananiah (Leiden, 1981) represents a hypercritical approach to rabbinic sources concerning this master, following some of the methods used in Jacob Neusner's Eliezer ben Hyrcanus: The Tradition and the Man (Leiden, 1973).