YOSE BEN KIPPAR

YOSE BEN KIPPAR (end of the second century c.e.), tanna. Yose's name does not occur in the Mishnah, but only in the Tosefta and in beraitot. He transmits many sayings in the name of Eleazar b. *Shammua (tj, Shev. 2:4, 33d. Beẓah 4:2, 62c; et al.) and some scholars are of the opinion that whenever he transmits in the name of R. Eleazar without a patronymic the reference is to Eleazar b. Shammua. Yose is the first known emissary sent from Ereẓ Israel to Babylon in order to collect money and offerings for the benefit of the scholars of Ereẓ Israel. He was accompanied by his colleague Dostai b. Yannai, and on account of this mission became involved in a dispute with the local people (Nehardea, in the tb) who demanded the return of their money and even took it back from him by force and under torture (tj, Git. 1:6, 43d; Git. 14b). According to a passage in the Talmud (Ber. 63a), Yose b. Kippar was sent with "the grandson of Zechariah b. Kebutal" to Babylon in order to dissuade Hananiah, the nephew of Joshua b. Hananiah, from intercalating the year outside Ereẓ Israel. This incident occurred shortly after the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 c.e. and therefore the chronology makes it difficult to ascribe the incident to him. Consequently some scholars are of the opinion that the reading is a mistake for Yose b. ha-Kappar (see Dik. Sof. 1c.). The Jerusalem Talmud also (ed. 6:13, 40a) specifies the names of other emissaries regarding this incident, and his name does not occur there.

bibliography:

Hyman, Toledot, 732–3.

[Israel Moses Ta-Shma]