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673 Ben Azzai Ben Chananja

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

73

iter a saying of Ben 'Azzai, at the beginning of le third chapter of "Derek Ere? Rabbah," this lite book which began originally with that chapter -is called "Perek Ben 'Azzai" (Rashi to Ber. 22a; 'os. to 'Er. 536). In a sentence that recalls a funamental thought of Akiba, Ben 'Azzai gives the liaracteristic features of a kind of deterministic view " By thy name they shall call thee, at f the world lie place where thou belongest shall they see thee, rhat is thine they shall give to thee no man touches and no govliat which is destined for his neighbor rnment infringes even by a hair's breadth upon the ime marked for another government " (Yoma 38a Following Hillel, Akiba had declared the { seq.). ommandment "thoushalt love thy neighbor as thyelf " (Lev. xix. 18) to be the greatest fundamental ommandment of the Jewish doctrine; Ben 'Azzai, q reference to this, said that a still greater principle T " This is the book as found in the Scriptural verse, In the if the generations of Adam [origin of man]. lay that God created man [Adam], in the likeness " (Gen. v. 1 Sifra, Kedoshim, if God made he him The comv.; Yer. Ned. ix. 41c; Gen. R. xxiv.). mandment to love God with all the soul (Deut. vi. 5), Ben 'Azzai exThe plained in the same manner as Akiba Greatest Principle. " Love him even to the last breath of the soul!" (Sifre, Deut. 32). Several )f Ben 'Azzai's haggadic sentences, having been jailed forth by those of Akiba, are introduced by
 * he words, " I do not wish to oppose the interpreta-

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'

Ben Hg-HS and Ben Bag-Bag may, therefore, 96). be considered disciples of Hillel or, as is even more likely, both names represent one and the same person. The peculiarity of these names may be explained by the following anecdote (Shab. 31a) Hillel once convinced a proselyte of the truth of the oral law by proving to him, in a lesson on the Hebrew alphabet, that even a knowledge of the phonetic value and of the order of the letters of the alphabet is not possible without a belief in their oral transmission from age to age. If this proselyte is identical with the disciple of Hillel quoted under the above pseudonyms, then the one name, "Ben He'-He," may have been chosen to indicate that " He " is always pronounced "He," as the tradition shows; and the other name,



"Ben BG-BG,"

show

to

sequence bet gimel

is

that in the alphabet the

fixed

Ben He-HS and Ben Bag-Bag

by

That

tradition.

are identical

is

appar-

by Abraham Zacuto in " Yuhasin. In Tos. to Hag- 96 Ben Bag-Bag and Ben HeHS are also considered to be proselytes, although the symbolic meaning of their names is differently Several halakic interpretations of accounted for. Scriptural passages by Ben Bag-Bag have been transmitted: of Ex. xiii. 13 (Bek. 12a); of Lev. xix. 11 Kedoshim, ii. 2; Tosef., B. K. x. 38; Bab. (Sifra, B. K. 276); of Num. xxviii. 2 (Pes. 96a; Men. 496; ently an old tradition, mentioned

'Ar. 136; anonymously stated in Sifre, Num. 142, and in the name of 'Akiba in Meg. Ta'anit i.); of

master, but will only add to his words Mek., Bo, Introd.). Sifra, "Wayikra, ii. Ben 'Azzai's observations on sacrifices (Sifre, ISTum. 143) are obviously directed against Gnosticism. the A.s against the doctrine of the Gnostics, that part of the Law containing the rules of sacrifice ^ould have originated only with a secondary god,

Deut. xiv. 26 (Sifre, Deut. 107; 'Er. 276). There is another rabbi distinct from this elder Ben Bag-Bag who was never cited with a given name. He is Johanan ben Bag-Bag, possibly the son of the former. Nothing is known about him except that he sent to Nisibis a halakic question to Judah b. Betera, a contemporary of Akiba, who in his reply referred to Ben Bag -Bag as one noted for being

who is merely just, not beneficent, Ben 'Azzai maintains, that in connection with the sacrificial laws, not any one of the various names

Num.


 * ion of

"

my



the demiurge,

there used, but precisely the distinctive name, the Tetragrammaton, in which especially the goodness of God is emphasized, in order that the of

God

is

"minim" (disbelievers) might not have an oppor'Aztunity to prove their views by the Bible. Ben first word of zai's symbolic interpretation of the is also polemical and probably Lamentations

(riyx) holds that directed against Pauline Christianity. He letters of this word four the of value numerical in the Israelites did not go into exile is indicated that the the ten until after they had denied the one God (tf), commandments (<), the law of circumcision, given Adam (3), and the to the twentieth generation after books of the Torah (Lam. R. i. 1). five (ri) J.

SR.

At the end BEN BAG-BAG An early tanna.sentences are

two Torah one by given concerning the study of the Both senBen Bag-Bag, the other by Ben He-He. of the

Mishnah Abot

(v. 22, 23)

"familiar with the chambers of the Law" (Tosef., Ket. v. 1; Yer. Ket. v. 29d; Bab. Kid. 106; Sifre, 117).

W.

sb.

j.

BEN-BATIAIJ



indeed

Aramaic wording they are similar to the well-known two exegetical sentences of Hillel. Tradition reports of Hillel (Hag. questions, which Ben HS-HS asked II.—43

1.

A man,

B.

at the time of the

Mishnah (" 'Aruk," s.v. spJX), whose being about the size of an adult's head, was used Bek. as a standard of measurement (Kelim xvii. 376; compare hip-bone of the giant king Og, Tosef.,

teachers of the fist,



Oh. ixv. 2.

4).

The son

of the sister of Johanan b.

Zak-

who, as one of the ringleaders of the Zealots, burned the granaries at Jerusalem in order that the Jews should have to fight more desperately (Lam. Git. R. i. 5; Eccl. R. vii. 11; Yalk., Eccl. 975). In " 56a the name " Abba Sakkara (or, as others read, kai,

=

" Abba Sikra " leader of the Sicarii) occurs. think that the two persons are identical (see

SiKKARA, ATI-IRONGES). J.

S

SR.

BEN CHANANJA:



(Ab. R. N. xn.) as tences are also ascribed to Hillel well as Aramaic in their pithy language as



by Leopold

Low

-

Many Abba

KK

-

A periodical

published at Leipsic in 1844 with the sub1.

"Blatter fttr Israelitisch-Ungarische Angelegensixty-four heiten." It was an octavo containing pages, including four introductory ones. periodical devoted to Jewish theology, also 2. rabbi of edited and published by Leopold Low, title

A