Yehoshua ben Levi

Yehoshua ben Levi ( Hebrew יהושע בן לוי, also: Josua ben Levi ), perhaps son of Levi b. Sissi, was an important Amora of the 1st generation in Lydda and, especially through his study of the Haggadah, one of the most outstanding Amora of Palestine in the first half of the 3rd century. Halachically, it differed significantly from the positions of Yehuda ha-Nasi .

Life

Josua ben Levi was a student of Bar Qappara (Bar Kappara), Jehuda bar Pedaja and Pinchas ben Jair as well as teacher of Simeon ben Pazi and Tanchum ben Chanilai.

He was the hero of many miracle stories (Joshua robs the angel of death the sword and arrives alive in Paradise ; Joshua accompanies the prophet Elijah and learns that an apparently unjust fate is based on higher justice, etc.). A story about Yehoshua ben Levi by Petrus Venerabilis is known , for which the alphabet of Ben Sira was probably used as a source.

There are also reports of trips (including to Rome and Caesarea ) that he undertook to restore order to the Jewish community after the Bar Kochba uprising and to stand up for his people with the Roman rulers.

In the summer of 2009, the previously unknown grave of Yehoshua ben Levis was discovered in the Galilean agricultural settlement of Zippori, northwest of Nazareth .

literature

• Wilhelm Bacher : The Agada of the Palestinian Amorae, Volume 1 . Olms, Hildesheim 1965, pp. 124–194 (reprint of the Strasbourg edition 1892).
• Isaac Rachlin, Bar Levai: Life story of Rabbi Josua ben Levi . New York 1906.
• Isidore Levy: La legend de Pythagore de Grèce en Palestine . Champion, Paris 1927.
• Yonah Frankel: The Image of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi in ​​the Stories of the Babylonian Talmud . Jerusalem 1977 (Hebrew).
• Hermann L. Strack and Günter Stemberger : Introduction to Talmud and Midrash . 7th edition, Beck, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-406-08282-3 , p. 89.