Rabbi Jannai

Rabbi Jannai (also: Jannaj ) was a Palestinian Amora of the 1st generation (around 230–250 AD), who was equally important in both the halacha and the aggada .

Jannai was the father of Rabbi Dostai , Ammi's father-in-law, and presumably lived in Sepphoris . Not far from Sepphoris, in Akbara (south of Safed), he founded a teaching house ( debe R. Jannaj or Bet R. Jannaj ) which he - he was very wealthy - also maintained.

Jannai was a student of Chijjas and teacher of Jochanan (pal. Kil. VIII., 1; b. Jew. 92b; Ber. 30b; Tanch. Zu Schofetim) and probably also of Resch Lakisch .

He was best known as a participant in a controversy over alleged writings of King Solomon and their sequence, during which he argued that the book of Kohelet was the last written by Solomon.

The following of his many sayings are characteristic of Jannai:

• "Woe to him who does not yet have a dwelling and is already making the gate to the dwelling" (in whom the fear of God does not precede the study of the Torah; b. Sabb. 31b).
• “Man should not endanger himself in the hope of a miracle” (b. Sabb. 32a).
• When Jannai once saw someone publicly giving a gift to a poor person, he said: "It would be better if you had not given him anything than that you should shame him" (b. Chag. 5a).

Jannai probably reached old age and had a few sons whom he wished to be buried in colored clothes, neither white nor black (white clothes would be inappropriate if found guilty, black ones would be inappropriate if he were fair be felt and then be a mourner among bridegrooms - Fig. 114a).

To distinguish it from his grandson of the same name (R. Jannai Ze'ira) he was also called Sabba ( the old man ).

Literature (selection)

• Heilprin : Seder ha-Dorot , 1697 f., Volume II, p. 116.
• Jewish Lexicon , Berlin 1927, Vol. III, Col. 155 f.
• Wilhelm Bacher : The Agada of the Palestinian Amorae . Volume 1, Strasbourg 1892, reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1965, pp. 35–47; Volume 2, Strasbourg 1896, reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1965, p. 145; Volume 3, Strasbourg 1899, reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1965, pp. 573-574.
• A. Oppenheimer: Those of the School of Rabbi Yannai. In: Studies in the History of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel . Haifa 1978 (Hebrew).
• Hermann L. Strack and Günter Stemberger : Introduction to Talmud and Midrash . 7th edition, Beck, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-406-08282-3 , p. 89.