#Resh Lakish

[hermthejewishwyrm]

Do not wait until you see the most beautiful man ever bathing to start learning Torah! You can do it now!

[jdsquared]

Bava Batra 161b

[hyperpotamianarch]

Didn't come back is... a way to put it. Reish Lakish died. You missed a bit there.

What Rabbi Yochanan said was that Reish Lakish sure knew his way around knives, when that was the conversation topic. Reish Lakish took it to be a tease about his past and said: "well, what did it help me? I was called a rabbi before, and now I'm called a rabbi." For context, "rabbi" literally means "a great man", and is not exclusively a religious title. Anyway, Rabbi Yochanan told him that he helped him in bringing him under G-d's wings. Anyway, both of them got out of this discussion in a not great mood, Resh Lakish fell ill - supposedly because of Rabbi Yochanan's anger. When Rabbi Yochanan's sister - Resh Lakish's wife - begged him to think of her and her child, he... Basically told her he (or possibly G-d, it's a bit vague) will take care of them.

Then he was driven mad etc. In addition, he talked to his nephew once about how his studies were going but the latter's mother, Rabbi Yochanan's sister, took him away so that he won't die like his father did.

So yeah, not too happy a story. Also, not the weirdest time an Amora claimed to be responsible for another person's death, but that's a story for another day. Oh, and one small tidbit - both of them were Israeli Amora'im, meaning they lived in Ererz Yisra'el. As a matter of fact, Resh Lakish once explained to a Babylonian Jew why he hated Babylonian Jews. That's a story unto itself as well. Also, the fact that all those stories are from the Babylonian Talmud might be significant - I've had a rabbi claim that some of Reish Lakish's stories may have been somewhat mythologised in Babylon, so there's that.

(Sources: B. Talmud Bava Metzi`a 84A, BT Yoma 9A)

Do you think it’s disrespectful to say that rabbi yochanan and Reish Lakish are kind of tumblr coded?

[anniflamma]

I am today this young finding out about Rabbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish.... I have decided to wait before jumping down into that rabbithole. I just need to breath in my other fixations first....

[agoatnamedwolf]

Realised I probably wanna get on the name change train before we have a kid and have to stamp my deadname on their legal documents.

Unofficial list of potential name is

Zev Moshe/Moses (after my grandfather and his dad)

Zev Yochanan (“friend” of Resh Lakish)

Zev Arthur (after my first rabbi, z”l)

Zev Leonard (after Nimoy bc I’m a nerd at heart)

Any other good suggestions to go with Zev?

[mohelconvention]

From now on, I will be embracing my inner Resh Lakish by disagreeing with everyone and everything. This will not change how I act in any way.

[ofpd]

>be me

>it's shavuos

>go to tikkun late & in the middle of a session

>get the schedule

>see that an old teacher of mine whom i love is currently leading a session on gender diversity in judaism

>walk in 30mins late

>people are being as annoying as you'd expect from this kind of thing but it's a fun familiar kind of being annoying that you haven't seen irl in a minute so it isn't bad

>someone brings up resh lakish and rav yochanan almost immediately

>people are talking about yochanan's "beauty for women"

>say something about how it's interesting to examine beauty standards as they relate to gender and what that implies about (yochanan's) beauty being considered to be "for women"

>ppl are like wow that's so interesting and insightful

>mfw they don't know that all i ever think about is enjolras so ofc this is what i'd say

[relemenopy]

Hello! A bunch of us who attended a Queer Yeshiva event in the UK spotted online just one page of your 'What I have learned from you' comic on Resh Lakish and R Yochanun and we are completely besotted! Is there more? On these Rabbis or other Talmudic characters? We'd love to look at / buy / support! Mich

Hey there! I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed my comic. You can read the full 7-page comic here!

Thank you again for reaching out <3

[jincorrectquotes]

Rabbi Yochanan: I’m at a loss for words.

Resh Lakish, narrating: Despite being at a loss for words, Yochanan continued yelling for ten minutes.

[keshetchai]

dafyomilimerick

Let's be clear here. It's not that animals are capable of sinning. but according to the sages, human engaged in acts of immorality (read "bestiality") with birds and beasts, rendering them contaminated. They did not do so with fish, hence them not needing the ark. @keshetchai I did not know that about the ayin hara. Tell me more?

oh!!! this is from the talmud!!!!! 

i will post a longer section than necessary because this is one of those parts of the talmud which just has a little bit of everything. we begin this part discussing the fact that Rabbi Yohanan is EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful. 

The Gemara continues to discuss Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty. 

and then we keep talking about it:

Rabbi Yoḥanan would go and sit by the entrance to the ritual bath. 

He said to himself: When Jewish women come up from their immersion for the sake of a mitzva, after their menstruation, they should encounter me first, so that they have beautiful children like me, and sons learned in Torah like me. This is based on the idea that the image upon which a woman meditates during intercourse affects the child she conceives.

The Rabbis said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: Isn’t the Master worried about being harmed by the evil eye by displaying yourself in this manner?

Rabbi Yoḥanan said to them: I come from the offspring of Joseph, over whom the evil eye does not have dominion, as it is written: “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain [alei ayin]” (Genesis 49:22);

and Rabbi Abbahu says: Do not read the verse as saying: “By a fountain [alei ayin]”; rather, read it as: Those who rise above the evil eye [olei ayin]. Joseph’s descendants are not susceptible to the influence of the evil eye.

Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said that this idea is derived from here: “And let them grow [veyidgu] into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Genesis 48:16). Just as with regard to fish [dagim] in the sea, the water covers them and the evil eye therefore has no dominion over them, as they are not seen, so too, with regard to the offspring of Joseph, the evil eye has no dominion over them.

Bava Metzia 84a. 

Immediately after this, we’re told the story of how Resh Lakish and Rabbi Yohanan became the closest of friends and study partners, which begins with Reish Lakish seeing Yohanan taking a bath in the nude not on a rooftop. 

As you do:

The Gemara relates: One day, Rabbi Yoḥanan was bathing in the Jordan River. Reish Lakish saw him and jumped into the Jordan, pursuing him. At that time, Reish Lakish was the leader of a band of marauders. 

Rabbi Yoḥanan said to Reish Lakish: Your strength is fit for Torah study. 

Reish Lakish said to him: Your beauty is fit for women.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: If you return to the pursuit of Torah, I will give you my sister in marriage, who is more beautiful than I am. 

Reish Lakish accepted upon himself to study Torah.

the end. [except not: they have a sort of tragic ending where they have a torah study argument that gets too heated, and Reish Lakish dies of guilt(?) for how he acted. Then after that R. Yohanan desperately tries for find a new chaver to fill the void, and to continue his studies but this doesn’t work because people keep agreeing with him too much instead of debating him, and so he goes mad with anger and loss and I think dies out of grief for having lost Reish Lakish.] 

based on a quick sefaria search this #fish fact also shows up in a few other places. they don’t get the effects of the evil eye because they’re covered under the water the whole time. 

[gliklofhameln]

Resh Lakish became a great sage only after his original career as a highway robber and gladiator. His teshuva (repentance, or return to God) was the turning point of his life. As well as living teshuva in practice in this most striking way, Resh Lakish also reflected on the concept of teshuva. Rabbi Sacks cites two celebrated sayings of Resh Lakish from the Talmud:

Resh Lakish said: Great is teshuva, because through it intentional sins are considered as though they were unintentional, as it is said: “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity.” ‘Iniquity’ means an intentional sin, yet the prophet calls it ‘stumbling’ [i.e. unintentional].

Resh Lakish also said: Great is repentance, because through it intentional sins are considered as if they were merits, as it is said: “When the wicked person turns away from wickedness and performs justice and righteousness, he shall thereby live.”

Focusing on Resh Lakish’s second and more radical statement, we might well ask how intentional sins can possibly be transformed into merits, i.e. good deeds? As Rabbi Sacks puts it, this teaching is “the most paradoxical of all rabbinic statements about teshuva”.

Rabbi Sacks explains that the key to understand Resh Lakish’s dictum is to distinguish between two conceptualisations of the past: what occured and the meaning or significance of what occured. What occured cannot be changed. But its meaning or significance is flexible and alterable, because “in life... later events change the significance of earlier ones”. In this sense, the past can be changed.

The idea, Rabbi Sacks beautifully suggests, can be read back into Resh Lakish’s own biography. The very physical strength and fearlessness that Resh Lakish had developed and deployed for harmful purposes in his career as a highway robber, he subsequently directed to his teshuva towards achieving noble ends. He rescued his colleague, Rav Imi, from kidnappers and returned possessions that robbers has stolen from his brother-in-law, Rav Yochanan. Thus Resh Lakish’s early signs became, in retrospect, an essential component of the good he did later in life. They became merits. The fact that the sins had occured could not be changed, but Resh Lakish utterly transformed their significance. As Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik puts it in his famous work, Halakhic Man, “The future imprints its stamp on the past and determines its image”.

    — Rabbi Dr Michael Harris in Rabbi Sacks And The Community We Built Together, edited by the United Synagogue

[hanribanri]

Just watched The Frisco Kid, and whatever Avram and Tommy had going on mirrored the extremely subtextually gay energy of Resh Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Reproving Love

The Torah portion we read on the first morning of Rosh Hashanah includes a confrontation between Abraham and Abimelech. Abimelech asks Abraham to swear that he will not deal falsely with his people. “Deal with me as loyally as I have dealt with you,” he says.

Abraham replies, “I swear it.” But then he points out how Abimelech’s people have not dealt with him loyally. Abimelech’s servants seized Abraham’s well, and Abraham “reproaches” Abimelech for it. I bet Abraham points out the hypocrisy of Abimelech telling Abraham to behave in a trustworthy way towards his people when his people have already broken that trust.

In the sidebar of my machzor, the commentary includes a quote from Rabbi Yose: “Reproof leads to love, as it says, ‘Reprove a wise man, and he will love you… Love unaccompanied by reproof is not love.” The next quote is from Resh Lakish, who said, “Reproof leads to peace… Peace unaccompanied by reproof is not peace.”

To reproach someone is to express disapproval, to point out where they have done wrong. It’s a word with a negative connotation; it makes me think of a parent wagging their finger at a child. Our societal norms prioritize courtesy, and reproving someone will undoubtedly hurt their feelings. So, when someone does wrong, our inclination is often to not rock the boat. And so, we say nothing. We want to keep the peace, we want to seem like a loving person and not a nitpicky, scolding person, and so we do not reproach.

But the rabbis point out here how reproach is a good thing – an essential part of love and peace! This is because reproach is what makes things better. If Person A hurts Person B, and Person B says nothing – sure, things are quiet and from the outside may appear “peaceful.” But Person B is not at peace in their heart. They’re hurt! And Person A, not realizing the harm of their actions, may go on to hurt Person B again, or to hurt Person C, and then to hurt Person D, and now many people are not at peace.

If Person B “breaks the peace” and reproaches Person A – if they say, “Hey, you hurt me! Don’t do that again!” – Person A may not like the sound of that. But if Person A is wise, like Rabbi Yose said, then they will realize that Person B has given them a gift. When Person B says, “You hurt me; don’t do that again,” they are telling Person A, “I want you to be a better person, and I believe you can be a better person.” What a loving thing to do, to give someone the chance to improve and the information they need to improve! If Person A is wise, then they will say, “Thank you!” and take the advice to heart.

Abraham could have simply sworn to treat Abimelech’s people the same way that they had treated him, and gone on to be as deceitful and unpleasant as Abimelech’s servants had been to him. He could also have ignored the situation entirely, and left his people open to be swindled by Abimelech’s servants again in the future. Instead, Abraham decides to hold Abimelech to a higher standard. The rabbis point out that this was an act of love. By reproving Abimelech, Abraham gave Abimelech the chance to be a better friend.

In the year to come, I strive to be open to reproof. May the defensive voice in my heart be quiet, and may I see reproof as a gift, as an act of love, as an opportunity to grow. And may I not be afraid to reproach those whom I want to give the chance to be better people.

Be good to yourself, be kind to each other, and I’ll be back next week with more thoughts!

[everymanpdf]

today we're crying about resh lakish and rabbi yochanan ladies

[mauricedharris]

Really sick of being insulted

Really sick of being insulted

As a liberal rabbi, I am so sick of being ridiculed and insulted by people on the religious right. I get so full of anger that I see red, and all I want to do is fight back. And then I remember traditional Jewish wisdom on giving in to anger.

Here’s Rabbi Jonathan Sacks summarizing several classical rabbinic sources on the dangers of letting anger be one’s master:

“The life of those who can’t…