person · P0136
Rabbi Elazar ben Arach רבי אלעזר בן ערך
The most brilliant of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's five principal students, praised by his master as "an overflowing spring"; in Abba Shaul's version, if all the sages of Israel were on one pan of a scale he would outweigh them all. He answered that the good path a person should cling to is "a good heart." Tradition relates that after the destruction he followed his wife to Emmaus, away from his colleagues, and forgot his learning.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רבי אלעזר בן ערך
- Also known as
- Elazar ben Arach, Eleazar ben Arach
- Era
- tannaim
- Generation
- T2
- Received the mesorah from
- Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
- Teachers
- Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai
- Colleagues
- Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah, Rabbi Yose HaKohen, Rabbi Shimon ben Netanel
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3800–3860 AM
- Academic
- c. 40–100 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Counted among the five students of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who praised him as "an overflowing spring" (maayan hamitgaber); Abba Shaul's version has the master say that were all the sages of Israel in one scale-pan and Elazar ben Arach in the other, he would outweigh them all. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| When Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai asked his students to identify the good path to which a person should cling, he answered "a good heart" (lev tov), and the master preferred his answer as including all the others. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Was drawn after the wine of Perugita and the waters of Deyomset, apart from his colleagues, and his learning was uprooted — when he rose to read from the Torah he misread "hachodesh hazeh lachem" as "hacheresh hayah libam" — until the sages prayed for him and his learning returned.
Aggadic cautionary tale. Parallel versions (Kohelet Rabbah 7:7, Avot DeRabbi Natan 14) place him at Emmaus, with which the Bavli's Perugita/Deyomset is traditionally identified; the Bavli itself does not name Emmaus.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Expounded the maaseh merkavah before Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who dismounted from his donkey to listen; fire descended from heaven and surrounded the trees of the field, and the master rose and kissed him on his head.
Mystical-aggadic narrative. |
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3800–3860 AM (c. 40–100 CE), as a member of the circle of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai's students spanning the destruction of the Temple.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |