person · P0156
Bar Kappara בר קפרא
Student of Rebbi in the last tannaitic generation, famed equally for sharp wit and for scholarship. He compiled his own collection of mishnayot — the "Mishnat Bar Kappara," cited among the great external mishnah collections alongside those of Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Oshaya — and baraitot are introduced in his name throughout both Talmuds. His barbed humor strained his relationship with Rebbi's household, and he became a teacher of the next generation in the south.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- בר קפרא
- Also known as
- Elazar ben Elazar HaKappar, Shimon bar Kappara
- Era
- tannaim
- Generation
- T6
- Received the mesorah from
- Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi
- Teachers
- Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi
- Colleagues
- Rabbi Chiya
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3940–4000 AM
- Academic
- c. 180–240 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expounded: "Which is a small passage upon which all the essentials of Torah depend? 'In all your ways know Him, and He will straighten your paths'" (Mishlei 3:6). | rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| When Rebbi made the wedding feast of his son and did not invite him, Bar Kappara pointedly remarked on the inscription boasting of the twenty-four thousand myriads of dinars spent — "if for those who anger His will such reward, for those who do His will how much more so" — and when later invited, and paid forty se'ah of wheat not to jest, he collected the wheat with his wit intact.
Aggadic cycle of Bar Kappara's wit toward Rebbi's household, continuing on Nedarim 51a with the "toevah" riddles at the feast.
|
rabbinic | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Compiled his own collection of tannaitic teachings — Bar Kappara "taught other mishnayot" beyond Rebbi's Mishnah, a compilation known as Mishnat Bar Kappara (the "great mishnayot"), listed by geonic tradition among the baraita collections, though those of Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Oshaya were deemed superior to all.
Rav Sherira: "and Bar Kappara likewise taught other mishnayot... and those of Rabbi Chiya and Rabbi Oshaya are superior to all." The title "mishnayot gedolot d'Bar Kappara" appears in midrashic literature.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3940–4000 AM (c. 180–240 CE): student of Rebbi active into the transition to the amoraic period, teacher of Rabbi Hoshaya and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ |