Yose ben Yoezer

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Yose ben Yoezer

Yose ben Yoezer (also spelt Jose ben Joezer) was a rabbi of the early Maccabean period, possibly a disciple of Antigonus of Soko and member of the ascetic group known as the Hasidæans, though neither is certain. He belonged to a priestly family.

With him and Jose ben Johanan of Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, his colleague, begins the period known in Jewish history as that of the zugot

Zugot

Zugot ??????????)}}) refers to the period during the time of the Second Temple , in which the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people was in the hands of five successive generations of zugot of religious teachers....
(pairs), which ended with Hillel

Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
and Shammai

Shammai

Shammai was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah.Shammai was the most eminent contemporary and the Halakha opponent of Hillel the Elder, and is almost invariably mentioned along with him....
.

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Encyclopedia

Jerusalem

Zugot

Hillel the Elder

Hillel was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud....
and Shammai

Shammai

Nasi

Nasi? is a Hebrew language title meaning prince, in Biblical Hebrew, or president, in Hebrew_language#Modern_Israeli_Hebrew....
(president) of the Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel....
, while the one mentioned second served in the capacity of vice-president.

Yose belonged to the party of the ?asidim, and was a decided adversary of Hellenism

Hellenization

Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of Greek culture. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon....
. To prevent Jews from settling beyond Palestine he declared all heathen countries "unclean". He declared also glass utensils unclean, probably because they were manufactured in heathen countries. In other respects, however, he was very liberal, and received the surname "Sharaya" ("one who permits") for having rendered three liberal decisions on certain ritual questions

The first halakic

Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
controversy known in the Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
was that between Yose ben Yoezer and his colleague Yose ben Johanan. It arose over the question whether the laying of hands on the heads of the sacrifice

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is commonly known as the practice of offering food, objects , or the lives of animals or people to the deity as an act of propitiation or worship....
s is permitted on feast-days. Yose ben Yoezer was distinguished for his piety, and is called "the pious of the priesthood" ("hasid shebi-kchunnah"). He professed great veneration for scholars, one of his sayings being: "Let thy house be a meeting-place for the wise; powder thyself in the dust of their feet, and drink their words with eagerness" Yose was probably among the sixty pious men who, at the instigation of the high priest Alcimus

Alcimus

Alcimus , also called Jacimus, or Joachim , was a List of High Priests of Israel for three years, 162 BC-159 BC, who espoused the Syrian cause....
, the son of his sister, were crucified by the Syrian general Bacchides (I Macc. vii. 16) in 161 BCE.

The Midrash reports the following dialogue between Alcimus

Alcimus

Alcimus , also called Jacimus, or Joachim , was a List of High Priests of Israel for three years, 162 BC-159 BC, who espoused the Syrian cause....
and Yose ben Yoezer while the latter was on the way to execution:

Alcimus: "See the profit and honors that have fallen to my lot in consequence of what I have done, whilst thou, for thy obstinacy, hast the misfortune to die as a criminal."

Yose, quietly: "if such is the lot of those who anger God, what shall be the lot of those who accomplish His will?"

Alcimus: "Is there any one who accomplished His will more than thou?"

Yose: "If this is the end of those who accomplish His will, what awaits those who anger Him?"

On this Alcimus was seized with remorse and committed suicide.

Yose ben Yoezer left a son whom he had disinherited for bad conduct.

Resources

Jewish Encyclopedia
Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia originally published between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901....
. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901-1906; which cites the following bibliography:

Yu?asin, p. 60a, ed. Königsberg;
Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, p. 211, ed. Warsaw;
Weiss, Dor, i. 98;
Braunschweiger, Die Lehrer der Mishnah, p. 165, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1903;
Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, pp. 31, 32;
Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., iii. 3;
Schürer, Gesch. ii. 202, 352, 357, 407.S. S. I. Br.