Anani ben Sason

Who is Anani ben Sason?

Anani ben Sason was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in the Land of Israel, known as an amora of the third century, a contemporary of R. Ammi. He rarely discussed Halakot, and his discussions of them were not original. Once he recited a Halakah in the patriarch's mansion, without naming its author, which provoked R. Ammi to ask: "Is it his own? It is what R. Eleazar had reported in the name of R. Oshaiah". In the Haggadah, he sometimes reported the sayings of others, but more often he was original. Thus, as a reason for the juxtaposition of the regulations regarding the sacrificial rites and the priestly vestments, he points out that the priestly vestments were to have atoning effects as well as the sacrifices. He represents the miter as atoning for haughtiness, and cites R. Chanina as saying, "That which rests highest on the priest atones for one's considering himself high"; and similarly with the rest of the priestly garments. Referring to God's appearance in the thorn-bush he remarks, "The Holy One—blessed be He!—said to Moses, 'When I will it, one of my angels stretcheth forth his hand from heaven and reacheth to the ground,' as the Scripture says [Ezek. viii.