Jose of Yokereth

Who is Jose of Yokereth?

R. Jose of Yokereth was a Jewish Amora sage of the Land of Israel, of the third generation of the Amora era. He was the Rabbi of R. Jose ben Abin. His surname יוקרת is of an unknown source, and most likely have been bastardized over the years, although many attribute it to the now and then Iqrit village, known in Hebrew as יוקרת.

In the Talmud there are two stories concerning his piousness that reached to such an extent that he was cruel to his own children over it. One story concerning his son, where it is storied that once when his son was reciting, he instantaneously took out some figs from the nearby tree, for his laborers. When his father learned of it he was furious, and said to him: "My son, you have troubled your Creator to cause the fig tree to bring forth its fruits before its time, may you too be taken hence before your time!". An additional story, concerning R. Yokereth's beautiful daughter, where it is storied that once R. Yokereth caught a man trying to glance at his daughter from a hiding place. Replying to the questioning of Yokereth, he said: "Master, if I am not worthy enough to marry her, may I not at least be worthy to catch a glimpse of her?", then R. Yokereth exclaimed: "My daughter, you are a source of trouble to mankind; return to the dust so that men may not sin because of you". This Zealotry lead his own disciple R. Jose ben Abin to abandon his mentor, and go acquire education from Rav Ashi.