Johanan ben Nuri

Who is Johanan ben Nuri?

Yochanan ben Nuri was a tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries, studied under the watch of Rabban Gamliel of Yavne and senior of Akiba. A great halakist, always provided with satisfactory answers to all questions, he was familiarly called "pedler's basket" or "bundle of halakot"; the number and diversity of halakot cited under his name in the Mishnah alone, about 40, justify those appellations. Besides exhaustive rabbinical knowledge, he acquired familiarity with the general science of his time, especially geometry. It was said of him, as of his colleague Eleazar ben Ḥisma, that he could approximately state the number of drops contained in the sea; like Eleazar, also, he was very poor. Through the influence of Joshua ben Hananiah both were appointed by Gamaliel to remunerative offices.

Johanan showed himself grateful to Gamaliel. When, after that patriarch's death, Joshua proposed a change in a rule established by Gamaliel, Johanan opposed him: "I have observed that the head is always followed by the trunk; as long as Gamaliel lived we observed the rule laid down by him, and now you propose to veto his directions. Joshua, we shall not harken to thee".