Resh Lakish

Resh Lakish was sitting and studying as much Torah in a cave in Tiberias. There was a potter that prepared him a drink of water everyday. He used to come in feeling tired, and drink it. One day the man came in and sat down with the Rabbi and rested. He said to him: "Master, do you remember that we used to go to school together; but you were worthy and I was not. Pray for me that I may join you in the World to Come." He responded: "How can I pray for you knowing that it will be your fate that you will go with your fellow craftsmen, because they do not allow a person to dwell except with his fellow craftsmen."

Resh Lakish once sold himself to the Lydians. He took with him a bag with a stone in it, because, he said, it is a known fact that on the last day they grant any request [of the man they are about to kill] in order that he may forgive them his murder. On the last day they said to him, What would you like? He replied: I want you to let me tie your arms and seat you in a row and give each one of you a blow and a half with my bottle. He bound them and seated them, and gave each of them a blow with his bag which stunned him. [One of them] ground his teeth at him. Are you laughing at me? he said. I have still half a bag left for you. So he killed them all and made off.

One day R. Johanan was bathing in the Jordan, when Resh Lakish saw him and leapt into the Jordan after him. Said he [R. Johanan] to him, 'Your strength should be for the Torah.'— 'Your beauty,' he replied, 'should be for women.' 'If you will repent,' said he, 'I will give you my sister [in marriage], who is more beautiful than I.' He undertook [to repent]; then he wished to return and collect his weapons, but could not. Subsequently, [R. Johanan] taught him Bible and Mishnah, and made him into a great man. Now, one day there was a dispute in the schoolhouse [with respect to the following. Viz.,] a sword, knife, dagger, spear, hand-saw and a scythe — at what stage [of their manufacture] can they become unclean? When their manufacture is finished. And when is their manufacture finished? — R. Johanan ruled: When they are tempered in a furnace. Resh Lakish maintained: When they have been furbished in water. Said he to him: 'A robber understands his trade.' Said he to him, 'And wherewith have you benefited me: there [as a robber] I was called Master, and here I am called Master.' 'By bringing you under the wings of the Shechinah,' he retorted. R. Johanan therefore felt himself deeply hurt, [as a result of which] Resh Lakish fell ill. His sister [sc. R. Johanan's, the wife of Resh Lakish] came and wept before him: 'Forgive him for the sake of my son,' she pleaded. He replied: 'Leave thy fatherless children. I will preserve them alive.' 'For the sake of my widowhood then!' 'And let thy widows trust in me,' he assured her. Resh Lakish died, and R. Johanan was plunged into deep grief. Said the Rabbis, 'Who shall go to ease his mind? Let R. Eleazar b. Pedath go, whose disquisitions are very subtle.' So he went and sat before him; and on every dictum uttered by R. Johanan he observed: 'There is a Baraitha which Supports you.' 'Are you as the son of Lakisha?' he complained: 'when I stated a law, the son of Lakisha used to raise twenty-four objections, to which I gave twenty-four answers, which consequently led to a fuller comprehension of the law; whilst you say, "A Baraitha has been taught which supports you:" do I not know myself that my dicta are right?' Thus he went on rending his garments and weeping, 'Where are you, O son of Lakisha, where are you, O son of Lakisha;' and he cried thus until his mind was turned. Thereupon the Rabbis prayed for him, and he died.​

Once they were studying the laws of a Nasi who commits a transgression and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish asked, “If a Nasi committed a sin, may he be flogged or not?” He was answered in the affirmative. He later asked, “If a Nasi has been flogged, may he be reinstated to his office?” “No, for fear that he might execute his judges.” When Rabbi Yudan Nasia heard of this discussion, he sent “Goths” (Neusner) to arrest Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, but he escaped. Rabbi Yohanan came to the Bet HaVaad and began searching around. When the Nasi asked him what he was looking for, he replied that he needed ben Lakish, the “key” to their studies. “Where is he?” asked the Nasi. Rabbi Yohanan said he was hiding in Magdala. They went and brought him back. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish told the Nasi, “You have acted similarly to God’s actions. Instead of sending a messenger to liberate me, you have come in person to do it.” The Nasi asked, “Why did you ask insulting questions?” Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish replied, “You should not imagine that I would refrain from studying Torah out of fear of you.”

""The convert however is dearer to God than was Israel when it was gathered together at Sinai, because if Israel did not hear the Voice, the thunder, see the lightening and the shaking of the mountain, hear the sound of the shofar, they would not have received the Law of God without the miracles of its revelation, whereas the proselyte, without seeing a single miracle, has consecrated himself to God and accepted the kingdom of heaven"

Said Resh Lakish: all who answer 'Amen' with all of his strength has the gates of Paradise opened for him, as it is written, Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps truth [shomer emunim] may enter in (Isaiah 26:2), read not 'shomer emunim' but 'she'omrim amen' [that say, amen]. What does 'amen' mean? — Said Rabbi Hanina: God, faithful King.

Resh Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi: the world only exists because of the breath of school children.