Yehoshua ben Hanania

One day an Ammonite proselyte, named Judah, came before them in the House of Study and said to them, "May I enter the convert?" Rabban Gamaliel replied to him, "You are forbidden to enter the Community." R. Joshua said to him, "You are permitted to enter the Community." Rabban Gamaliel asked R. Joshua, "But hasn't it been said, 'An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord '?" (Deut. xxiii. 4). R. Joshua answered him, "Do, then, the Ammonites and Moabites still inherit their lands? Did not Sennacherib, king of Assyria, long ago come up and confuse all the nationalities ? ... They immediately permitted him to enter the Community. Rabban Gamaliel thereupon said, "Since it is so, I will go and ask forgiveness from R. Joshua for arguing against his ruling." When he arrived at R. Yehoshua's house, he noticed that the walls of his house were blackened, and said to him, "From the walls of thy house it can be recognized that you are a charcoal-burner." R. Joshua replied, "Woe to the generation whose leader you are, for you don't know the struggle of the disciples to support and feed themselves!" He said to him, "I beg your pardon; forgive me." He took no notice of him. "Do it out of regard for my father!" He made peace with him.

The Emperor's daughter said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hanania, "How is it possible that such amazing Torah can be stored in such an ugly vessel".

He replied, "Learn from your father's palace. In what is the wine stored?"

"In earthern jars", she replied

"But all common people store wine in earthern vessels, and that's how you store it? You should keep your wine in jars of wine and silver!"

She went and had the wine placed into vessels of gold and silver, and it turned sour.

"The same goes for Torah", he commented.

"But aren't there handsome people who are learned as well?", she asked.

"If they were ugly they would be even more knowledgeable", he responded.

Our Rabbis taught: “When the Temple was destroyed for the second time, ascetics who would not eat meat or drink wine increased in Israel: Rabbi Joshua approached them, saying: ‘My sons, why do you neither eat meat nor drink wine?’ They replied, ‘How could we eat meat when it was once sacrificed on the Altar which has now ceased to be?’ He replied ‘In that case let me refrain also from bread because the meal offerings have ceased.’ They replied ‘Yes, we could live by eating fruit.’ Joshua said: ‘No, we should not eat fruit because the offering of first fruits has also ceased. Oh, and we probably shouldn't have water any more either, since we can't pour water on the altar anymore."

Rabbi Yehoshua said, "My children, come and tell everyone that your mourning should not become the "core" of your religious practice, and there shouldn't be any more decrees beyond those which have already been made. The rabbis have already passed too many decrees about mourning, and this is wrong because we should only make rules that the majority of the people would be able to handle, and we have already gone beyond what the majority of people can handle.

It was a favourite saying of the Rabbis of Jabneh (when Yehoshua ben Hanania was in charge) : I am a creature [of God] and my neighbour is also His creature ; my work is in the city and his in the field ; I rise early to my work and he rises early to his. As he cannot excel in my work, so I cannot excel in his work. But perhaps thou sayest, "I do great things and he small things"! We have learnt that [it matters not whether] one does much or little, if only he direct his heart to Heaven.

(11) Rabbi Yehoshua says: The evil eye, the evil inclination, and hatred of the creations remove a person from the world.

Rabbi Yehoshua married a kohen's daughter. Soon afterward she became sick (and never recovered). When she fell ill, he said, "I guess Aharon does not want me to marry his descendants; I guess he doesn't want a son-in-law like me