How to Preserve Torah (and Jewish Community)​

Whenever Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Hiyya were in a dispute, Rabbi Hanina said to Rabbi Hiyya: 'Would you dispute with me? If, Heaven forfend! the Torah were forgotten in Israel, I would restore it by my argumentative powers.'

To which Rabbi Hiyya rejoined: 'Would you dispute with me, who achieved that the Torah should not be forgotten in Israel? What did I do? I went and sowed flax, made nets [from the flax cords], trapped deer, whose flesh I gave to orphans, and prepared scrolls [from their skins], upon which I wrote the Five Books [of Torah]. Then I went to a town [where there were no teachers] and taught the Five Books to five children, and the six orders [of the Mishnah] to six children. And I bade them: "Until I return, teach each other the Pentateuch and the Mishnah;" and thus I preserved the Torah from being forgotten in Israel.' This is what Rabbi [Yehuda haNasi meant when he] said, 'How great are the works of Hiyya!'