הרב חנן בן אבישלום

Chanan ben Avishalom was a tanna who sat among the dayanei gezeirot of Yerushalayim in the closing years of the second Beit HaMikdash, at the seam between the end of the era of the Zugot and the beginning of the tannaim. These judges — also called dayanei gezeilot — held an authority the other batei din of the city did not: they set fines and takanot in cases of theft, and could impose penalties beyond the strict line of the law. The Mishnah names two of them, Admon and Chanan ben Avishalom; Rabbi Natan counts three, adding Nachum HaMadi, and another beraita places Chanan HaMitzri among them. The Gemara explains that the Mishnah listed only the two who were foremost.

Two of his disputes are preserved in the Mishnah in Ketubot, both against the bnei kohanim gedolim, on the husband’s obligation to provide his wife’s maintenance. In both, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai held like Chanan, while Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas held like the bnei kohanim gedolim; and it was out of Chanan’s words that Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai shaped the expression of one who has “placed his money on the horn of a deer.” The amoraim ruled like him — so said Rabbi Zeira in the name of Rabbah bar Yirmiya — and following them the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch also pasken like Chanan, in the halacha of one who pays another man’s debt without his knowledge.