רבי שמעון בן יהוצדק

Rabbi Shimon ben Yehotzadak stood on the seam between the eras: a tanna of the last generation whom some count also among the first generation of amoraim. He was a kohen, and the rebbe of Rabbi Yochanan, who brings dozens of his statements in his name.

Masechet Semachot tells of his passing in the city of Lod. His brother, Yochanan ben Yehotzadak, came up from the Galil and arrived only after the grave had already been sealed. Since they were kohanim, the question was brought whether he might become tamei to his brother now that he had been buried; the chachamim answered that he might not, but that the grave should be opened so that he could look upon his brother’s face from a distance without contracting tumah. Masechet Sanhedrin has him on the road with Rabbi Chiya bar Zarnuki, going to declare a leap year, when Reish Lakish, traveling with them, coined the saying that the heart knows whether it is for a straight path or a crooked one. The Yerushalmi preserves a lighter memory: ben Yehotzadak was praised for his leaping at the Simchat Beit HaShoevah.