הרב שמעון בן זומא

Shimon ben Zoma (Hebrew בן זומא), known simply as Ben Zoma, was a tanna of the late first and early second century. He is called without the title “Rabbi” because he was niftar young, while still in the rank of a talmid who had not yet received semichah; he and Ben Azzai are often named together as the outstanding pupils of that class, and both belonged to the close circle of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya’s disciples.

Ben Zoma was above all a darshan, a master of expounding the pesukim — the Mishnah in Sotah says that with his passing the darshanim came to an end. His study centered on the opening chapter of Bereishit and its account of the Creation, wisdom he pursued to its very edge; when Rabbi Yehoshua once met him lost in such thoughts, he remarked to his disciples, “Ben Zoma is outside.” He was one of the four who entered the pardes, and of him it was said that he gazed and was stricken. The Yerushalmi relates that he knew seventy tongues, and Rashi describes him as a merchant of standing whose custom the traders sought.

Few of his halachot survive, but the best known is quoted with praise and set into the Haggadah of Pesach: from the words “that you may remember the day you came out of Mitzrayim,” he learned that the Exodus is to be recalled at night as well as by day. His teaching in Pirkei Avot has become a foundation of mussar: “Who is wise? One who learns from every man. Who is strong? One who conquers his own inclination. Who is rich? One who is happy with his portion. Who is honored? One who honors others.”