עָתְנִיאֵל בֶּן קְנַז

Othniel ben Kenaz lived in the era of the Shoftim, the Judges who led Israel after the death of Yehoshua. He is remembered in our sources above all as a master of Torah whose sharpness restored what had been lost: when many halachot were forgotten during the period of mourning for Moshe, Rabbi Abahu teaches in Temurah that Othniel ben Kenaz brought them back through his pilpul — his penetrating give-and-take in learning. The Gemara links this to the verse “and Othniel ben Kenaz, the brother of Calev, captured it” (Yehoshua 15:17), reading his conquest as a victory of reasoning over forgetfulness.

The same verse occupies the Gemara in Sotah, where his lineage is examined: Scripture calls him “ben Kenaz,” yet he is named brother of Calev, and Rava resolves that he was the stepson of Kenaz. The midrashim above also weave his name into the wider biblical narrative of Eretz Yisrael, where he is recalled together with Calev and Achsah, the wife given to him.