רבי אלעזר חסמא

Rabbi Elazar Chisma was a tanna of the era of the Tannaim. The Gemara in Horayot preserves a striking portrait of him and his colleague Rabbi Yochanan ben Gudgeda as two scholars of such depth that they “knew how to reckon how many drops are in the sea,” yet had no bread to eat nor a garment to wear — prompting their leader to give thought to appointing them to positions of honor. This image of a sage learned in calculation but living in poverty colors much of how he is remembered.

His rulings span a wide range of practical halachah. In Bava Metzia he holds that a worker may not eat more than the value of his wages, against the more lenient view that allows a worker to eat freely. In Terumot he gives an opinion on how one designates terumah and maaser within a pile of grain. He appears extensively in matters of ritual purity — in Mikvaot regarding seminal emissions, and in Negaim on the laws of nega’im in a house and the changing appearances of the marks. The Gemara in Pesachim records him in debate with Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov, paralleling the give-and-take of his contemporaries.

In the realm of prayer, a baraita in Yoma cites his teaching that one who recites Kriat Shema while gesturing with his eyes, signaling with his lips, or pointing with his finger has the verse from Yeshayahu applied to him: “and you did not call upon Me” — a caution that the words of Shema must be said with sincere attention to Hashem.