רבי שמעון בן חלפתא

Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta was a tanna of the fifth generation, a son of Rabbi Chalafta and brother of Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta. He received his Torah from Rabbi Meir, was a familiar of the house of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and much beloved by him, and was the close companion of Rabbi Chiya, with whom he learned in the beit midrash in Teverya.

He appears in the Mishnah a single time — and it is the very last mishnah of all Shas, at the close of Uktzin: HaKadosh Baruch Hu found no vessel that holds brachah for Yisrael but shalom, as it says, “Hashem oz le’amo yiten, Hashem yevarech et amo vashalom.” The Yerushalmi keeps another word from his company about the geulah: walking with Rabbi Chiya through the Arbel valley at first light, the two watched the ayelet hashachar break and spread, and Rabbi Chiya said to him — so is the geulah of Yisrael: at first little by little, and the further it goes, the greater it grows.

The Gemara tells of his deep poverty and of the nissim that met it. Once, with nothing for the needs of Shabbat and Yom Tov, he davened and was given a precious stone from Heaven; his wife would not consent to use it, that nothing be lessened from his portion in the world to come, and after he davened again it was taken back — and Chazal said the second nes was greater than the first, for Heaven gives but does not take back its gifts. Another time lions confronted him on the road; he davened, two cuts of meat came down from Heaven, the lions took one, and the other he carried to the beit midrash, where it was ruled permitted to eat. He was called a researcher of matters, who would test things in nature to understand them — even conducting an experiment on the ways of ants.

Two traditions speak of his kever: the Totzaot Eretz Yisrael, from around 5030–5080/1270–1320, places it in Kfar Chananya beside his family, while Rav Chaim Vital in Shaar HaGilgulim brings from his rebbi the Arizal that Rabbi Shimon ben Chalafta lies in the old beit hachaim of Tzfat, west of the well called Bor shel Guizo, without any marker; in later generations the spot was sought out and marked.