רבי תנחום בר חנילאי

Rabbi Tanchum bar Chanilai was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the second generation, at the beginning of the third century, and dozens of teachings appear in the Gemara in his name. From those teachings it is clear that he occupied himself a great deal with aggadah. His principal rebbe was Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, himself a master of aggadah, though he heard aggadic teachings from other amoraim as well. When Rabbi Chanina ben Agil asked him why the word “tov” does not appear in the first set of the Dibrot but only in the second, he replied that he had heard no answer to this from Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi — but that Shmuel bar Nachum, the uncle or grandfather of Rav Acha b’Rabbi Chanina, told him it was because the first luchot were destined to be broken, and chas v’shalom that good should be cut off from Yisrael.

Among the sayings brought in his name: whoever is modest in the beit hakisei (restroom) is saved from three things — from snakes, from scorpions and from mazikin, and some add that his dreams rest settled upon him; the rains do not come down unless the sins of Yisrael have been forgiven, as it says “Ratzita Hashem artzecha”; and any man who has no wife dwells without joy, without blessing and without good.