רבי יוחנן בן ברוקה

Rabbi Yochanan ben Berokah was a tanna of the third generation, a talmid of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya and a chaver of Rabbi Elazar ben Chisma, who also exchanged Torah with Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri; English works spell his name Johanan ben Baroka. A number of his halachot stand in the Mishnah and many more in beraitot, where he is brought together with Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Shimon and their colleagues, and his rulings in matters of marriage and civil law were largely accepted as the practical halacha.

In hilchot yerushah he taught that a man may direct his inheritance from one heir to another where both stand to inherit — a son among sons or a daughter among daughters, but not a daughter where there are sons — and the halacha was fixed like him; he also ruled that a man must set aside support for his daughters after his passing. Unlike his colleagues he held that the mitzvah of piryah v’rivyah rests upon the woman as well as the man, learning it from the word "otam" in the berachah given to Adam and Chavah. His teaching in Pirkei Avot concerns chillul Hashem: one who profanes the Name in secret is called to account in the open, whether he acted b’shogeg or b’meizid. His son, Rabbi Yishmael ben Rabbi Yochanan ben Berokah, was counted among the chachamim of the following generation and has a statement of his own in Avot.

His resting place is not named anywhere in the words of Chazal. Rav Chaim Vital, in Shaar HaGilgulim in the name of the Arizal, was the first to point to a grave near Ein Zeitim, and researchers of the kivrei tzaddikim of the Galil later marked the site on the hill adjoining the compound of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai.