הרב יוחנן דקציון

Rabbi Yochanan of Ketziyon, also given as Yochanan of Kartzion, was an amora of Eretz Yisrael whose years are not known, though he apparently belonged to the second generation of the amoraim. Rav Shlomo Sirilio, among the first commentators on the Talmud Yerushalmi, held that his name should be read “Rabbi Yochanan of Kisrion” — that is, of Kisrin.

His burial place is not named anywhere in the writings of Chazal, but a written tradition from the end of the fourteenth century places his kever in Ketziyon (Qision in the Upper Galilee), where he lived. The Luach Kivrei Tzaddikei Eretz Yisrael, of about 5160/1400, records a pilgrim’s description of Ketziyon, and several later travelers noted the same tradition; the parallel tradition of the kever of Reish Lakish in Ketziyon is older still, first set down by Menachem HaChevroni at the beginning of the thirteenth century. In a study published in 5767/2007, Yisrael Meir Gabbai, Yisrael Hertzberg and the archaeologist Dr. Yossi Stepansky located the graves that the pilgrims had identified as those of Rabbi Yochanan of Ketziyon and of Reish Lakish, standing close to the graves that had until then been marked in error.