הרב יועזר איש הבירה

Yoezer Ish HaBirah was a tanna, counted among the disciples of Beit Shammai. He appears in the Mishnah in tractate Orlah, where he is identified by this affiliation and brings a halachic teaching he received firsthand.

In that passage he relates that he posed a question to Rabban Gamliel the Elder, whom he found standing at the eastern gate, and reports the answer he was given concerning when leaven becomes forbidden — that it does not render a mixture prohibited until there is enough of it to cause fermentation. His account preserves a direct exchange between a student of Beit Shammai and Rabban Gamliel the Elder.

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