Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus רבי אליעזר בן הורקנוס

Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai listed the merits of his five students, and said of him: "a plastered cistern that loses not a drop" — a man who remembers what he heard exactly.

The dispute over the oven called Akhnai was whether it was pure or impure. Rabbi Eliezer brought every argument and was not accepted. Then he said: if the law is as I say, let this carob tree prove it. The tree moved from its place. They answered: no proof is brought from a carob tree. Let the channel of water prove it — the water flowed backwards. No proof is brought from water. Let the walls of the study hall prove it — the walls began to lean; Rabbi Joshua rebuked them: if scholars are arguing over the law, what business is it of yours? — and the walls remained leaning, out of respect for both. Then a voice came from heaven: what have you against Rabbi Eliezer? The law is as he says everywhere.

And then Rabbi Joshua rose to his feet and said: "it is not in heaven." Rabbi Jeremiah explained: the Torah has already been given at Sinai, and in it is written "incline after the majority" — we do not heed a heavenly voice. The story ends with the prophet Elijah reporting what God said at that hour: "He smiled and said, My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me."

The sequel is hard: Rabbi Eliezer was excommunicated, and Rabban Gamliel, who pronounced it, was caught in a storm at sea.

Before his death he told his students: much Torah have I learned and much have I taught, and they took from me no more than a dog laps from the sea. At that hour his students were asking him the laws of purity.