Rav Yosef רב יוסף
“Sinai” — the one who remembers everything; he declined the office and yielded it
"Sinai and the uprooter of mountains — which is preferable?" The dispute in Berakhot 64a is about two kinds of strength: to remember everything, and to be able to analyse anything. The answer favoured memory — "everyone needs the owner of the wheat," the man who has the material itself. Rav Yosef, however, did not take the office, and Rabbah headed Pumbedita; only after his death did Rav Yosef lead the academy, and not for long.
He went blind. The Talmud says so without emphasis and reports the consequences matter-of-factly: he forgot part of what he had learned, and his students, Abaye above all, would remind him of his own words. There are places where he asks, "did I say that?" — and is told that he did.
The Aramaic translation of the Prophets, traditionally called Targum Yonatan, is associated with him, as are a great many formulations that entered the law.
His statement that a blind man is exempt from the commandments the Gemara reports together with the fact that he refused the exemption for himself.
On the timeline
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berakhot 64a — “Sinai” against “the uprooter of mountains”; the refusal of office
- Kiddushin 31a — his blindness and his refusal of the exemption
Basis: Talmud and midrash.