Simeon ben Azzai

Simeon ben Azzai or simply Ben Azzai () was a distinguished tanna of the first third of the 2nd century. Biography Ben Azzai is sometimes called "Rabbi", but, in spite of his great learning, this title did not rightfully belong to him, for he remained all his life in the ranks of the "talmidim" or "talmidei hakhamim" (pupils or disciples of the wise). Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma were considered in the tannaitic school-tradition as the highest representatives of this degree in the hierarchy of learning. Ben Azzai is especially named as an eminent example of a "pupil who is worthy of the hora'ah," of the right of independent judgment in questions of religious law. Ben Azzai was close to the leaders of the school of Jabneh. On the same day, he (1) handed down "from the mouth of 72 elders" present a halakhic decision (which was accepted in Jabneh on the day when Eleazar ben Azariah was elected president in the place of Gamaliel II) and also (2) resolved that the books Kohelet and Shir ha-Shirim were as sacred as the other Scriptures, thereby officially closing the collection of Biblical writings or canon. Chief among Ben Azzai's teachers was Joshua ben Hananiah, whose opinions he expounded, proved to be correct, or defended against Akiva. Akiva himself was not really Ben Azzai's teacher, although the latter occasionally calls him so, and once even regrets that he did not stand in closer relation as pupil to Akiva; and he expressed the same regret in regard to Ishmael ben Elisha. In his halakhic opinions and Biblical exegesis, as well as in other sayings, Ben Azzai follows Akiva; and from the tone in which he speaks of Akiva in the discourses that have been handed down, the Amoraim concluded that his relations with Akiva were both those of pupil and of colleague.