Johanan ben Ha-Ḥoranit

JOHANAN BEN HA-ḤORANIT (also ha-Huranit, ha-Horoni, or ha-Hurni; mid-first century B.C.E.), tanna. A contemporary of *Shammai and *Hillel, he was probably named after his place of origin, the *Hauran region south of Damascus. He is only mentioned once in the Mishnah (Suk. 2:7) as having been visited in his sukkah by the elders of the academies of Shammai and of Hillel, who found him observing the sukkah ritual according to the rules of Hillel, though he is generally regarded as a disciple of Shammai (Tosef. Suk. 2:3). This is also reflected in the story that he refused once, during a famine, to eat moist olives until he was assured that, according to the rules of Hillel, they were ritually clean (ibid.). His most famous disciple was the tanna *Eliezer b. Zadok (ibid.).

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.