Rabbi Elazar Ben Pedat's Quest for a Golden Age

תקציר

Rabbi Elazar’s short prayer consists of seven requests, beginning with requests for peace and many students. R. Elazar lived in the third century in Babylonia and Israel during a tumultuous period of instability which followed a golden age, and it was during that former golden age that Rebbi authored the Mishnah. We analyze Rav Elazar’s prayer, his personality, and the historical circumstances of his life. We conclude that R. Elazar recognized the historical insight that great Torah breakthroughs require a golden age of political stability. Rabbi Yochanan ben Naphcha was R. Elazar’s teacher and colleague, as well as the foremost Torah scholar in the latter half of the third century. Our insight sheds light on an enigmatic conversation between the two scholars that took place when R. Elazar was ill and R. Yochanan came to visit him. At the end of the conversation, they both weep that R. Yochanan’s “beauty” wastes away in the dirt, which we interpret as the opposite of a golden age.