When the great Rabbi Resh Lakish died, his brother-in-law and intellectual sparring partner, Rabbi Johanan, was inconsolable. The other rabbis, seeking to comfort Rabbi Johanan, sent Rabbi Eliezer ben Pedat, who was known as a very fine legal mind, to engage and perhaps distract him. It did not go well.
Every time Rabbi Johanan offered a teaching, the learned Rabbi Eliezer ben Pedat would say, “There is a baraita (rabbinic statement) that supports you.” Finally, Rabbi Johanan burst out: “Do you think you are like Resh Lakish? When I stated the law, he would raise twenty-four objections, which led to a fuller understanding. All you do is tell me there is a teaching which supports me.”
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