Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa, Blinding Snake Hunter

TRANSLATION

They say about Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa that he once was standing and praying, and a blinding snake came and bit him, but he did not stop his prayer. They came and found that blinding snake dead and hanging at the opening of a pit. They said, “Woe unto the person whom the blinding snake has bitten, and woe unto the blinding snake who bit Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa.”

What’s the deal with these blinding snakes? When it would bite a person—if the person were closer to water—the blinding snake would die, but—if the blinding snake were closer to water—the person would die.

Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa’s students said to him, “Did you not feel anything?” He said to them, “Let that which I had intended in my prayers come to me if I felt anything.”

Rabbi Yitzchak bar Elazar taught: The Holy Blessed One created for him a spring beneath the hinds of his feet—as it says (Psalm 145:19), “The will of those who fear God will God fulfill, and their cries shall God hear and shall God save.”

– Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 5:1

ORIGINAL

אמרין עליו על רבי חנינא בן דוסא שהיה עומד ומתפלל ובא חברבר והכישו ולא הפסיק את תפילתו והלכו ומצאו אותו חברבר מת מוטל על פי חורו אמרו אי לו לאדם שנשכו חברבר ואי לו לחברבר שנשך את ר’ חנינא בן דוסא מה עיסקיה דהדין חברבריא כד הוות נכית לבר נשא אין בר נשא קדים למיא חברברא מיית ואין חברברא קדים למיא בר נשא מיית אמרו לו תלמידיו רבי לא הרגשת אמר להן יבא עלי ממה שהיה לבי מתכוין בתפילה אם הרגשתי א”ר יצחק בר אלעזר ברא לו הקב”ה מעיין תחת כפות רגליו לקיים מה שנאמר (תהלים, קמה: יט) רצון יריאיו יעשה ואת שוועתם ישמע ויושיעם:

 – תלמוד ירושלמי, ברכות ה:א

TRANSLATION NOTE:

“Blinding snake,” translation assumed from chavarvarin meaning “blindness” (A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic by Michael Sokoloff, p. 186) and chavarvar meaning “a type of snake” (ibid.).

FUN FACT NOTE:

Connections between fearing Heaven and Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa can be found in statements attributed to him in Pirkey Avot 3:9/11-2.

VERSION NOTE:

In another version of this story (Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 33a), Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa kills a scorpion-like or lizard-like (or maybe even donkey-like) creature that would have disturbed him in prayer. His staying still kills the creature, and he brings the creature in to the Beit Midrash and says, “It is not this creature that kills a person, but sin that kills a person!”

Yet another (but much shorter) version of this tale appears in Tosefta Berakhot 3:20.

And yet another completely different story about Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa and a lion appears in Tanchuma Vayyiggash 44:3.

Translation and commentary by Jonah Rank

 – JGR