5 min read

The Donkey of Pinchas Ben Yair That Refused to Sin

When thieves stole Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's donkey, it refused to eat for three days rather than touch untithed grain.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. Three Days Without Food
  2. A River That Parted for a Mitzvah
  3. The Four Miracles in One Life
  4. The Sage Whose Son-in-Law Was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai

Three Days Without Food

The thieves thought they had taken an ordinary donkey. They brought it to their cave, set barley before it, and waited. The animal looked at the grain, turned its head, and walked away from the trough. They tried again the next morning. The donkey refused. A third day passed without the animal touching a kernel. The thieves began to worry. A donkey that starves itself in front of full provender is either sick or knows something the thieves do not. If it died in their cave, the smell would expose them. They released it before dawn.

The donkey walked straight back to the gate of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair and brayed. Rabbi Pinchas heard it and told the household: "Open the gate for this creature. It has not eaten in three days." They brought feed. The donkey still would not eat. Rabbi Pinchas understood. He asked whether the grain had been properly tithed. It had not. He took out the tithe, set the remainder before the donkey, and the animal ate immediately.

A River That Parted for a Mitzvah

This was not the only time Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair's path bent the world around his purpose. He was traveling once to ransom Jewish captives, a mission about which the law permitted almost nothing to be delayed. He came to the river Ginai, and the current was running high. He addressed the water directly. "Divide for me, so that I may cross and redeem these prisoners. Otherwise I will pray that you are never filled again."

The river divided. He crossed on dry ground. Others in his company crossed with him. On the return trip, the river divided again without being asked.

The pattern in these stories is consistent. Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was known in the Talmud as one of the strictest ascetics among all the sages. He would not eat another man's bread. He would not allow even his own animal to consume grain that had not been properly prepared. His piety was not private; it extended to everything in his household, everything under his care. When the world around him needed to accommodate that piety, according to these traditions, the world moved.

The Four Miracles in One Life

A cluster of four stories about Pinchas ben Yair was preserved together in later collections. In the first, a traveler's measure of grain was accidentally left behind in his territory. No one came back for it. Year after year, Pinchas planted the grain and harvested it, never using a kernel, until after seven years the original traveler appeared and Pinchas returned the full accumulated yield. He had managed another man's property across seven harvests with perfect fidelity and no advantage to himself.

In another story, two men deposited a sum of money with him for safekeeping and then died before they could reclaim it. Their orphaned children knew nothing about the deposit. Pinchas ben Yair held the money across years until the children were old enough to be told about it, then returned every coin. He had held the trust of dead men for their children's sake, refusing to treat the unclaimed deposit as his own.

The Sage Whose Son-in-Law Was Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai

Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was the son-in-law of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, whose years hidden in a cave from Roman persecution are among the most famous stories in the Talmud. The family connection is worth noting because the traditions about both men share a quality: an intensity of religious practice so complete that ordinary reality seems to reorganize itself around it. Rabbi Shimon's cave produced a spring and a carob tree by miracle. Rabbi Pinchas's donkey observed the laws of tithing without being taught them. The stories belong to the same imagination of what perfect piety looks like when it has run all the way through a person and out into the world around them.

The Talmud itself, in tractate Sotah 49a, preserves a famous passage listing Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair at the summit of a hierarchy of spiritual achievement, the man who, in his own generation, had come closest to the resurrection of the dead. His asceticism was not a performance. According to the tradition, it was a fact of his existence, and the animals and rivers he encountered simply acknowledged that fact.

MiraclesCommandmentsPinchas Ben YairPinhas Ben YairDonkeyRiversMitzvotRabbis
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

5 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Taanit 24bTalmud Bavli, Taanit

was connected to the order of Nezikin, while they were largely unfamiliar with the rest of the Mishna, and we learn all six orders of the Mishna. And when Rav Yehuda reached tractate Uktzin, which discusses the extent to which various fruits and vegetables are considered an integral part of the produce in terms of becoming ritually impure, which is the basis for the halakha that a woman who pickles a vegetable in a pot, etc. (Teharot 2:1), and some say that when he reached the halakha that olives that are pickled with their leaves are ritually pure, etc., as they are no longer considered part of the fruit (Uktzin 2:1), he would say: Those are the disputes between Rav and Shmuel that we see here.

He felt it was an extremely challenging passage, as difficult as the most complex arguments between Rav and Shmuel. And we, in contrast, learn tractate Uktzin in thirteen yeshivot, while, with regard to miracles, after declaring a fast to pray for a drought to end, when Rav Yehuda would remove one of his shoes as a sign of distress, the rain would immediately come, before he could remove his second shoe.

And yet we cry out all day and no one notices us. Rabba continued: If the difference between the generations is due to inappropriate deeds, if there is anyone who has seen me do anything improper, let him say so. I am not at fault, but what can the great leaders of the generation do when their generation is not worthy, and rain is withheld on account of the people’s transgressions? The Gemara explains the reference to Rav Yehuda’s shoe.

Rav Yehuda saw two people wasting bread, throwing it back and forth. He said: I can learn from the fact that people are acting like this that there is plenty in the world. He cast his eyes angrily upon the world, and there was a famine. The Sages said to Rav Kahana, son of Rav Neḥunya, the attendant of Rav Yehuda: The Master, who is frequently present before Rav Yehuda, should persuade him to leave by way of the door nearest the market, so that he will see the terrible effects of the famine.

Rav Kahana persuaded Rav Yehuda, and he went out to the market, where he saw a crowd. He said to them: What is this gathering? They said to him: We are standing by a container [kuspa] of dates that is for sale. He said: If so many people are crowding around to purchase a single container of dates, I can learn from this that there is a famine in the world.

He said to his attendant: I want to fast over this; remove my shoes as a sign of distress. He removed one of his shoes and rain came. When he began to take off the other shoe, Elijah came and said to him: The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: If you remove your other shoe, I will destroy the entire world so that you will not be further distressed. Rav Mari, son of Shmuel’s daughter, said: At that moment, I was standing on the bank of the Pappa River.

I saw angels who appeared as sailors bringing sand and filling ships with it, and it became fine flour. Everyone came to buy this flour, but I said to them: Do not purchase this flour, as it is the product of miracles. Tomorrow, boats filled with wheat will come from Parzina, and you may purchase that produce. § The Gemara relates another story. Rava happened to come to the city of Hagrunya.

He decreed a fast, but rain did not come. He said to the local residents: Everyone, continue your fast and do not eat tonight. The next morning he said to them: Whoever had a dream last night, let him say it. Rabbi Elazar of Hagronya said to them: The following was recited to me in my dream.

Good greetings to a good master from a good Lord, Who in His goodness does good for His people. Rava said: I can learn from this that it is a favorable time to pray for mercy. He prayed for mercy and rain came. The Gemara relates another story that deals with prayer for rain.

There was a certain man who was sentenced to be flogged by Rava’s court because he had relations with a gentile woman. Rava flogged the man and he died as a result. When this matter was heard in the house of the Persian King Shapur, he wanted to punish Rava for imposing the death penalty, as he thought, without the king’s permission. Ifra Hormiz, mother of King Shapur, said to her son: Do not interfere and quarrel with the Jews, as whatever they request from God, their Master, He gives them.

He said to her: What is this that He grants them? She replied: They pray for mercy and rain comes. He said to her: This does not prove that God hears their prayers, as that occurs merely because it is the time for rain, and it just so happens that rain falls after they pray. Rather, if you want to prove that God answers the prayers of the Jews, let them pray for mercy now, in the summer season of Tammuz, and let rain come.

Ifra Hormiz sent a message to Rava: Direct your attention and pray for mercy that rain may come. He prayed for mercy, but rain did not come. He said before God: Master of the Universe, it is written: “O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what work You did in their days, in days of old” (Psalms 44:2), but we have not seen it with our own eyes. As soon as he said this, rain came until the gutters of Meḥoza overflowed and poured into the Tigris River.

Rava’s father came and appeared to him in a dream and said to him: Is there anyone who troubles Heaven so much to ask for rain out of its season? In his dream, his father further said to him: Change your place of rest at night. He changed his place, and the next day he found that his bed had been slashed by knives. The Gemara relates: Rav Pappa decreed a fast, but rain did not come.

His heart became weak from hunger, so he swallowed [seraf] a bowl [pinka] of porridge, and prayed for mercy, but rain still did not come. Rav Naḥman bar Ushpazti said to him: If the Master swallows another bowl of porridge, rain will come. He was mocking Rav Pappa for eating while everyone else was fasting. Rav Pappa was embarrassed and grew upset, and rain came.

The Gemara tells another story about prayer for rain. Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa was traveling along a road when it began to rain. He said before God: Master of the Universe, the entire world is comfortable, because they needed rain, but Ḥanina is suffering, as he is getting wet. The rain ceased.

When he arrived at his home, he said before God: Master of the Universe, the entire world is suffering that the rain stopped, and Ḥanina is comfortable? The rain began to come again. Rav Yosef said, in reaction to this story: What effect does the prayer of the High Priest have against that of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa? As we learned in a mishna: After leaving the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would recite a brief prayer in the outer chamber.

The Gemara asks: What would he pray? Ravin bar Adda and Rava bar Adda both say in the name of Rav Yehuda that this was his prayer: May it be Your will, Lord our God, that this year shall be rainy and hot. The Gemara expresses surprise at this request: Is heat a good matter? On the contrary, it is unfavorable.

Why should he request that the year be hot? Rather, say that he recited the following: If the upcoming year is hot, may it also be rainy and moist with dew, lest the heat harm the crops. The High Priest would also pray: And let not the prayer of travelers enter Your presence. Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, in the name of Rav Yehuda, concluded the wording of this prayer: May the rule of power not depart from the house of Judea.

And may Your nation Israel not depend upon each other for sustenance, nor upon another nation. Instead, they should be sustained from the produce of their own land. Evidently, the High Priest’s prayer that God should not listen to the prayer of individual travelers was disregarded in the case of Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa. § The Gemara continues to discuss the righteous Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa and the wonders he performed.

Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: Each and every day a Divine Voice emerges from Mount Horeb and says: The entire world is sustained by the merit of My son Ḥanina ben Dosa, and yet for Ḥanina, My son, a kav of carobs, a very small amount of inferior food, is sufficient to sustain him for an entire week, from one Shabbat eve to the next Shabbat eve. The Gemara relates: Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa’s wife would heat the oven every Shabbat eve and create a great amount of smoke,

Full source
Gaster, Exempla no. 235; cf. Chullin 7aThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Rabbi Pinhas ben Yair was a sage so scrupulous in his observance that the tradition says even his animals followed the law.

Thieves once stole his donkey from his stable, thinking they had gotten away with a good beast. They led her home and set down a heap of barley in front of her, plenty to eat. The donkey looked at the grain, turned her head, and walked away from the trough. They waited. They tried again. For three days and three nights she stood there and would not touch a single kernel.

The thieves grew nervous. A donkey that starves itself in front of full provender is either sick or enchanted. On the third day they led her back toward the town, reasoning that she would be more trouble than profit. When she came within sight of Rabbi Pinhas's house, the rabbi recognized her at once and came out to meet her.

"The poor beast," he said to his household. "Bring her the grain quickly." His students poured out the feed. The donkey ate.

When they asked him why she had starved for three days, Pinhas answered simply: "Because the thieves had not tithed their grain. The barley they gave her had not had the required portions set aside for the priest and the Levite. My donkey will not eat anything that has not been properly tithed."

The Exempla preserves the story because it teaches, through humor and amazement, that the holiness of a tzaddik's household runs deeper than his own conscience. A truly righteous home trains even the livestock. Pinhas did not miss his donkey only; his donkey missed the Torah.

(From The Exempla of the Rabbis, Moses Gaster, 1924, no. 235, based on Chullin 7a.)

Full source
Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis No. 129 (1924); cf. Chullin 7a-bThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair was one of the strictest ascetics in the Talmud. He never touched another person's bread. He would not allow his donkey to eat untithed fodder, the animal itself kept kosher. And when he traveled on a mission of pure mitzvah, physics bent to make room for him.

Once he was on his way to ransom Jewish captives. He came to the river Ginai. The current was high. He addressed the river directly. Divide for me, so that I may cross and redeem these prisoners. Otherwise I will pray that you are never filled with water again.

The river divided. He walked across dry. Others in his party followed on the strength of his merit and also crossed unharmed.

Another time Rabbi Pinchas was invited to dine. He approached the host's house, saw white mules tethered at the door, and stopped. These animals are dangerous, he said, they bite. He refused to enter.

The host pressed. Come in. The mules are tame. But as the host insisted, a mountain suddenly rose between them, separating the rabbi from the house.

Gaster's Exempla (No. 129, 1924) collects these stories from the Talmud (Chullin 7a-b). A tzaddik who lives every meal with discipline, the sages say, does not bend the world through effort. The world bends quietly around him, because it recognizes that he has already bent every inch of his own life to its source.

Full source
Gaster, Exempla no. 331 (Codex Gaster 185); cf. Yerushalmi Demai 1:3The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)

Pinhas ben Yair was a second-century rabbi remembered for an unnerving combination of piety and practical wisdom. He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, and stories about him pile up in the Talmud Yerushalmi and in later collections. The Exempla, drawing on Codex Gaster 185, preserves four of them as a single cluster.

In the first story, a group of travelers stopped to rest in Pinhas ben Yair's region, and when they moved on, one of them accidentally left behind a measure of grain. No one came back for it. Pinhas took the grain and planted it in his field. Year after year, he harvested the crop that grew from it, stored the harvest, and planted some of the yield again. When the original travelers or their descendants eventually passed through again, he opened his barns and gave them all that had grown from the forgotten measure. He had kept the lost property safe not as a bag of grain but as a living inheritance.

In the second story, a plague of mice descended on the local fields. Pinhas ben Yair saw the cause before the others did. "You have been neglecting the tithe on your produce," he told the people. "The mice are the warning. Tithe what you harvest, and the mice will leave." They obeyed. The mice left.

In the third story, a young girl had fallen into a river and been swept away. The village grieved her as dead. Pinhas told them she was alive, and directed where she would be found. They found her.

In the fourth, he came to the bank of a river on his way to a mitzvah, and the river was too swollen to cross. Pinhas told the waters to part. The Exempla reports, without elaboration, that they did. The waters divided before him, as they had divided for Moses at the sea and for Joshua at the Jordan. A rabbi on his way to do God's work can sometimes claim the same road the prophets walked.

Full source
Exempla of the Rabbis, No. 129Exempla of the Rabbis (Gaster, 1924)

R. Pinehas b. Jair, a sage renowned in the tradition for extraordinary piety, held himself to a strictness that set him apart even among the righteous. He would never touch other peoples' bread, refusing food whose preparation he could not vouch for. His holiness, the tale relates, bent the natural world to the demands of a mitzvah. He crossed the river Ginai dryshod when on his way to ransom captives, a deed of redemption so urgent that he had threatened the river should otherwise lack water, commanding it to part before him. Such was the merit of his errand that others traveling with him also crossed dryshod by reason of his merits, the waters opening not only for the righteous man but for those in his company. Even his animal shared in his scruples, for his ass would not touch the fodder unless a special tithe had been taken from it, refusing untithed grain as its master refused forbidden bread. On another occasion R. Pinehas was invited to dinner, but seeing white mules at his host's door, beasts he considered dangerous and a sign of ill repute, he refused to dine. When pressed hard by his host to enter against his judgment, a mountain suddenly separated them, rising up between the sage and the house. Heaven itself, in these stories, enforces the boundaries that R. Pinehas drew, parting rivers for his mercy and raising mountains to honor his caution.

Full source