Rabbi Yochanan bar Nafcha

Rabbi Yochanan bar Nafcha ("son of the smith") studied as a youth before Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi and became the leading Amora of the Land of Israel, heading the academy in Tiberias for decades. Students came from Babylonia to learn from him, and his rulings form the backbone of the Jerusalem Talmud; Maimonides even names him as its compiler, though it was completed long after his death. The Talmud describes him as strikingly handsome (Bava Metzia 84a) and as a man of great sorrow who buried ten sons and carried a small bone of the last as a token of mourning (Berakhot 5b).

His partnership with Resh Lakish, the former gladiator he brought to Torah, is one of the most moving stories in the Talmud: after a bitter quarrel Resh Lakish died, and Rabbi Yochanan wandered crying "Where are you, son of Lakish?" until he too died of grief (Bava Metzia 84a). As a rule the law follows Rabbi Yochanan against Resh Lakish, and even against the Babylonian masters Rav and Shmuel, a sign of his standing.