Yonatan ben Uzziel’s No Fly Zone TB Baba Batra 134

Today’s daf TB Baba Batra 134 relates the greatness of Yonatan ben Uzziel. He wrote an Aramaic translation (Targum) of the Bible books of the Prophets. Concerning this translation Leonard Greenspoon wrote:

“The primary Targum to the Prophets is Targum Yonatan. It’s date of initial composition is generally accepted to be in the third century, and its final editing is usually set in the seventh century….

“The talmudic text (b. Megillah 3a) also holds that Hillel’s student Yonatan ben Uzziel produced this Targum ‘at the dictation of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,’ the last three prophets in Jewish tradition. Their linkage with the Targum and its human author is intended to provide something of a direct link from the Hebrew Bible to us Aramaic rendering.

“ Targum Yonatan holds as a unified composition based on similar stylistic features throughout. This Targum also exhibits notes were the points of affinity with Targum Onkelos. Both are in the same Aramaic dialect, avoid humanlike language in relation to God, include the periodic updating of places, add explanatory narrative, and demonstrates efforts to simplify what we were apparently taken as difficult passages.” (Jewish Bible translations: Personalities, Passions, Politics, Progress, page 39-40)

How great was Yonatan ben Uzziel? The Gemara will ultimately compare him to Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai, who escaped the Roman siege of Jerusalem and created the Yeshiva at Yavneh. To put into perspective, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai is credited with saving Judaism after the destruction of the Temple by his interpretations and ordinances.

“Apropos Yonatan ben Uzziel, the Gemara cites that the Sages taught: Hillel the Elder had eighty students. Thirty of them were sufficiently worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon them as it did upon Moses our teacher, thirty of them were sufficiently worthy that the sun should stand still for them as it did for Joshua bin Nun, and twenty were on an intermediate level between the other two. The greatest of all the students was Yonatan ben Uzziel, and the least of them was Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai.

“The Sages said about Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai that he did not neglect Bible and Mishna; Talmud; halakhot and aggadot; minutiae of the Torah and minutiae of the scribes; and the hermeneutical principles of the Torah with regard to a fortiori inferences; and verbal analogies; and the calculation of the calendric seasons; and numerical values of Hebrew letters [gimatriyot]; and parables of launderers, which are folktales that can be used to explain the Torah, and parables of foxes. In addition, he did not neglect esoteric matters, including the conversation of demons, and the conversation of palm trees, and the conversation of ministering angels, and more generally, a great matter and a small matter.

“The Gemara elaborates: A great matter is referring to the secrets of the Design of the Divine Chariot (see Ezekiel, chapter 1), the conduct of the transcendent universe, and a small matter is, for example, halakhot that were ultimately formulated in the framework of the discussions of Abaye and Rava. He did not neglect any of these disciplines, so as to fulfill that which is stated: “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and that I may fill their treasuries” (Proverbs 8:21), as Rabban Yoḥanan was filled with the disciplines of Torah and wisdom.

“The Gemara adds: And if the least of them was so prolific, the greatest of them was all the more so prolific. The Gemara relates that the Sages said of Yonatan ben Uzziel, the greatest of Hillel’s students, that when he would sit and engage in Torah study, the sanctity that he generated was so intense that any bird that would fly over him would be incinerated.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Obviously there are different explanations explaining “any bird that would fly over him would be incinerated.” Rashi back in massekhet Sukkah 28a explains that when Yonatan ben Uzziel taught Torah, the angels themselves drew close to him because they want to hear his Torah. The angels being creatures of fire incinerated the birds. Tosefot has a different explanation. Because the Torah was given with fire at Mount Sinai, his Torah explanations incinerated the birds. Finally there are those who explain this phrase as a metaphor. Yonatan ben Uzziel’s explanations were so clear that they removed any questions and doubts like those unfortunate birds.