Reish Lakish on Wikipedia

In yesterday’s post, I posted about Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish as a gladiator. Not everyone maintains this is the case. The gemara in Gittin says he sold himself to the לודאי, which traditionally means “cannibals” (Rashi, Aruch) but is understood by more modern scholars to be “gladiators”.

The Bold Reish Lakish (article summary)

There is also the gemara in Bava Metzia 84a in which a wilder Reish Lakish spies Rabbi Yochanan swimming and, thinking him a pretty young lass, swims to overtake him. Rabbi Yochanan convinces him to study Torah by promising his sister’s hand in marriage.

Much later, but proximate, in the same section of Bava Metzia, a brayta declares that “the sword, the knife, the dagger [vehapigyon], the spear, a hand sickle, and a harvest sickle, from when are they susceptible to ritual impurity? from the time of the completion of their manufacture.” Then, Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish disagree as to when it is deemed fully manufactured, with Reish Lakish saying that it is when one scours them with water. Rabbi Yochanan says לסטאה בלסטיותיה ידע, a bandit knows his banditry. Reish Lakish replies, “What benefit did you provide me by bringing me close to Torah? There, among the bandits, they called me: Leader of the bandits, and here, too, they call me: Leader of the bandits.” Rabbi Yochanan says, “I provided benefit to you, as I brought you close to God, under the wings of the Divine Presence” and is offended.

Clearly, these two stories are part of the same saga, and the latter story knows about the former. Also, the word used is לסטאה, a bandit, not luda’a, a gladiator. Also, even in the gladiator story (assuming it refers to a gladiator, not the earlier assumption that he sold to cannibals), it was for a rather limited time, after which he killed all the leaders of the gladiators. Reish Lakish doesn’t seem to be a leader of gladiators!

Yet, if you look at Wikipedia for Shimon ben Lakish, you will find the following assertion:

He is something of an anomaly among the giants of Torah study as, according to the Babylonian Talmud, he was in his early youth a bandit and a gladiator.

OK, not too bad, especially since Tosafot makes the assertion that the being a gladiator was in his early youth. Though I don’t know that Tosafot make the gladiator assertion. And how long was he a gladiator in his youth? Did he even get to being a gladiator?

It continues in a later section:

According to the Babylonian Talmud, he was supposed to have been in his early youth a bandit and a gladiator. Under the stress of unfavorable circumstances he gave up the study of the Torah and sought to support himself by a worldly calling. He sold himself to the managers of a gladiator circus, where he could make use of his great bodily strength. He worked as a gladiator, where he would fight with beasts and entertain the crowd.^[8] According to other sources, Reish Lakish lived for a time in the wilderness where he made his livelihood as a bandit. From this low estate he was brought back to his studies by Rabbi Yochanan.

This is a whole lot of speculation, despite the citation in footnote [8]. We don’t know whether he gave up the study of Torah at that point, or if he had not yet been exposed to Torah studies. That it was under unfavorable circumstances, sure. But the implication, if you actually look at the gemara inside, is that truly desperate people sold themselves to the Ludae. In the immediately preceding story (Gittin 47), a person sold himself to the Ludae and then asked Rabbi Ammi to redeem him and thus save his life. Wikipedia casts this as a somewhat typical means of parnassa, a way of making a living and a worldly calling using his “great bodily strength.”

Also, that same gemara talks about the last day, when his requests are granted, which seems to be before he fought / was fed to any animals in the arena, not after his stint as a gladiator. Some (including the link at foonote 8) relate this to the cena libera, a kind of gladiator’s last supper before fighting.

Finally, let us see that quote again:

He worked as a gladiator, where he would fight with beasts and entertain the crowd

Nothing in that gemara in Gittin mentions Reish Lakish fighting with a single beast, or entertaining a single crowd. In fact, it seems plausible to argue that he never did this, not even once, since he slew all the gladiators at this last request. Where does questionable assertion come from?

Well, there is a footnote, at least, [8\, which refers us to Brettler, Marc Zvi; Poliakoff, Michael (1990). "Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish at the Gladiator's Banquet: Rabbinic Observations on the Roman Arena" (PDF). The Harvard Theological Review. 83 (1): 93–98. doi:10.1017/S001781600000554X. JSTOR 1509934. S2CID 162453430.

Alas, this is locked behind a JSTOR paywall, so unlike me, most users won’t be able to use it. Unless, chas veshalom, they use this scihub link.

The article makes absolutely no such claims that Reish Lakish would fight with animals and entertain the crowds. Rather,

None of the footnotes in this article mention that Reish Lakish fought beasts and entertained crowds either, but you’ll have to take my word for it or read through the article yourself.

Meanwhile, if you go back in time, you will find an earlier version in the Wikipedia’s edit history. Thus, in

He worked as a gladiator, where he was compelled to risk his life continually in combats with wild beasts.^[8]

where footnote 8 refers us simply to “Gittin 46b-47a”, not to the JSTOR article, and makes no mention of entertaining crowds. (Maybe the edit was that the feast was traditionally done for the sake of entertaining crowds, thus referring the JSTOR?)

Here is where the edit happened, on Nov 16, 2020:

…

and then

…

The edit came from a non-identified user, from IP address 162.247.66.219. which traces back, I think, to an internet service provider in Little Rock, Arkansas. I don’t know who did it.

Admittedly, a lot of what I am kvetching about goes back to the Jewish Encyclopedia article, which worked as the basis for Wikipedia, and already has:

Under the stress of unfavorable circumstances he gave up the study of the Torah and sought to support himself by a worldly calling. He sold himself to the managers of a circus ("ludii," "ludiarii"), where he could make use of his great bodily strength, but where also he was compelled to risk his life continually in combats with wild beasts (ib.). From this low estate he was brought back to his studies by R. Johanan. It is said that the latter saw him bathing in the Jordan, and was so overcome by his beauty that at one bound he was beside him in the water. "Thy strength would be more appropriate for studying the Law," said R. Johanan;

which invents risking his life continuously in combats with wild beasts, referring us to Gittin. But at least there, we know who to “blame”, namely Wilhelm Bacher and Jacob Zallel Lauterbach. That also assumes that he was a gladiator, not bandit, when encountering Rabbi Yochanan, which I disagree works with the gemara.

The moral of this story: don’t just trust (English) Wikipedia, especially in the realm of Talmudic biography, where (as I’ve shown in the past) it can be really bad. Make sure you double-check the sources and that they actually say what is asserted, and that you agree with whatever interpretations are offered. Check the history to see what was added, and by whom.