Ben Bag-Bag ( he, בן בג בג, literally, son of Bag-Bag) was a rabbinic sage and disciple of

Hillel the Elder Hillel ( he, הִלֵּל ''Hīllēl''; variously called ''Hillel HaGadol'', ''Hillel HaZaken'', ''Hillel HaBavli'' or ''HaBavli'', was born according to tradition in Babylon c. 110 BCE, died 10 CE in Jerusalem) was a Jewish religious leader, sag ...

during the late ''

Zugot The ''Zugot'' ( he, הַזּוּגוֹת ''hazZūgōṯ'', "the Pairs"), also called Zugoth or ''Zugos'' in the Ashkenazi pronunciation, refers both to the two-hundred-year period ( 170 BCE – 30 CE, he, תְּקוּפַת הַזּו� ...

'' or early '' Tannaitic period''. Aside from a single maxim quoted at the end of

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

Avot (''

Pirkei Avot Pirkei Avot ( he, פִּרְקֵי אָבוֹת; also transliterated as ''Pirqei Avoth'' or ''Pirkei Avos'' or ''Pirke Aboth''), which translates to English as Chapters of the Fathers, is a compilation of the ethics, ethical teachings and Maxim ...

'' chapter 5) he is not mentioned. There he says, ''Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don't turn from it, for nothing is better than it.'' This maxim is followed by that of another sage, ben Hai-Hai ( he, בן הא הא). Some considered ben Bag-Bag and ben Hai-Hai to be the same person. A tradition recorded by Tosafos in Chagigah 9b has it that both ben Bag-Bag and ben Hai-Hai were converts to Judaism (

gerim Conversion to Judaism ( he, גיור, ''giyur'') is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. "Th ...

). Some speculate that their unusual names hid the true identities of

persecuted by

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

authorities during the Roman occupation of the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

. Another Rabbinic tradition holds that ben Bag-Bag was the person (sometimes described as a Roman soldier) who in a tale of

Shammai Shammai (50 BCE – 30 CE, he, שַׁמַּאי, ''Šammaʾy'') was a Jewish scholar of the 1st century, and an important figure in Judaism's core work of rabbinic literature, the Mishnah. Shammai was the most eminent contemporary of Hille ...

and Hillel requests the sages to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Some would also identify ben Bag-Bag with Yoḥanan ben Bag-Bag ( he, יוחנן בן בג בג), a tanna mentioned on Kiddushin 10b. A tanna by the name of ben Bag Bag appears several other times in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cente ...

, and scholars identify him as the same Yochanan ben Bag Bag.

References

Mishnah rabbis Pirkei Avot rabbis Converts to Judaism {{MEast-rabbi-stub