his entire life immersed in Torah study and his criminal past is completely absent. Encounter with Yochanan It is said that Reish Lakish saw Rabbi Yochanan bathing in the Jordan, and mistaking him for a woman, at one bound he was beside him in the water. "Thy strength would be more appropriate for studying the Law," said R. Yochanan; "And thy beauty for women," answered Reish Lakish. Rabbi Yochanan promised Reish Lakish his sister's hand in marriage if the latter would rejoin the yeshiva and begin his studies anew. R. Yochanan might be called a teacher of Reish Lakish, but Reish Lakish, through his talent and diligence, soon became equal in standing to R. Yochanan. They are designated as "the two great authorities". While R. Yochanan was still in Sepphoris, teaching at the same time as Hanina bar Hama, Reish Lakish stood on an equality with him and enjoyed equal rights as a member of the yeshiva and council. When R. Yochanan went to Tiberias and founded an academy there, Shimon accompanied him and took the second position in the academy. His accomplishments and character traits Shimon exceeded even Yochanan in acuteness, and Yochanan admitted that his right hand was missing when Shimon was not present. "When [Shimon] discussed halakhic questions, it was as if he were uprooting mountains and rubbing them together," says Ulla. Yochanan was often compelled by Shimon's logic to surrender his own opinion and accept that of Shimon, and even to act in accordance with Shimon's views. Yet it is said in praise of Shimon that all his objections to Yochanan's conclusions were founded on the Mishnah, and that with him it was not a question of showing himself to be in the right, but of securing a clear and well-established decision, and that when he could find no support for his opinion he was not ashamed to abandon it. He had a strong love of truth and an unusually courageous way of saying what he thought. He even declared to the Patriarch Judah II that fear of the latter would never induce him to keep back God's word or any opinion derived from it; and once he ventured to convey a veiled rebuke to the patriarch for avarice. Neither did he hesitate to revoke decisions of his colleagues, including Yochanan, even when action had already been taken in accordance with those decisions. On one occasion,