Simeon ben Zoma, also known as Simon ben Zoma, Shimon ben Zoma or simply Ben Zoma (), was a tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. His name is used without the title "Rabbi" because, like Ben Azzai, he died at a young age, remaining in the grade of "pupil" and never receiving semikhah (rabbinical ordination). Ben Zoma and Ben Azzai are often mentioned together distinguished representatives of this class. Like Ben Azzai, also, he seems to have belonged to the inner circle of Joshua ben Hananiah's disciples, and a halakhic controversy between them is reported in which Ben Zoma was the victor. Esoteric contemplation Ben Zoma was specially noted as an interpreter of the Jewish Scriptures, so that it was said, "With Ben Zoma died the last of the exegetes" ("darshanim"). The principal subject of Ben Zoma's exegetic research was the first chapter of Genesis. One of his questions on this chapter, in which he took exception to the phrase "God made", has been handed down by the Judean aggadists (though without the answer), with the remark, "This is one of the Biblical passages by which Ben Zoma created a commotion all over the world". An interpretation of the second verse of the same chapter has been handed down in a tannaitic tradition, together with the following anecdote: Joshua ben Hananiah was walking one day, when he met Ben Zoma, who was about to pass him without greeting. Thereupon Joshua asked: "Whence and whither, Ben Zoma?" The latter replied: "I was lost in thoughts concerning the account of the Creation." And then he told Joshua his interpretation of Genesis 1:2. When speaking to his disciples on the matter, Joshua said, "Ben Zoma is outside," meaning thereby that Ben Zoma had passed beyond the limit of permitted research. As a matter of fact, Ben Zoma was one of the four who entered into the "garden" of esoteric knowledge (see Ben Azzai). It was said of him that he beheld the secrets of the garden and "was struck" with mental aberration. The disciples of Akiva applied to the limitless theosophic speculations, for which Ben Zoma had to suffer, the words of Proverbs 25:16, "Have you found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for you, lest you be filled with it, and vomit it". The "garden" exercise allowed the rabbinate to examine Christian claims and Greek philosophical ideas while formulating