SHIMʿON BEN LAQISH was a third-century amora, generally known in the Jerusalem Talmud by his full name and in the Babylonian Talmud by the acronymic form ReSH (Rabbi Shimʿon) Laqish. Although Shimʿon may have had some early training in rabbinic learning (see J.T., Kil. 9.4, 32b), he eventually became a circus gladiator, perhaps out of financial distress (see J.T., Git. 4.9, 46a–b; Ter. 8.5, 45d). Later, a chance encounter with Yoḥanan (bar Nappaḥaʾ) led him to marry that sage's sister and enter the world of the rabbinate. He settled in Tiberias, the site of Yoḥanan's academy, and there became his colleague and close companion. The Talmud refers to them as the "two great[est] men of the world," that is, of their time (J.T., Ber. 8.6, 12c; and see B.T., Ket...