For the source text click/tap here: Chullin 59
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The Gemara on our daf describes a lion of mythical proportions – the lion of Be-Ilai’i – and continues by relating the following story.
The Emperor once said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah, ‘Your God is likened to a lion, for it is written:
‘The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?’ (Amos 3:8). But what is the greatness of this? A horseman can kill the lion’! He replied: ‘He has not been likened to the ordinary lion, but to the lion of Be-Ilai’i!’ ‘I desire’, said the Emperor, ‘that you show it to me’.
We explore the figure of ben Chananya.