GAMALIEL III.:

By: Solomon Schechter, Wilhelm Bacher

Son of Judah I., who before his death appointed him his successor as nasi (Ket. 103a). Scarcely anything has been handed down concerning his deeds or concerning the whole period of his activity (within the first third of the third century). The revision of the Mishnah, begun by his father, was without doubt concluded under him. Three sayings of Gamaliel III. are incorporated in the Mishnah (Abot ii. 2-4). The first deals with the study of the Torah and with devoting oneself to the general welfare of the public. The second warns against the selfishness of the Roman rulers: "Beware of the government, because rulers attach a man to themselves for their own interests; they seem to be friends when it is to their advantage, but they abandon him when he is in need." The third saying recommends submission to the will of God: "Make His will thy will, so that He may make thy will like His own; make thy will of no account beside His, so that He may make the will of others of no account before thine." The Tosefta contains but one saying of Gamaliel (Soṭah vi. 8), a paraphrase of Num. xi. 22, in which Moses complains of the unreasonableness of the people's wishes; a baraita (Men. 84b) contains a halakic exegesis of Gamaliel. Hoshaiah asks Gamaliel's son, Judah II., concerning a halakic opinion of his father's (Yer. Ber. 60d). Johanan tells of a question which Gamaliel III. answered for him (Ḥul. 106a). Samuel, the Babylonian amora, tells of differences of opinion between Gamaliel and other scholars (Niddah 63b; B. B. 139b; Yer. B. B. 10d).

S. S. W. B.