Answers Waiting For Questions - Part III

The first thing my friend, Rabbi Shamai Wahrman said when I asked him about the source of the story that I heard from Rabbi Wein, was that it sounded like a mixture of different Gemorahs. His initial thought was that it was from the piece that people call, The Kamtza Bar Kamtza Gemorah, which is studied on Tisha B'Av - but he and I perused through that section and it did not use that pasuk anywhere.

This morning I bumped into Rabbi Baruch Simon, who's working on his next sefer, here in the YU Library. He pointed out to me where the story is. It is in that section of Gittin (58a) and my friend was right - it's not the way Rabbi Wein said it (not the way my notes and memory say he said it):

The Rabbis taught in a braitah: There is a story about Rabi Yehoshuah ben Chananiah, in which he went to a big city in Rome. They told him, "There is one young boy in prison with beautiful eyes, pleasant appearance, and his hair arranged in curls." Rabi Yehoshua went and stood by the entrance of the prison. He said, "Who has given Jacob over for spoil and Israel to be plundered?" That young boy answered, saying, "Is it not Hashem! We sinned against him and did not want to go in his ways and did not listen to his Torah." (Both the question and answer are from Yishayahu 42:24.) Rabi Yehoshua ben Chanania said, "I am certain that this boy will become a legal decisor in Israel; I swear by Temple and its service that I will not budge from here until I redeem him for whatever they ask for him." The story goes that he did not move from that spot until he had redeemed the boy for a great deal of money. And it was only a short period of time until he became a legal decisor in Israel. And who was he? Rabi Yishmael ben Elisha.