The phrase most famous attributed to Rabbi Elazar ben Araj —preserved in the Mishnah, Pirkei Avot 2:9— is:

“Lev tov — good Heart.”

📜 Translation and context:

When her teacher Rabban Iojanán ben Zakkai asked every one of his five disciples that he would say what was the most important quality that should guide the life of man, Rabbi Elazar ben Araj said: “a good heart.”

His teacher concluded:

“I prefer the words of Elazar ben Araj, because in yours is included on all of you.”

💡 Profound meaning:

“Lev tov” does not simply mean goodness sentimental. In the rabbinic tradition represents the total integrity of the human being: thought, emotion and action aligned with truth and compassion. It is the heart as center of consciousness, which unites the wisdom of ethics.

1) Identity and time

• Name: ר׳ אלעזר בן ערך (Rebbi Elazar/Eleázar ben Araj).
• Century: I d. C., transition late Second Temple → generation of Yavne following the destruction of 70.
• Teacher: Rabban Iojanán ben Zakkai.
• Couple (not to be confused): Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria (another Tana, of a priestly race, president for a day; different character).

Key source: appears between the five principal disciples of Rabban Iojanán ben Zakkai in Mishnah, Avot 2:8-9 (according to the numbering 2:9-10).

2) Portrait rabbinical (Avot) and teacher evaluation

In Avot 2:8-9, Rabban Iojanán presents its five students and ask them to identify the trait supreme for life.

• To Elazar ben Araj describes it as “מַעְיָן הַמִּתְגַּבֵּר / ma ayán hamitgaber”: “a source that flows with force” (ability to generate, expand, and renew Torah; not only to retain it).
• When every disciple proposes a trait rector, Elazar ben Araj choose “לֵב טוֹב / lev tov” (good heart).
• Verdict teacher: “I prefer the words of Elazar ben Araj, because in yours is included the of you” (Avot 2:9).

Meaning: it is considered the prototype of the wise, creative, and ethical, whose “good heart” integrates intellect, character, and practical judgment.

3) The episode of the “amnesia” and its moral

The tradition's most famous narrates that Elazar ben Araj departed from Yavne and moved to a bath of pleasures (the waters of Deyomset/Diomesis, with textual variants; some of the witnesses speak of Emmaus), where social comfort and leisure disconnected from the beit midrash.

• Result: forgot a part of your study to the point read evil “הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם / Ha-ḥodesh hazeh lakhem” (“This month shall be for you...”, Ex 12:2) as “הֶחָרֵשׁ הָיָה לִבָּם / Ha-ḥeresh has libam” (“her heart was a deaf/mute”).
• His colleagues they prayed for him and your memory/flow of Torah it was restored.

Sources: Talmud Bavlí, Shabbat 147b (a story of the apartment by the bathrooms/delights) and Avot of Rabbi Nathan, version A cap 14 (side B) that develops the episode of the reading is wrong.

Read historiographical (level of analysis): the story works as parable disciplinary on the risks of isolated from a study circle and underestimate the social environment; stresses also the tension post-70 between Yavne (center of reconstruction, rabbinic), and other colonies more hedonistic.

4) Teachings and sayings attributed

Although it is not prolific in maximum scattered as other Tanaím, the essential focuses on:

• Ethics central: “lev tov” the axis that contains other virtues (Avot 2:9).
• Model wise: “spring grow” —creativity halachic/aggádica responsible, not mere repetition (Avot 2:8).

5) the Presence in literature tanaítica and talmudic

• Mishnah, Avot 2:8-9: profile and maximum of the “lev tov”.
• Avot of Rabbi Nathan To 14 (side-B): expansion portrait, residential choice, oblivion and restoration through prayer.
• Bavlí, Shabbat 147b: story of the move to Diyomset/Diomesis and the danger of pleasures that embotan the study.
  (There are mentions and traditions minor scattered; his figure is less “legal” which, e.g., R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus, and more “programmatic/ethics” within Avot).

6) historical Context-intellectual

• Generation of Yavne: after a 70, Rabban Iojanán ben Zakkai reorganizes leadership pharisaic-rabbinic. Within this cast, Elazar ben Araj embodies the innovative potential (in front of the “bor sud” —cistern that does not lose a drop— of R. Eliezer b. Hyrcanus in the same passage of Avot).
• Message for the canon: pair “cistern faithful” vs “spring potent” design a binomial pedagogical: memory and creativity are complementary; without community and discipline, even the spring is exhausted.

7) key Issues and lessons

1. The choice of the environment: the social geography the wise mind (Shabbat 147b).
2. Ethics as a framework: “good heart” it is not sentimentality; it is criterion integrator ordering mind, character, and act (Avot 2:9).
3. Risk of isolation: depart from the ecosystem study entails loss of competence; recovery requires community and prayer (RNA 14).
4. Model of intellectual leadership: the creative flow must remain anchored in the tradition and in a community living.

8) Differentiation with figures homonymous

• Elazar ben Araj ≠ Elazar ben Azaria (this last one: rich, young president for a day, which is famous for “Harei ani keven shiv'im shaná”; see Berachot 27b–28a). The confusion it is common in non-specialized; the sources above define with clarity.

9) approximate Chronology

• Before the 70: disciple featured Rabban Iojanán b. Zakkai.
• After 70: phase Yavne; at some point, transfer to baths area/pleasures (Deyomset/Emmaus), decline temporary, restoration later (Shabbat 147b; RNA 14).