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What was the given name of Rabbi Yose?

Was it Yosef or Yose? If it was Yose, is that a derivative of Yosef, or a totally different name with some other meaning or significance?

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  • Cf. Ezra 2:2 (and passim) "Yeshua".
    – msh210 ♦
    Jul 7, 2014 at 5:11
  • @msh210 I did ....maybe you meant to post that comment to this other recent question?
    – MTL
    Jul 7, 2014 at 14:05

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I believe (though I haven't seen my proof quoted in any sefer1) that "יוסי" is a derivative of "יוסף."

See the Gemara Bava Metzia, 117a (last few narrow lines), where there is a discussion about a leak in a multi-story apartment building, whether the guy living on the bottom (who is getting damaged by the water) needs to repair it, or if the guy on top (from whom the water comes) needs to pay for the repair.

ר' חייא בר אבא אמר העליון מתקן ור' אלעי משום ר' חייא בר' יוסי אמר התחתון מתקן וסימן ויוסף הורד מצרימה

Rabbi Chiya bar Abba says the tenant on the upper floor fixes it, and Rabbi Ilai quotes Rabbi Chiya bar Yose who says that the tenant on the lower floor fixes it; and a mnemonic is "ויוסף הורד מצרימה, and Yosef went down to Egypt (Breishis 39:1)2"
(Translation mine)

1 If you can give me a source, please do let me know!

2 The trick is that there are two Rabbis with the first name "Chiya," and the one whose father's name was "Yose" ruled that the tenant on the lower floor had to pay, and Yosef who went down to Egypt can remind you of this fact.

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  • Welcome, and impressive source (upvoted for the find, though theoretically the Gemara might have suggested the mnemonic just because יוסי sounds like/derived from יוסף, not because that was his actual name)
    – הנער הזה
    Jul 7, 2014 at 22:16
  • Not so impressive....I always wondered the same, and was delighted to run into this gemara, and so remembered it....I was wondering how long it would take for someone to poke that hole in my answer ;)
    – MTL
    Jul 7, 2014 at 22:22
  • Ha, well, I've reviewed Bava Metzia several times and this didn't pop up in my head when reading the question, so instead I'll attribute it to your bekius. The answer to this question is probably in hilkhos gittin, in the discussion of names, but I didn't get a chance to look anything up today
    – הנער הזה
    Jul 7, 2014 at 22:27
  • @Matt Find a definitive answer yet?
    – MTL
    Jul 23, 2014 at 2:47
  • no but a discussion elsewhere reminded me to check Rabbi JD Bleich's shiurim - among YU Semikha guys Rabbi Bleich is well known for spending much more time on the names in Gittin than anybody wants to hear about
    – הנער הזה
    Jul 23, 2014 at 3:34

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