Reish Lakish (Bechoros 40)

First of all, he lived in Israel in the 3rd century of the Common Era.

His, uh, name is actually Shimon ben Lakish.

Nothing is known about his father, but he's often called Reish Lakish, which means the, the head of Lakish.

It may have to do with something with regards his later career as the leader of a band of highwaymen or robbers, as we shall see.

He was probably born in the city of Tiberias, Tveria, and he was active there throughout his life.

Uh, his background, as I mentioned, is largely unknown.

He was impoverished as a child, and like many, uh, impoverished youth of that time, he would earn his livelihood by selling himself as a gladiator to the Romans.

The Romans ha- had a tremendous love of what they called bread and circuses, which was a kind of governmental control where the government would provide a certain amount of free bread, in Rome in particular.

But to distract the, uh, people from their, uh, troubles and their oppression, they would mount these bloodthirsty live combats with professional soldiers, uh, often defeating untrained people, and this was often to the death, um, and, um, involving animals like, uh, starving lions and bears and so on.

It's a whole story that is too much for us to discuss now, but we will, God willing, later on in lectures.

At any rate, he was a professional fighter.

Think something like, you know, a Worldwide Wrestling Federation or like cage matches, uh, mixed martial arts, that kind of thing.