A pupil once came to the bet ha-midrash, to R. Joshua, and said to him: "My dear master, tell me about the evening prayer. Is one obliged to say it or is it optional?"

R. Joshua replied: "It is optional and not obligatory."

The pupil left R. Joshua and went to Rabban Gamaliel, who was then the head of the college, and put to him the same question, whether the evening prayer is obligatory or optional.

Rabban Gamaliel replied: "It is obligatory."

Then the pupil said to Rabban Gamaliel: "But I have heard from R. Joshua that one is not obliged to say it if one does not wish to."

Rabban Gamaliel said: "Wait until all the scholars come to the college, and I will hear their opinion."

When they had all come, the pupil asked again: "Is the evening prayer obligatory or optional?"

And Rabban Gamaliel said: "It is obligatory." And he said again: "If there is anyone here who differs from my decision, let him say so."

Then R. Joshua said: "No, there is no one who differs from you."

Then R. Gamaliel said: "How can you say that there is no one who differs from me? I have been informed in your name that you had decided that the recital of the evening prayer is not obligatory. You are therefore opposed to me. Therefore, go quickly and stand there and tell us whether you have said so or not."

R. Joshua replied: "If I Were alive and you were dead, I could deny it, for one can give the lie to the dead, but since we are both alive, how can I give you the lie?"

Whereupon Rabban Gamaliel rose and delivered his lecture, while R. Joshua had to stand by silently and not take part in the discussion.

The interpreter of Rabban Gamaliel was a certain R. Huzpit, who continued lecturing until all the people became impatient and said to him: "Stop lecturing."

Then they said: "How long will you continue to vex R. Joshua? Come, we will depose Rabban Gamaliel from his leadership. But whom shall we put in his place? Shall we put R. Joshua in his place? He is a quarrelsome person and will annoy Rabban Gamaliel even more than Rabban Gamaliel annoyed him. Shall we put R. Akiba in his place? He does not come of distinguished ancestry, and R. Gamaliel will humiliate him so keenly that he may die. We will put at the head of the college R. Eliezer son of Azariah. He is a scholar and a rich man and of noble descent, and he is able to answer any legal question put to him. And if there is a favor to be obtained from the government, he is in a position to pay for it. Moreover, he had worthy parents, and R. Gamaliel cannot do anything to hurt him, even if he wanted to give him the evil eye."

So the rabbis went to him and said: "It would be a great pleasure to us if you would be the head

of our college."

R. Eliezer replied: "I will consult my family."

Then he went and asked his wife whether he should accept the post of head of the college.

She replied: "You may fare as Rabban Gamaliel did and tomorrow you may be deposed."

R. Eliezer said to his wife: "I will tell you a proverb. If one drinks out of a beautiful goblet and it gets broken the next day, it is not of much consequence. So even though I am head of the college only for one day and am deposed on the morrow, no great harm is done."

She said: "But you are a young man, you have not one gray hair on your head, whereas the head of a college should be an old man, and you are only eighteen years old."

Then a miracle happened and eighteen strands of gray hair grew on his head, so that the people thought he was an aged man, fully worthy of the position of the head of the college.

This is why R. Eliezer said: "I am like a man of seventy."

Not long afterwards, Rabban Gamaliel, and R. Joshua differed concerning a legal decision, and the rabbis sided with R. Joshua. Then R. Gamaliel said: "I will go and ask pardon of R. Joshua."

And when he entered the house of R. Joshua, he saw that the walls were black.

Then Rabban Gamaliel said to him: "I see from the blackness of your walls that you are a charcoal-burner."

R. Joshua replied to Rabban Gamaliel: "Woe to the generation of which you are a leader, for you know not how they live."

Then Rabban Gamaliel said: "Dear master, I have spoken too harshly against you, forgive me."

But R. Joshua refused to forgive him.

Then R. Gamaliel said: "Forgive me for my father's sake." and R. Joshua forgave him.