Ilfa and R. Johanan were studying the Torah together, and they were so poor that they had no bread to eat. So they said to one another: "Let us go out into the world and engage in business, so that we may have bread to eat, and we will thus fulfill the verse: 'That there shall be no poor men in Israel'" (Deut. 15.4).

So they went away to engage in business. After walking a while, they sat down near a stone wall in the middle of the field, which was very old and almost falling down. They were getting ready to eat, when two angels came down from heaven and placed themselves behind the wall.

Thereupon R. Johanan heard them talking to one another and saying, "Let us throw the wall down upon the two rabbis and kill them, for they abandon the eternal world and desire to join the temporary world."

The other angel replied, "No, we will not do it, for one of them is destined to be a great man in Israel and learned in the Torah. He must not die yet."

This conversation was heard only by R. Johanan. Ilfa did not hear it.

R. Johanan said to Ilfa, "Have you heard any one speaking behind the wall?"

Ilfa replied, "No, I have not heard anyone speak."

Then R. Johanan thought, "Since I alone heard the conversation and Ilfa did not, I suppose that the angel meant me." Accordingly he said to Ilfa, "I will return and study the Torah again, even if I have to suffer greater privation than before. I will fulfill the verse, 'That the poor man shall never cease from the land' (ib, 11)."

So R. Johanan returned to his home and studied and became a great man in the Torah, so that the people appointed him head of the college.

After a while Ilfa also returned home, but he did not bring any money, nor had he learned any Torah.

Then the people said to Ilfa, "If you had remained at home, you would have become head of the college"; for Ilfa had been a better student than R. Johanan.

Ilfa replied: "Although I have been away, I still know more than R. Johanan. Let anyone come and ask me a question from the Mishna."

The people came and asked him, and he answered all the questions.