=eTaan21a

Excerpt from Taan. (Ta'anis) 21a as excerpted in Who's who in the
Talmud', by Shulamis Frieman, Jason Aronson Inc., 1995;

From entry for:
R' Yochanan (bar Nappacha) (amora -- 2nd generation -- d. 4039 --
Eretz Yisroel, b. in Tzippori (Sephoris).  Teacher-colleague of
Reish Lakish and R' Elezar ben Pedas; mentioned more than 1700(!)
times in Babylonian Talmud ... 

Excerpt from excerpt from (Taan 21a; JT Ked. 1:1)
(Babylonian Talmud , Ta'anis 21a; Jerusalem Talumud, Kedushin,
1:1)

" ... After exhausting the inheritance, he lived a life of great
poverty.  When the poverty became unbearable, he and his friend
Ilfa decdided to leave Torah study and find a job.  They said,
"Let us engage in business so that of us may be fulfilled the
verse [Deut. 15:4] "...there shall be no needy among you."

Before they had gone far, however, they sat down beneath a shaky
wall and began to eat their meal. Two angels appeared and R'
Yochanan heard one say to the other, "Let us throw down the wall
on them and kill them, for they are about to forsake the eternal
life and occupy themselves with temporary life."  The other angel
responded, "Leave them alone, for there is one of them that time
stands still for [ie, he will become a great man] [[remark, S.
Frieman]]                                        

R' Yochanan turned to Ilfa and asked him, "Did you hear anything?"
and Ilfa responded, "No."  R' Yochanan thought that if he heard it
and Ilfa did not, it must be that he was the one who still had
much to accomplish, and he told Ilfa, "I will return and continue
the study of Torah and fulfill the verse (Deut. 15:11) 'For the
poor shall never cease out of the land.'"  

     R' Yochanan returned to his studies and was appointed head of
the yeshiva. ...     "

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