1. This work is an immensely learned and deeply creative interpretation of many fundamental Aggadot relating to the intellectual biographies of the Tannaim and Amoraim, including Hillel and Shammai, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Resh Lakish and Rabbi Yochanan, and many others.

2. It was said, "If all the sages of Israel were placed in one scale, and Eleazar ben Arach in the other, he would outweigh them all", and Yochanan described him as a "gushing stream" or "ever-flowing spring".