He was a talented poet and storyteller, and it is said that, at the wedding feast of Simeon ben Judah ha-Nasi, he kept the guests captivated with fables until their food got cold.
[11] According to another source, Bar Kappara took revenge differently: at the feast which Judah subsequently gave in Bar Kappara's honor, the latter told a vast number of fox fables (300, it is reported) and the guests left the food untouched to listen to him.
Judah, upon hearing of this from his son, informed Bar Kappara of his firm resolve never to grant him ordination.
The most probable view is Abraham Krochmal's, that Bar Kappara intended it as a criticism of Judah's unrelenting severity toward young and old.
Among the most important of its scholars were Hoshaiah Rabbah, "the father of the Mishnah",[16] and Joshua ben Levi, the distinguished aggadist, who to a large extent transmitted bar Kappara's aggadic teachings.
[18] It is related that once while walking on the mole of Caesarea and seeing a Roman who had escaped from a shipwreck in utter destitution, he took him to his house and provided him with clothing and all necessaries, including money.
Later, this castaway became proconsul of Caesarea, and occasion soon offered itself to show his gratitude to his rescuer, when Jews involved in a political disturbance were arrested, and he released them on bar Kappara's intervention.
[22] In fact, it is questionable whether the work ever reached Babylonia, as the one passage in the Bavli referring to it originated with Shimon ben Lakish, a Yerushalmi.
[23] In any case, the numerous passages from his Mishnah that found their way into the Talmud suffice for judgment upon its character.
Menachem Meiri[24] quite correctly designates it as a supplement to the Mishnah of Judah haNasi, intended chiefly to explain it, and, on rare occasions, to give differing opinions (see Baraita).
Bar Kappara ascribed great value to the study of astronomy: "He who can calculate the solstices and movements of the planets and fails to pay attention to these things, to him may be applied the verse (Isaiah 5:12) 'They regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands".
He explained Genesis 9:27 as follows: "The words of the Torah should be recited in the speech of Japheth (i.e. Greek) in the tents of Shem (i.e. in the synagogues and schools)".
[30] Bar Kappara's respect for the exact sciences was equaled by his aversion for metaphysical speculation, which in his time flourished among Jews and Christians in the form of gnosis.