"[8] His popularity, however, which he enjoyed throughout his life, and which rendered him immortal among the mystics, rests not on his scholarship, but on his saintliness and supposed thaumaturgic powers.
There is a story which relates that when the son of Johanan ben Zakai was very sick, the father solicited the prayers of Hanina.
The overjoyed father could not refrain from expressing his admiration for his wonderful pupil, stating that he himself might have prayed the whole day without doing any good.
[11] Another legend states that, while traveling, he was caught in a shower and prayed "Master of the universe, the whole world is pleased, while Hanina alone is annoyed."
Arriving home, he altered his prayer: "Master of the universe, shall all the world be grieved while Hanina enjoys his comfort?"
Indeed, it became proverbial that, while the whole world was provided for through Hanina's great merits, he himself sustained life from one Sabbath eve to another on a basket of carob beans.
In spite of the miracle, Hanina's wife induced him to collect from heaven an advance portion of his future lot.
She awoke full of regret at the importunity which had deprived his table of a leg, and insisted that he pray for the withdrawal of the treasure.
As this continued for several days, the thieves concluded to free the animal, lest it starve to death and make their premises foul smelling.
A comparatively late mishnah remarks, "With the death of Hanina ben Dosa wonder-workers (anshe ma'aseh) ceased to exist".
A contemporary rabbi, Eleazar of Modi'im, lecturing on Exodus 18:21, cited Hanina ben Dosa and his colleagues as examples of the expression "men of truth".
[19] Two centuries later an aggadist, commenting on Isaiah 3:3, said, "By the term 'honorable man' is meant one through whose merits Heaven respects [is favorable to] his generation; such a one was Hanina ben Dosa".
[20] Nor was Hanina's wife soon forgotten; long after her death, legend relates, a party of seafarers espied a work-basket studded with diamonds and pearls.
A diver attempted to seize it, but was deterred by a bat kol which said that the precious basket was designed for the wife of Hanina ben Dosa, who would eventually fill it with tekhelet wool for the saints of the future.