Nachum Ish Gamzu

Nachum Ish Gamzu's name is described in the Talmud as having grown colloquially from Nachum's tendency to react to misfortune with unyielding optimism, in each case uttering a phrase that became famously attached to him: "gam zu le-tovah," meaning, "this, too, is for the best."

There are references in the Talmud to a Nechemiah ha`Imsoni,[2] who has been proposed as possibly being the same person as Nachum Ish Gamzu.

[3] Nachum was the teacher of Rabbi Akiva, and taught him the exegetical principle of inclusion and exclusion ("ribbui u-mi'uṭ").

However, in the sentence "You shall fear [et] the Lord your God",[6] he did not explain the particle "et" before "the Lord," since he did not wish to cause any one else to share in the reverence due to God; he justified his inconsistency with the explanation that the omission in this passage was as virtuous as was his resort to interpretation in all the other passages.

In deepest grief, and reproaching himself with having perhaps caused by his delay the man's death, he cursed himself and wished himself all the troubles to which his pupils referred.