Commentary for Berakhot 10:9
ובנים לא היכי דמי אילימא דהוו להו ומתו והא א"ר יוחנן דין גרמא דעשיראה ביר אלא הא דלא הוו ליה כלל והא דהוו ליה ומתו.
What is meant [by childlessness] ? Is it to be supposed to refer to a man who had children but they died ? Lo, R. Johanan himself said, "This is the bone of my tenth son!" Nay, the latter teaching refers to one who never had children, the other to one who has been bereft of his children.
Abraham Cohen Footnotes to the English Translation of Masechet Berakhot
By "bone" the commentators understand a tooth. Ten children of R. Johanan died, and he preserved a tooth of the last to show to people who had suffered bereavement, for the purpose of inducing them to evidence the same spirit of resignation as himself. Consequently it would seem that R Johanan regarded the loss of children, but not sterility, as "chastenings of love."
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