Judah ha-Nasi

Judah ha-Nasi (born ad 135—died c. 220) was one of the last of the tannaim, the small group of Palestinian masters of the Jewish Oral Law, parts of which he collected as the Mishna (Teaching). The Mishna became the subject of interpretation in the Talmud, the fundamental rabbinic compendium of law, lore, and commentary. Because of his holiness, learning, and eminence, Judah was variously called ha-Nasi (“the prince”), rabbi (“teacher”), rabbenu (“our teacher”), and rabbenu ha-qadosh (“our saintly teacher”). A descendant of the great sage Hillel, Judah succeeded his father, Simeon ben Gamaliel II, as patriarch (head) of the Jewish community in Palestine and, consequently, of the Sanhedrin as well, at that time chiefly a legislative body (in earlier times, the Sanhedrin had been primarily a court). As patriarch at Bet Sheʿarim and later at Sepphoris (both located in Galilee, a Palestinian region of historic importance), he maintained a liaison with the Roman authorities and, according to the Talmud, was a friend of one of the Antonine emperors (either Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius), with whom he discussed such philosophic questions as the nature of reward and punishment. When Judah died, he was buried at Bet Sheʿarim.

Because the Written Law of the Jews (found in the Pentateuch, or Five Books of Moses) could not cover all exigencies, over the centuries a body of Oral Law had developed. In order to preserve this tradition, Judah spent some 50 years in Bet Sheʿarim sifting the Oral Law, which he then compiled into six orders dealing with laws related to agriculture, festivals, marriage, civil law, the temple service, and ritual purity. His purpose was not only to preserve a storehouse of tradition and learning but also to decide which statement of Halakhot (laws) was normative. Although he edited the six orders of the Mishna by subject matter, according to the method of two earlier tannaim, Rabbi Akiba and Akiba’s pupil Rabbi Meïr, Judah made profound contributions of his own. He determined which rabbinic opinions were authoritative, at the same time carefully preserving minority opinions in case laws should be changed in the future and a precedent for these changes be required. On the other hand, he omitted laws that were obsolete or otherwise lacking in authority. The Mishna became the subject for commentaries by subsequent sages in Palestine and Babylonia called amoraim; these commentaries became known as the Gemara (Completion), which, along with the Mishna, make up the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. (The term Talmud is also used alternatively for the commentaries, instead of Gemara.)