Judah ha-Nasi

(late 2–early 3rd century)

   Patriarch and editor of the Mishnah. Judah was born into a family of Palestinian scholars and became the most erudite teacher of his time and the head of the bet din (rabbinical court). Feeling that the Jews under the Romans faced an uncertain future after the destruction of the Temple and the decimation of the community, Judah determined to achieve two great aims.

   The first was to reorganize Jewish life in Palestine and find a modus vivendi with the Roman authorities. Judah was well qualified for this task, as he enjoyed the friendship of many of his distinguished contemporaries among the Romans as well as the Jews. There is even a rabbinic story that the Roman emperor, probably Marcus Aurelius, had a tunnel dug from his palace to Judah’s home, so that he could listen to his teachings. Hebrew had to be revived as the national language. In Judah’s household the pure Hebrew of the Bible was used by everyone, and it is said that Judah’s disciples were able to have disputed passages from the Bible clarified by speaking to his servants.

   The second task was the compilation of the Mishnah. Mishnayot (interpretations of the Bible) had been current in a set oral form from the latter period of the Second Temple. These had never been compiled or codified. For this purpose Judah gathered around him the greatest sages of his day. For more than half a century, Judah and his chosen scholars worked through the masses of tradition. Finally, by 220 the decisions and interpretations of a hundred and forty- eight tannaim were grouped into six categories. Under ‘Seeds’ were all the agricultural laws; ‘Feasts’ dealt with the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays and the methods of determining the exact dates of the latter; ‘Women’ discussed the laws of betrothal, marriage and divorce; ‘Damages’ covered civil and criminal law;

   ‘Sacred Things’ dealt with sacrifices and temple ritual; while ‘Purity’ covered ritual cleanness and un-cleanness. Whether the Mishnah was reduced to writing at the time it was compiled is uncertain. But the rabbis were now satisfied that however extensive the next tragedy might be, the decisions of the leading scholars over six hundred years were indestructible. The last seventeen years of Judah’s life were spent at Sepphoris in the Galilee. His household was run on a sumptuous basis and rich and poor were given food at his table. He himself, however, lived a simple and frugal life and was known not only for his learning but also for his humility and the sanctity of his life. Before his death he is said to have lifted up his hands and cried out, ‘Lord of the Universe, it is well known to You that I strove with all my ten fingers for the Torah and did not satisfy as much as my little finger for personal satisfaction’. Judah died at the age of eighty-five and was buried in the sanctified necropolis of Bet Shearim, a holy city in the Galilee in which he had once lived and where the Sanhedrin had met. So great was the esteem in which he was held that the rabbis said of him, ‘Not since the days of Moses, until Judah, were learning and high office combined in one person’. At his burial even priests were allowed to participate, although this was against the normal rules of priestly sanctity.