15 Kislev · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi - Rabbeinu HaKadosh
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi - Rabbeinu HaKadosh
Yahrzeit - 15 Kislev
Resting place - Hazafon, Tzippori
After the passing of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, his son Rabbi Yehuda became the head of the Sanhedrin. For nearly five decades he served as the political leader of the nation, the spiritual head and teacher of his generation. Our Sages of blessed memory, praising his qualities, said that he combined boundless devotion to Torah with true greatness. His students simply called him Rabbi - teacher, or Rabbeinu HaKadosh (Our Holy Rabbi).
Leading the Jewish people during a period of relative respite, Rabbi was able to prepare them for the long and difficult exile ahead.
Rabbi Yehuda and his students compiled and edited the Mishnah — the code of the fundamental laws of the Oral Torah.
Rabbi Yehuda was raised among the greatest sages of the preceding generation. His father sent him to study with Rabbi Yaakov of Kfar Chana - a renowned expert in all areas of halacha, nicknamed Raba Dematnita (master of the Mishnah).
He then studied with the famous sages - his father's friends - the students of Rabbi Akiva (except for Rabbi Meir), each of whom became for him a Raba Deulpana (master of in-depth study).
All his life Rabbi Yehuda regretted that he had not been able to study with Rabbi Meir, whom he held in high regard. However, Rabbi Meir had distanced himself from the house of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, and Rabbi Yehuda only had the chance to study with his students.
When Rabbi Yehuda became head of the Sanhedrin, his father's colleague, Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta, was still alive. This very humble, experienced man received the young leader as a student receives a teacher. Rabbi Yehuda, in turn, held the elderly sage in high regard.
Rabbi Yehuda's close circle included: Rabbi Eliezer (son of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai), Rabbi Yishmael (son of Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta), Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, and Sumchus - the brilliant student of Rabbi Meir - and Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya.
Hundreds of students studied in Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's yeshiva. Some came specially from Babylonia for this purpose. The best of the students was Rabbi Chiya. When Rabbi Chiya arrived in Eretz Yisrael together with his two sons - Yehuda and Chizkiyah - they were already considered renowned sages. Sometime later, Rabbi Chiya's nephew - Rav Abba bar Aivu - also came to study in Rabbi Yehuda's yeshiva. In the Talmud, Rav Abba bar Aivu is simply called Rav.
Rabbi's sons - Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Shimon - also became renowned Torah sages.
The Roman emperor Antoninus Pius was a close friend of Rabbi. He respected the sages and greatly valued Jewish wisdom.
Rabbi's friendship with the emperor had a positive effect on the situation of the Jews of that era.
Because of an illness that plagued him for many years, Rabbi was forced to move to Tzippori, a city with a more favorable climate. For seventeen years he headed the Sanhedrin in Tzippori.
Before his passing, Rabbi gathered his sons and students and, in their presence, said: "Master of the world, You know that all my life I labored with my ten fingers over the Torah and did not enjoy pleasure even with my smallest finger. May it be Your will that there be peace for my rest."
When word spread through Tzippori that Rabbi was near death, all the synagogues filled with worshippers who begged the Almighty to prolong Rabbi Yehuda's life.
The people did not want to believe that Rabbi's hour of death had come. Inspired by prayer, the people proclaimed: "Whoever says that Rabbi has died will be struck down by the sword."
When Rabbi's soul departed, his students were afraid to tell the people. Then one of them - Bar Kappara - went out into the street and, tearing his garments, said: "The angels and the righteous struggled over the Ark, the angels prevailed over the righteous, and took the Ark."
After these words, it became clear that Rabbi had passed away.
The main work of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's life was the systematization of the Oral Law and the compilation of the Mishnah, in which all the laws of Judaism were divided into tractates and organized into six orders.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi – Rabbeinu HaKadosh — "our holy teacher" - was the head of the Sanhedrin, the codifier of the Mishnah, upon which the Talmud and Jewish law - halacha - are based. Son of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, he was a direct descendant of King David. According to tradition, Yehuda HaNasi was born on the very day that Rabbi Akiva died a martyr's death. He received a solid education, spoke only Hebrew, making it the spoken language in his household instead of the commonly used Aramaic. Despite his wealth, he lived very simply, always surrounded by students, and devoted most of his time to leading the academies in Tiberias, Beit She'arim, and Tzippori. Both his contemporaries and later generations regarded Yehuda HaNasi with the greatest reverence, placing him alongside Shimon HaTzadik and Matityahu HaKohen. Most of Yehuda HaNasi's activity took place in Beit She'arim, where the yeshiva he led was located; he spent the last 17 years of his life in Tzippori, famous for its healthy climate, where he moved due to his failing health. Among Yehuda HaNasi's teachers were his father, as well as Yehuda bar Ilai, Shimon bar Yochai, and Rabbi Meir. The goal of Yehuda HaNasi's activity was to strengthen faith and consolidate the position of the Jews in Eretz Yisrael.
The recognition of Yehuda HaNasi by the Roman authorities and his personal wealth enabled him to raise the status of the Nasi to a level equal to that of a ruler. The Nasi became the spiritual and political leader of the Jewish people, and his court acquired royal splendor. Yehuda HaNasi's wealth allowed him to provide generous support to those studying Torah. In order to encourage Torah study, Yehuda HaNasi exempted the Torah scholars - Talmidei Chachamim - from paying municipal taxes. Yehuda HaNasi took a number of measures that improved the economic situation of the Jewish population and strengthened its position in those regions of Eretz Yisrael where, after the destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kochba revolt, the non-Jewish population had sharply increased. Thus, he officially excluded certain regions from the boundaries of the Holy Land, which relieved their residents of the obligation to pay the Temple tithe, and he also attempted to permit the use of the produce of the Sabbatical year. The influence of the Beit Din which he headed reached its highest level of authority under him, extending not only to the Galilee but to the whole country and the Jewish diaspora.
Under Yehuda HaNasi, the right to proclaim the new month and to reconcile the Jewish calendar with the solar year passed from the Torah scholars of Judea to the Beit Din. Yehuda HaNasi strengthened ties with the influential Babylonian diaspora. His policy toward Rome was marked by caution: realizing that the Jews were in no position to influence the course of events in the Roman Empire, Yehuda HaNasi believed that concern for this should be left to "He Who governs the destinies of nations."
Yehuda HaNasi's attitude toward the Romans was negative - his statement is well known: "Those who destroyed the Second Temple are destined to become prey to the Persians." (Yoma 10a) Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi's main work was the codification of the Mishnah: the primary task consisted of selecting material rather than deriving new halachic rulings. The compilation put together by Yehuda HaNasi became the Mishnah, and the rulings and statements of the Tannaim that were not included in this compilation came to be called Baraita. Many first-generation Amoraim were students of Yehuda HaNasi.
On his deathbed, Yehuda HaNasi instructed: "Let my son Shimon be the Chacham, my son Gamliel the Nasi, and let Chanina bar Chama preside" (Ket. 103b). This last testament shows that Yehuda HaNasi wished to restore the collective leadership that had existed before him: the Chacham, the Nasi, and the head (Av) of the Beit Din - with the difference that the right to appoint these positions was to belong to the Nasi rather than to the Sanhedrin, as had been the case before.
On the 15th of Kislev, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi ascended to the Heavenly Yeshiva and was buried in Beit She'arim. The Substituted Infant: Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was born on the very day that Rabbi Akiva died. Later, when Rabbi Yehuda had become a great rabbi, people would say:
"After the sun sets, a new dawn rises; G-d took Rabbi Akiva from us and gave us Rabbi Yehuda."
The Circumcision
Rabbi Yehuda's father, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, was a great-great-grandson of Hillel. In those days, the Roman emperor's decree forbidding the observance of the laws of the Torah was still in force. It was also forbidden to circumcise Jewish infants. Whoever violated the emperor's decree faced the death penalty, and not even newborns were spared. Nevertheless, Yehuda's father had his son circumcised on the eighth day, as required. This became known to the Roman governor, who ordered the child brought to court as proof of the father's crime. Yehuda's parents were overcome with grief, which drove them to seek help from their Roman neighbors. Their Roman neighbor was also a mother, and she had a newborn son named Antoninus. They hoped that, as a mother herself, she would understand them and would not refuse to help. They asked her to give them her son to present at the trial. Once the judge confirmed the child was uncircumcised, he would let them go home. The Roman woman agreed, and Yehuda's life was saved. "May G-d reward you," said Yehuda's mother, as she returned the son to the Roman woman. "May your son grow up to be a great and righteous man." Neither mother suspected then that their sons would become famous men. The Jewish woman's son later became one of the greatest rabbis, and the Roman woman's son became the Roman emperor Antoninus, a kind and wise ruler.
HaNasi
While still a very young man, Yehuda decided that he must study with the students of Rabbi Akiva. And so one day he mounted his donkey and set out on his journey. He traveled from one academy to another, from one teacher to another. Each teacher enriched his knowledge with something new. Once he was convinced he had learned all he could from one of them, he would move on to the next. Soon he knew the entire Torah and all its laws: those that were written down, and those that were passed on orally. Now, having returned to Usha, he was able to take a worthy place among the sages who sat in the Sanhedrin. The seating arrangement in the Sanhedrin was such that the elder, gray-haired sages sat on benches, while the younger, less experienced members of the assembly sat below at their feet. Yehuda usually sat below, among the young. Yet when important and complex questions were discussed, Yehuda often resolved them faster and better than the sages seated on the benches. Once one of them said: This young man's knowledge is so deep and thorough that he deserves a place among the sages on the benches. Everyone agreed with him, but when they ordered a bench brought for Yehuda, his father stopped them: Yehuda is still too young, he has much more to learn. The time will come when he will be worthy of this honor and take his seat among the sages. And so Yehuda remained among the students. Years passed, Yehuda married, and he already had three children. He continued to study and to teach. Yehuda deeply mourned the death of his father, Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel. That same year another disaster struck the land - clouds of locusts devoured the entire harvest in the fields, and the people faced famine. Yehuda took his father's place, and people began to call him "HaNasi," meaning "the exalted one." He became head of the Sanhedrin. Later, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi moved from Usha to the town of Beit She'arim. There, on Mount Carmel, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi founded an academy that would become famous for centuries. From that time on, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi came to be called simply Rabbi - Teacher. And to this day, when studying the Mishnah and Talmud, when a teacher refers to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, he simply says Rabbi, and everyone understands whom he means.
How the Mishnah Was Written Down
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi gathered Torah scholars and expositors from all over the land. He asked them to write down all the numerous laws and interpretations they had received from their teachers. In addition, they were to offer their own interpretations regarding various laws. Day and night they engaged in discussions and debates. Rabbi listened with equal respect to the opinions of the elders and to the opinions of gifted young students. He constantly encouraged young men to freely express their thoughts. Once, one of the respected rabbis said to Rabbi: "I do not think we should take into account the statements of these young men. It's like eating unripe grapes or drinking young wine." To which Rabbi replied: "Do not judge the contents by the jug. A new jug can hold old wine, and an old jug may sometimes have no wine at all." There were times when those gathered disagreed with Rabbi's opinion. And although he defended his own view, he always deferred the final decision to the majority. After all the discussions, the most important laws were selected, and Rabbi grouped them into the appropriate categories: laws of Shabbat and the festivals, laws of marriage, laws of agriculture, and others - six orders in all. He then wrote them down in simple and clear language, accessible to all. This work came to be called the "Mishnah." The Mishnah is the most important of Jewish books after the Five Books of Moses.
Grave of the Tzadik
There are two opinions regarding the burial place of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi: Tzippori or Beit She'arim, both based on conflicting passages in the Talmud.
It is quite possible that the tomb was originally prepared for Rebbi in Beit She'arim, but since he passed away on a Friday, he was instead buried in Tzippori, where he was at the time.
Compassion for Animals
Segulot with the Mishnah
In the merit of Rabbeinu HaKadosh, it is good on his yahrzeit or at his resting place to perform segulot connected with the Mishnah.
May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
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Grave: Yehuda HaNasi