Nehemiah ben Hushiel נחמיה בן חושיאל
head of the Jews of Jerusalem in the Persian years
Little is known of him, and most of that from sources written afterwards and at a distance. In 614, when the army of Khosrow II came before Jerusalem, Jewish detachments joined the Persians; Nehemiah is named as their head and, in several sources, as governor of the city after its fall.
The three years in which he held Jerusalem raised strong messianic expectations: apocalyptic writings of the time—Sefer Zerubavel and some of the piyyutim—connect him directly with the coming of redemption. There is evidence of an attempt to renew the sacrifices on the Temple Mount.
About 617 the Persians returned the government of the city to the Christians and, according to Jewish sources, executed Nehemiah. Neither his year of birth nor the details of his life have been preserved.
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Places
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sefer Zerubavel and the piyyutim of the Persian years — the messianic expectations attached to his name