Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi רבי יהודה הנשיא
Nasi, redactor of the Mishnah, leader of his generation
Tradition says he was born on the day Rabbi Akiva died: "the sun of one righteous man does not set before the sun of another rises". His father, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, led the generation after Bar Kokhba; the son inherited both the office of Nasi and Roman recognition—the Talmud tells of his friendship with "Antoninus".
His great decision was a painful one. The Oral Law was not to be written down. But generations were weakening, persecution continued, students scattered, and Rabbi Yehuda ruled: better to set aside one commandment than to let the whole Torah be forgotten. He gathered the traditions of the Tannaim, chose the wording—largely following Rabbi Meir's arrangement—and built six orders: Zeraim, Moed, Nashim, Nezikin, Kodashim, Taharot. Around the year 3948 the Mishnah appeared, and with it the language of all later Jewish law.
He was immensely wealthy and severe with himself, and suffered thirteen years of illness. His death closed the age of the Tannaim.
Chain of transmission
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel of Usha → Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi → Rabbi Yochanan, Rav (Abba Arikha), Shmuel of Nehardea
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Kiddushin 72b — “on the day Rabbi died, Rav Ashi was born”
- Ketubot 103b — the last days at Tzippori and the testament
- Bava Metzia 85a — Rabbi’s sufferings and the calf that sought his protection
- Mishnah — the code itself, which he compiled
Basis: tradition.