Tannaim תנאים
The sages of the mishnaic era—from Hillel and Shammai to Rabbi Yehuda haNasi, some two hundred and twenty years.
Tanna means "one who repeats" in Aramaic: the teaching passed by oral repetition, and a man who held thousands of traditions in memory was a living library. The era begins where the zugot end—the last pair being Hillel and Shammai—and runs five or six generations—some two hundred and twenty years, down to the writing of the Mishna.
It was a time of unprecedented pressure: the Temple's destruction, Yavne, the Bar Kochba revolt, Hadrian's persecutions, the Ten Martyrs. It was also the time when the whole structure of Jewish life without a Temple took shape.
Among them: Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai, who saved Yavne; Rabbi Akiva, who began learning at forty; Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Yishmael. The era closes with Rabbi Yehuda haNasi and the Mishna, around 3948. Tannaitic material outside the Mishna is called baraita.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Avot 1–2 — the chain of the pairs and the houses of Hillel and Shammai
- Gittin 56a — Yochanan ben Zakkai and the saving of Yavneh
- Berachot 61b — Rabbi Akiva: “all my life I waited for this verse”
- Sanhedrin 86a — an anonymous mishnah is Rabbi Meir’s
Rishonim
- Rambam, introduction on Mishneh Torah — the generations of the Tannaim in the chain of transmission
Basis: Talmud and midrash.