Rabbinical eras |
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Rabbi Nehemiah was a rabbi who lived circa 150 AD (fourth generation of tannaim).
He was one of the great students of Rabbi Akiva, and one of the rabbis who received semicha from R' Judah ben Baba
The Talmud equated R' Nechemiah with Rabbi Nehorai: "His name was not Rabbi Nehorai, but Rabbi Meir." [1]
His son, R' Yehudah BeRabi Nechemiah, studied before Rabbi Tarfon, but died at a young age after damaging R' Tarfon's honor, after R' Akiva predicted his death. [2]
In the Talmud, all anonymous sayings in the Tosefta are attributed to R' Nechemiah. [3] However, Sherira Gaon said that this does not mean they were said by R' Nechemiah, but that the laws in question were transmitted by R' Nechemiah. [4]
In the Talmud, many times he disagrees with R' Judah bar Ilai on matters of halacha.
He is attributed as the author of the Mishnat ha-Middot (ca. AD 150), making it the earliest known Hebrew text on geometry, although some historians assign the text to a later period by an unknown author.
The Mishnat ha-Middot argues against the common belief that the Bible defines the geometric ratio π (pi) as being exactly equal to 3, based on the description in 1 Kings 7:23 (and 2 Chronicles 4:2) of the great bowl situated outside the Temple of Jerusalem as having a diameter of 10 cubits and a circumference of 30 cubits. He maintained that the diameter of the bowl was measured from the outside brim, while the circumference was measured along the inner brim, which with a brim that is one handbreadth wide (as described in the subsequent verses 1 Kings 7:24 and 2 Chronicles 4:3) yields a ratio from the circular rim closer to the actual value of π. [5]
The Mishnah or the Mishna is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah. It is also the first major work of rabbinic literature. The Mishnah was redacted by Judah ha-Nasi at the beginning of the 3rd century CE in a time when, according to the Talmud, the persecution of the Jews and the passage of time raised the possibility that the details of the oral traditions of the Pharisees from the Second Temple period would be forgotten. Most of the Mishnah is written in Mishnaic Hebrew, but some parts are in Aramaic.
The Tosefta is a compilation of the Jewish oral law from the late 2nd century, the period of the Mishnah.
The Molten Sea or Brazen Sea was a large basin in the Temple in Jerusalem made by Solomon for ablution of the priests. It is described in 1 Kings 7:23–26 and 2 Chronicles 4:2–5. It stood in the south-eastern corner of the inner court. According to the Bible it was five cubits high, ten cubits in diameter from brim to brim, and thirty cubits in circumference. The brim was like the rim of a cup or like a lily blossom, and its thickness was a hand breadth", three or four inches. It was placed on the backs of twelve oxen, standing with their faces outward. It was capable of containing two or three thousand baths of water. The fact that it was a wash basin which was too large to enter from above lends to the idea that water would likely have flowed from it down into a subcontainer beneath. The water was originally supplied by the Gibeonites, but was afterwards brought by a conduit from Solomon's Pools. The molten sea was made of brass or bronze, which Solomon had taken from the captured cities of Hadarezer, the king of Zobah. Ahaz later removed this laver from the oxen, and placed it on a stone pavement. It was destroyed by the Chaldeans.
Shimon bar Yochai, also known by his acronym Rashbi, was a 2nd-century tannaitic sage in ancient Judea, said to be active after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. He was one of the most eminent disciples of Rabbi Akiva, and attributed by many Orthodox Jews with the authorship of the Zohar, the chief work of Kabbalah.
Tannaim were the rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 10–220 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 210 years. It came after the period of the Zugot ("pairs"), and was immediately followed by the period of the Amoraim ("interpreters").
Sherira bar Hanina more commonly known as Sherira Gaon was the Gaon of the Academy of Pumbeditha. He was one of the most prominent Geonim of his period, and the father of Hai Gaon, who succeeded him as Gaon. He wrote the Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon, a comprehensive history of the composition of the Talmud.
Rabbah bar Nachmani was a Jewish Talmudist known throughout the Talmud simply as Rabbah. He was a third-generation amora who lived in Babylonia.
Ravina II or Rabina II was a Babylonian rabbi of the 5th century.
Rabbi Meir or Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishna. He was considered one of the greatest of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139-163). He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah. His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara.
Meir ben Todros HaLevi Abulafia, also known as the Ramah, was a major Sephardic Talmudist and Halachic authority in medieval Spain.
Judah ben Isaac Messer Leon (1166–1224) was a French tosafist born in Paris.
The Baraita on the Thirty-two Rules or Baraita of R. Eliezer ben Jose ha-Gelili is a baraita giving 32 hermeneutic rules, or middot, for interpreting the Bible. As of when the Jewish Encyclopedia was published in 1901–1906, it was thought to no longer exist except in references by later authorities. However, it was discovered in 1933 by H. G. Enelow, who published it in his "Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer," and in 1947 it was published again in Margaliot's edition of Midrash Hagadol to Genesis.
Rav Huna Kamma was a rabbi of the 2nd century AD and Babylonian Exilarch, allegedly descending from King [David]. The Seder Olam Zutta refers to him as "Anani", both names being a derivative of "Hananiah". The exact time of his tenure as exilarch is unknown, but it was estimated to have been between 170 and 210 AD.
Pumbedita Academy or Pumbedita Yeshiva was a yeshiva in Babylon during the era of the Amoraim and Geonim sages. It was founded by Judah bar Ezekiel and, with the Sura Academy founded in 225 by Abba Arika, was an influential and dominant yeshiva for about 800 years.
Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century, after the codification of the Talmud. Rabbinic Judaism gained predominance within the Jewish diaspora between the 2nd to 6th centuries, with the development of the Oral Law to control the interpretation of Jewish scripture and to encourage the practice of Judaism in the absence of Temple sacrifice and other practices no longer possible, since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
1 Kings 7 is the seventh chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter belongs to the section focusing on the reign of Solomon over the unified kingdom of Judah and Israel. The focus of this chapter is the reign of Solomon, the king of Israel.
Biblical mile is a unit of distance on land, or linear measure, principally used by Jews during the Herodian dynasty to ascertain distances between cities and to mark the Sabbath limit, equivalent to about ⅔ of an English statute mile, or what was about four furlongs. The basic Jewish traditional unit of distance was the cubit, each cubit being roughly between 46–60 centimetres (18–24 in) The standard measurement of the biblical mile, or what is sometimes called tǝḥūm šabbat, was 2,000 cubits.
Rav Zemah ben Paltoi, also spelt Tzemach ben Poltoi, Zemaḥ Gaon,, was the Gaon of Pumbeditha from 872 up until his death in 890.
Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon, also known as the Letter of Rav Sherira Gaon, and the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon, is a responsum penned in the late 10th century in the Pumbedita Academy by Sherira Gaon, the Chief Rabbi and scholar of Babylonian Jewry, to Rabbi Jacob ben Nissim of Kairouan, in which he methodologically details the development of rabbinic literature, bringing down a chronological list of the Sages of Israel from the time of the compilation of the Mishnah, to the subsequent rabbinic works, spanning the period of the Tannaim, Amoraim, Savoraim, and Geonim under the Babylonian Exilarchs, concluding with his own time. Therein, Sherira Gaon outlines the development of the Talmud, how it was used, its hermeneutic principles, and how its lessons are to be applied in daily life whenever one rabbinic source contradicts another rabbinic source. It is considered one of the classics in Jewish historiography.
2 Chronicles 4 is the fourth chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or of the second part of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. This chapter belongs to the section focusing on the kingship of Solomon. The focus of this chapter is the construction of the temple's interior decoration.