רבי יהודה הנחתום

Rabbi Yehudah HaNachtom was a tanna of the third generation. He is not mentioned in the Mishnah at all; two of his teachings appear in the Tosefta, one concerning the boundaries of the techum of those who came up from Bavel, and one in the laws of kodashim. The Talmud Yerushalmi and the midrashim show that he was killed in the time of the gezeirot hashmad (the decrees of persecution), and some midrashim count him among the Asarah Harugei Malchut, the ten martyrs, which are read on the Yom Kippur Musaf service. Midrash Shir HaShirim says of him that in all his days he never walked four amot without Torah.

The name HaNachtom may show that he worked as a nachtom, a baker. The name “ben HaNachtom” was found on potsherds in the excavations at Metzada, and it may have been a family name. The Midrash explains the name differently: he brought out words of Torah that were as sweet as bread.

In the Tosefta to masechet Menachot, and in a baraita in the Gemara, a halacha is brought in the name of Rabbi Yehudah Nachtom concerning the sanctification of the kometz of the minchah. He is mentioned once more in the Talmud Bavli, in connection with a ruling of the chachamim. In the Tosefta to masechet Ohalot he testifies that although the eastern side of Keisari, Caesarea, in the north of Eretz Yisrael, is tamei with the tumah of the land of the nations, its colonnade is tahor.

The Talmud Yerushalmi tells that Rabban Gamliel let Rabbi Akiva know that he ought to be placed in niddui (a rabbinic ban) for holding back the witnesses who had seen the new moon, so that they did not reach Yerushalayim to testify. Rabbi Yehudah HaNachtom protested: Rabbi Akiva was never placed in niddui; rather, he was the head of Geder, and Rabban Gamliel sent and removed him from his post.

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