רבן גמליאל ברבי

Rabban Gamliel beRabbi — that is, the son of Rebbi — known also as Rabban Gamliel the Third, was Nasi of the Sanhedrin in the third century, in the generation of passage between the tannaim and the amoraim. In his will, brought in Ketubot, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi appointed his son Gamliel as Nasi, his son Rabbi Shimon as chacham, the one responsible for teaching in the Sanhedrin, and Rabbi Chanina bar Chama to sit at the head, that is, as av beit din. His father was niftar around 220, and from then he served as Nasi. Three mishnayot of his open the second perek of Pirkei Avot.

The center of his activity was the Galil, in the triangle of Teveria, Beit She’arim and Tzippori. Until his father’s day the nesiut had passed from father to son, and Rebbi, whose standing and wealth were without precedent and who held a particular relationship with the Roman authorities, evidently judged it unwise to leave the whole of that authority in one pair of hands in so difficult a period; his will divided it among three. To his son he added the charge to conduct himself firmly with the talmidim. His beit din is thought to have set aside the prohibition on plowing in the year before shemitah from Shavuot onward, ruling instead that the prohibition begins only thirty days before Rosh Hashanah.

He warned against drawing too close to the authorities: be careful of those in power, for they bring a man near only for their own purposes, appearing as friends when it suits them and not standing by a person in his hour of need. Among his other teachings: good is the study of Torah together with a worldly occupation, for the toil of the two together causes sin to be forgotten, and any Torah that has no work alongside it will in the end cease; those who occupy themselves with the needs of the community should do so for the sake of Heaven, for then the merit of their fathers aids them; make His will your will so that He make your will His; and whoever has compassion on the creatures receives compassion from Heaven. He was niftar about 235, and was followed by Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah. At Beit She’arim two decorated burial chambers were found bearing the names Rabbi Gamliel and Rabbi Shimon in Hebrew and Greek, taken to be the graves of the Nasi and his brother.