רבי יהודה הנשיא

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi — referred to in the sources simply as “Rebbe” and as Rabbeinu HaKadosh (“our holy teacher”) — stands at the culmination of the Tannaitic generations. The Kuzari places him after the generation of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosi, and their colleagues, marking him as the figure who concludes that chain of transmission (5th and last generation of Tannaim).

He appears extensively throughout the Talmud, particularly in tractates dealing with civil and ritual law. In Bava Metzia and Bava Batra his rulings on overreaching in commerce (ona’ah) and on the betrothal customs of returning gifts are set in dialogue with the views of Rabbi Natan. In Shevuot he discusses the cancellation of debts secured by a pledge in the Sabbatical year, debating Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel; in Kiddushin he treats the validity of betrothal; and in Avodah Zarah he and his court are recorded permitting certain foods and reconsidering earlier decrees, alongside his teaching deriving the invalidity of circumcision performed by a non-Jew from Scripture. He also appears in the midrashic literature, including an aggadic teaching in the Mekhilta-style material on Amalek’s march before attacking Israel at Rephidim.

The sources likewise preserve traditions transmitted in the name of his son, Rabban Gamliel, on the impossibility of satisfying those who seek only pretexts and on the relation of Torah study to worldly occupation.