הרב יונתן בן עוזיאל

Yonatan ben Uziel (Hebrew יונתן בן עוזיאל) was a tanna of the first generation and the greatest of the eighty disciples of Hillel the Elder, living in the Second Temple period some decades before the Churban. Of Hillel’s eighty talmidim, it was said, thirty were worthy that the Shechinah rest upon them as upon Moshe Rabbeinu — and the greatest of them all was Yonatan ben Uziel.

His lasting work is Targum Yonatan, his Aramaic rendering and elucidation of the books of the Nevi’im. When he composed it, the tradition tells, a heavenly voice cried out, “Who has revealed My secrets to men?”; he answered that his intent had not been his own honor, but that Yisrael might understand the words of the Nevi’im. He wished to render the Ketuvim as well, but a bat kol stayed him, for their secrets are set aside for the days of Mashiach. His Targum is written in the Aramaic of the Galil; on the Early Prophets it is largely plain translation, and on the Later Prophets it weaves in the words of aggadah.

So great was his learning that it was said any bird passing over him as he sat and learned would be burned — Rashi explains that the malachim gathered about him to hear Torah from his mouth. His kever at Amuka near Tzefat has long been a place where many come to daven for a zivug. Targum Yonatan is printed in the Mikraot Gedolot alongside the text of the Nevi’im.