Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, son of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II, led the Jews of the Land of Israel as Nasi (patriarch) in the late 100s and early 200s, so revered that he is called simply "Rabbi" and "Rabbeinu HaKadosh," our holy teacher. Tradition says he was born on the day Rabbi Akiva died (Kiddushin 72b). Wealthy and on good terms with Rome, remembered in stories of his friendship with an emperor "Antoninus" (Avodah Zarah 10a–b), he moved his court from Beit She'arim to Tzippori, where he spent his last 17 years.

His great work was the Mishnah, completed around 200: he collected and edited the teachings of generations of Tannaim into six orders and 63 tractates, from Zera'im (agriculture and blessings) to Tohorot (purity), opening with the question of when to recite the evening Shema (Mishnah Berakhot 1). It became the core text of the Oral Torah and the basis of both Talmuds. He was buried in the catacombs of Beit She'arim, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Mishnah says that "when Rabbi died, humility and fear of sin ceased" (Sotah 9:15).