Nehunya ben HaKanah () was a tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries. It appears from

Bava Batra Bava Batra (also Baba Batra; ) is the third of the three Talmudic tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law. Originally it, to ...

10b that Nehunya was a contemporary, but not a pupil, of

Yohanan ben Zakkai Yohanan ben Zakkai (; 1st century CE), sometimes abbreviated as for Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was a tanna, an important Jewish sage during the late Second Temple period during the transformative post-destruction era. He was a primary cont ...

. He was the teacher of

Ishmael ben Elisha Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha Nachmani (Hebrew: רבי ישמעאל בן אלישע), often known as Rabbi Yishmael and sometimes given the title "Ba'al HaBaraita" (Hebrew: בעל הברייתא, “Master of the Outside Teaching”), was a rabbi of ...

. Nehunya was rich and had a large retinue of servants; but he was distinguished for his meekness and forgiving nature, to which he attributed his attainment of great age; two short prayers composed by him exhibit the same qualities. According to

Johanan bar Nappaha :''See Johanan (name) for more rabbis by this name''. Johanan bar Nappaha ( Yoḥanan bar Nafḥa or Napaḥa), also known simply as Rabbi Yochanan or Johanan bar Nafcha (180–279 CE), was a leading rabbi and second-generation '' Amora'' duri ...

Shevu'ot Shevu'ot or Shevuot (Hebrew: שבועות, "Oaths") is a book of the Mishnah and Talmud. It is the sixth volume of the book of Nezikin. Shevu'ot deals primarily with the laws of oaths in halakha (Jewish law). Mishnah The Mishnah to Shevu'ot cont ...

26a, Nehunya interpreted the entire

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

by the

hermeneutic Hermeneutics () is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication. ...

rule known as the "general and particular" (''kelal ufrat''), a rule which his pupil

Rabbi Ishmael Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha Nachmani (Hebrew: רבי ישמעאל בן אלישע), often known as Rabbi Yishmael and sometimes given the title "Ba'al HaBaraita" (Hebrew: בעל הברייתא, “Master of the Outside Teaching”), was a rabbi of ...

made the eighth of his 13 hermeneutic rules. Nehunya is frequently mentioned in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

; in

Hullin Hullin or Chullin ( lit. "Ordinary" or "Mundane") is the third tractate of the Mishnah in the Order of Kodashim and deals with the laws of ritual slaughter of animals and birds for meat in ordinary or non-consecrated use (as opposed to sacred us ...

129b he is referred to disagreeing with

Eliezer ben Hurcanus Eliezer ben Hurcanus (or Hyrcanus) () was one of the most prominent Judean ''tannaitic'' Sages of 1st- and 2nd-century Judaism, a disciple of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, Avot of Rabbi Natan 14:5 and a colleague of Gamaliel II (whose sister, ...

and

Joshua ben Hananiah Joshua ben Hananiah ( ''Yəhōšūaʿ ben Ḥănanyā''; d. 131 CE), also known as Rabbi Yehoshua, was a leading tanna of the first half-century following the destruction of the Second Temple. He is the eighth-most-frequently mentioned sage in t ...

regarding a

halakhah ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments ('' mit ...

. In a post-Talmudic text, he said that the Pharaoh of the

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

was rescued from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

, that he repented, that he afterward reigned in

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

, and that it was he who in the time of

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

exhorted the inhabitants of Nineveh to repentance. Nehunya is known also for his ethical saying: "Whoever accepts upon him the yoke of the Torah, from him is removed the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care; and whoever throws off the yoke of the Torah, upon him is laid the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care".

Pirkei Avot Pirkei Avot (; also transliterated as ''Pirqei Avoth'' or ''Pirkei Avos'' or ''Pirke Aboth'', also ''Abhoth''), which translates into English as Chapters of the Fathers, is a compilation of the ethical teachings and maxims from Rabbinic Jewis ...

3:6;

Avot of Rabbi Natan Avot of Rabbi Natan, also known as Avot de-Rabbi Nathan (ARN) (), the first and longest of the minor tractates of the Talmud, is a Jewish aggadic work probably compiled in the geonic era (c.700–900 CE). It is a commentary on an early form of the ...

recension B, 32 d. Solomon Schechter, p. 68">Solomon_Schechter.html" ;"title="d. Solomon Schechter">d. Solomon Schechter, p. 68/ref> As

, Nehunya's disciple, is regarded by the kabbalists as their chief representative, Nehunya is considered to have been Ishmael's teacher in mysticism also. He is generally supposed to have been the author of the daily prayer beginning Ana BeKoach, the initials of which form the forty-two-lettered name of God. He is also supposed by some to have been the author of the ''

Bahir ''Bahir'' or ''Sefer HaBahir'' (, ; "Book of Clarity" or "Book of Illumination") is an anonymous mystical work, attributed to a 1st-century rabbinic sage Nehunya ben HaKanah (a contemporary of Yochanan ben Zakai) because it begins with the wor ...

'', ''Sefer haTemunah'', and of the ''Sefer ha-Peli'ah''.

References

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

W. Bacher Wilhelm Bacher (; , ''Benjamin Ze'ev Bacher''; 12 January 1850 – 25 December 1913)

, ''Ag. Tan.'' i. 54–56; *

Z. Frankel Zecharias Frankel (30 September 1801 – 13 February 1875) was a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague and died in Breslau. He was the founder and the most eminent member o ...

, ''Darke ha-Mishnah'', p. 99; * Rabbi Jehiel ben-Szlomo Heilprin, ''Seder ha-Dorot'', ii.; *

Moritz Steinschneider Moritz Steinschneider (; 30 March 1816 – 24 January 1907) was a Moravian bibliographer and Orientalist, and an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history. He is credited as having invented the term ''antisemitism.'' Education Mo ...

, '' Cat. Bodl.'' cols. 2056 et seq.

External links

Jewish Encyclopedia article for Nehunya ben ha-Kanah
by

Wilhelm Bacher Wilhelm Bacher (; , ''Benjamin Ze'ev Bacher''; 12 January 1850 – 25 December 1913)

and M. Seligsohn. Mishnah rabbis 1st-century rabbis 2nd-century rabbis 1st-century births 2nd-century deaths Pirkei Avot rabbis {{MEast-rabbi-stub