You meet their names on every page of Gemara: Rabbi Akiva, Shmuel, Rabbi Yochanan. This
section answers three questions about each one. Who was he? Where does he fit? How does
he think? Every answer is shown next to the Hebrew source it comes from.
Start here
Meet the sages
This section is new. It has 15 sages so far, and more are being written and checked.
From the Pairs to Rav Ashi, generation by generation
Tap a generation to see where its sages taught and who led it.
Dates are approximate. Books number the generations in different ways, so we name each one
by its best-known sages.
For five generations, two sages led together: the nasi (the head) and the av beit din (the head of the court). The first chapter of Pirkei Avot lists them in order, each pair receiving the Torah from the pair before.
Hillel's family led the Sages in the Temple's last hundred years. After the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai rebuilt Torah learning in Yavneh.
Rav Papa led a yeshiva at Naresh. Rabbi Mana and Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Bun are among the last sages named in the Talmud Yerushalmi, the Talmud of Eretz Yisrael.
It is easy to say "Rabbi So-and-so always rules this way." It is harder to show who says so.
On every page, each statement about how a sage rules carries one of these labels.
The Gemara says
The Gemara itself states the rule, or links two of his rulings with the words וְאַזְדָּא לְטַעְמֵיהּ, "he follows his own reasoning."
A classical commentator says
Rashi, Tosafot or another classical commentator says it, and we name him.
One modern reading
A modern writer suggests it. We name the writer, and it is one view.
We do not know
The sources do not say. We would rather leave a gap than guess.
But elsewhere
A place where the Gemara shows the pattern does not always hold. A sage's method is a tendency, not a law.
Why study them
The Rambam made a list like this
Learning who the sages were is an old Jewish project. The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben
Maimon, also called Maimonides) opens his commentary on the Mishnah with a long
introduction. Part of it is a guide to the sages of the Mishnah: how many there are, who
taught whom, which generation each belongs to, and which sage a name means when the
Mishnah does not say.
This section tries to do the same job for a student today, one sage at a time, and to
show its sources as it goes.
Every Hebrew and Aramaic quote on this page was checked by script against the passage it cites.
The texts come from Sefaria: the Talmud Bavli is
the William Davidson Edition (Koren Publishers, vowels by Dicta, CC BY-NC), and the Mishnah is the
Torat Emet edition. English translations and explanations are Torah Tech originals, and any
mistakes are ours.
This page is for learning. It is not a halachic ruling.
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