person · P0141
Rabbi Yishmael רבי ישמעאל
Head of the great exegetical school that stood opposite Rabbi Akiva's: where Akiva expounded every particle of the text, Rabbi Yishmael held that "the Torah speaks in human language." He opens the Sifra with the thirteen hermeneutical rules by which the Torah is expounded, and the halakhic midrashim of his school (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael, Sifre Bamidbar) carry his method. He received the method of expounding by generalization and specification from Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רבי ישמעאל
- Also known as
- Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, Yishmael ben Elisha
- Era
- tannaim
- Generation
- T3
- Received the mesorah from
- Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah
- Teachers
- Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah
- Colleagues
- Rabbi Akiva
- Students
- Rabbi Meir
II. When
- Traditional
- c. 3820–3895 AM
- Academic
- c. 60–135 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈75 years
- Precision
- approximate
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taught the thirteen hermeneutical rules by which the Torah is expounded — kal vachomer, gezerah shavah, binyan av, and the rest — the baraita that opens the Sifra. | rabbinic | ★★★★★ | |
| Served Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah, from whom he received the method of expounding the entire Torah by generalization and specification (klal ufrat). | rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Identified with the beautiful child captive in Rome whom Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananiah ransomed for a great sum after the child answered his allusion to Yeshayahu; the child grew up to be Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, teacher in Israel.
Aggadic account; the identification of the child with this Rabbi Yishmael (rather than the earlier Kohen Gadol of the same name) is traditional and chronologically debated.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★★☆☆ | |
| Tractate Semachot relates that Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rabbi Yishmael were condemned to execution together, each weeping and consoling the other before their deaths; the tradition counts him among the sages martyred by the Romans.
Late tannaitic-post-tannaitic martyrology; the "Ten Martyrs" grouping and the flaying detail belong to still later midrash and piyyut (Eleh Ezkerah) and are not in this source. Which Rabbi Yishmael (this tanna or the earlier Kohen Gadol) is meant is debated.
|
rabbinic tradition | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| Traditional placement c. 3820–3895 AM (c. 60–135 CE), inferred from his teacher Nechunya ben HaKanah, his standing dispute with Rabbi Akiva's school, and the tradition counting him among those who perished in the Hadrianic persecutions.
Schematic traditional dating. |
tradition reconstruction | ★☆☆☆☆ |