Nehunya ben HaKanah was a tanna sage from the 1st-2nd centuries CE. He was contemporary with but not a student of Johanan ben Zakai. Nehunya was known for his wealth, large retinue of servants, and humble, forgiving nature. He taught Ishmael ben Elisha and interpreted the Torah using the hermeneutic rule of "general and particular." Nehunya is considered to have taught mysticism to his disciple Ishmael ben Elisha and may have authored some early mystical texts.
Nehunya ben HaKanah was a tanna sage from the 1st-2nd centuries CE. He was contemporary with but not a student of Johanan ben Zakai. Nehunya was known for his wealth, large retinue of servants, and humble, forgiving nature. He taught Ishmael ben Elisha and interpreted the Torah using the hermeneutic rule of "general and particular." Nehunya is considered to have taught mysticism to his disciple Ishmael ben Elisha and may have authored some early mystical texts.
Nehunya ben HaKanah was a tanna sage from the 1st-2nd centuries CE. He was contemporary with but not a student of Johanan ben Zakai. Nehunya was known for his wealth, large retinue of servants, and humble, forgiving nature. He taught Ishmael ben Elisha and interpreted the Torah using the hermeneutic rule of "general and particular." Nehunya is considered to have taught mysticism to his disciple Ishmael ben Elisha and may have authored some early mystical texts.
Nehunya ben HaKanah was a tanna sage from the 1st-2nd centuries CE. He was contemporary with but not a student of Johanan ben Zakai. Nehunya was known for his wealth, large retinue of servants, and humble, forgiving nature. He taught Ishmael ben Elisha and interpreted the Torah using the hermeneutic rule of "general and particular." Nehunya is considered to have taught mysticism to his disciple Ishmael ben Elisha and may have authored some early mystical texts.
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Nehunya ben HaKanah[pronunciation?
] (Hebrew: was a tanna of
the 1st and 2nd centuries. It appears from Bava Batra 10b that Nehunya was a contemporary, but not a pupil, of Johanan ben Zakai. He was the teacher of Ishmael ben Elisha. 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 (Megillah 28a); two short prayers composed by him exhibit the same qualities (Berakhot iv. 2; Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot iv. 2).
According to the statement of Rabbi Yochanan (Shevu'ot 26a), Nehunya interpreted the entire Torah by the hermeneutic rule known as the "general and particular" ("kelal uferat "), which rule has also been adopted by his pupil Rabbi Ishmael as the eight of his 13 hermeneutic rules. Nehunya is frequently mentioned in the Talmud; in Hullin 129b he is referred to as the antagonist of Eliezer and Joshua in regard to a halakhah (comp., however, Eduyot vi. 2). He said that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was rescued from the Red Sea, that he repented, that he afterward reigned in Nineveh, and that it was he who in the time of Jonah exhorted the inhabitants of Nineveh to repentance (Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer xliii.). Nehunya is known also for his ethical saying: "Whoso receives upon him the yoke of the Torah, from him is removed the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care; and whoso throws off the yoke of the Torah, upon him is laid the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care" (Pirkei Avot iii. 6; Avot of Rabbi Natan recension B, xxxii. [ed. Solomon Schechter, p. 68]).
As Ishmael b. Elisha, 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 , 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 and of the Sefer ha-Peli'ah.
