Rabbi Judah The Prince

Rabbi Judah the Prince is one of the remarkable personalities in the Jewish history. He emerged as the leader of the Jewish community and the Sanhedrin during late second century C.E. Through the cordial relations he established with Rome, Rabbi Judah embarked one of the major milestones in Jewish law and religion, the Mishnah, which refers to the codification of a previously existing law. Later on, Mishnah evolved as one of the three significant legal codes of Jewish law. According to Aggadah, the birth of Rabbi Judah took place on the day Rabbi Avika left his breath. Although Rabbi Judah was a religious leader, he held the court as a secular dictator. When the center of the Jewish religious life moved to Galilee, Rabbi Judah ruled as the
He was not only a brilliant scholar, but also a jurist. His significant works include the compilation of the oral Jewish law, known as the Mishnah. Mishnah has become the foundation of Jewish law until today. The oral law came about through the legal decisions and judgments of knowledgeable men, such as the Sanhedrin. The process began to grow vastly by early third century C.E. and gained momentum after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Sages adopted to life various practices of Judaism without a central shrine. These practices include daily sacrifices, regulations for priests and pilgrimages to the Temple. Another challenged faced by the interpreters of oral law was a changing society. The written code of Pentateuch was suitable for the society only for a limited period of time, and failed to suit the needs of the diaspora community. Therefore, functioning in a changing world became increasingly difficult and there was a discouraging state of affairs among the Jews of the contemporary period. There was a dilemma as to whether Judaism would survive in the succeeding centuries. Under such circumstances, Rabbi Judah undertook the responsibility of producing the compilation of the body of oral
He then summarized the teachings according to an order of arrangement, such as “Sabbath, divorce, marriage and the Sanhedrin”. Rabbi Judah organized the sections into a logical sequence and included the summary of various opinions similar to the rulings of the previous generations. Furthermore, he specified rules attributed to those who made the judgment. In case of controversies, Rabbi Judah presented both the sides of the argument. He incorporated three types of material in the Mishnah, which include halakhah or legal rules, aggadah or preachments, and midrash or stories that supplement the Pentateuch. Of all the three, while halakhah is the heart of the Mishnah, aggadah and midrash illustrate about the halakhah. Rabbi Judah devised six orders of the Mishnah, such as Women, Seeds, Festivals, Damages, Purities and Holy