Nasi (Hebrew title)
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Nasi (Hebrew: נָשִׂיא, romanized: nāśī) is a title meaning "prince" in Biblical Hebrew, "Prince [of the Sanhedrin]" in Mishnaic Hebrew. Certain great figures from Jewish history have the title, including Judah ha-Nasi,[1] who was the chief redactor of the Mishnah as well as nasi of the Sanhedrin.
In Modern Hebrew, its meaning has changed to "president".
Usage
Genesis and ancient Israel
The noun nasi (including its grammatical variations) occurs 132 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible and is usually translated "prince", or occasionally "captain." The first use is for the twelve "princes" who will descend from Ishmael, in the Book of Genesis (Lech-Lecha, Genesis 17:20), and the second use (in Chayei Sarah Genesis 23:6), is the Hittites recognising Abraham as "a godly prince" (נְשִׂיא אֱלֹהִים nǝśi ʾǝlohim).
In the Book of Leviticus (Vayikra, Leviticus 4:22–26), in the rites of sacrifices for leaders who err, there is the special offering made by a nasi.
In the Book of Numbers (Naso Numbers 7), the leader of each tribe is referred to as a nasi, and each one brings a gift to the Tabernacle. In Numbers 34:16–29, occurring 38 years later in the Biblical story, the nǝśiʾim (נְשִׂיאִים, plural) of each tribe are listed again, as the leaders responsible for apportioning tribal inheritances.
Later in the history of ancient Israel, the title of nasi was given to the Kings of Judah (Ezekiel 44:2–18; Ezra 1:8). Similarly, the Mishnah defines the nasi of Leviticus 4 to mean the king.[2]
Second Temple period
During the
In the time of the Roman Republic, the Romans recognized the nasi as Patriarch of the Jews and required all Jews to pay him a tax for the upkeep of that office, which ranked highly in the Roman official hierarchy.
After the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), in the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Jewish diaspora, the office of nasi in Palestine was comparable with the office of exilarch in Mesopotamia.[4]
Late Roman empire
This position as patriarch or head of court was reestablished several years after the Bar Kokhba revolt.[5] This made the nasi a power which both Jews and Romans respected. The Jewish community in Mesopotamia, referred to by the Jews as Babylonia, also recognized him. The nasi had leadership and served as a political representative to the authorities while the religious leadership was led by Torah scholars. He had the power to appoint and suspend communal leaders inside and outside of Israel.
The Romans respected the nasi and gave extra land and let control of own self-supported taxes. Under Jewish law, the intercalary thirteenth month in the Hebrew calendar, Adar Bet, was announced by the nasi.[6]
The last nasi of the Palestinian Sanhedrin was Gamaliel VI (d. 425); the Byzantine Empire subsequently issued an edict recorded in the legal code of the Codex Theodosianus of 426 that transformed the nasi tax into an imperial tax deposited into the Aerarium, or Roman treasury.
Middle Ages
The term nasi was later applied to those who held high offices in the Jewish community, and Jews who held prominence in the courts of non-Jewish rulers. The nasi were also prevalent during the 8th-century Frankish kingdom. They were a highly privileged group in Carolingian France. The Jews of Narbonne collaborated with Pepin the Short to end Muslim rule over their city in 759. The Jews accepted surrender and Pepin was able to hold off the Saracens in the Iberian peninsula. Pepin rewarded the Jews with land and privileges such as the right to judicial and religious autonomy. The heirs of the king and nasi held a close relationship until the tenth century.[7]
17th–20th-century Jewish community in Yemen
According to
Chabad
The term nasi was used by Menachem Mendel Schneerson to refer to the spiritual leaders of Chabad. In particular, he used the term Nesi Hador (נשיא הדור; "prince of the generation") or Nesi doreinu (נשיא דורנו; "prince of our generation") to refer to his father-in-law, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.[9]
Modern Hebrew
In
Much more recently, Adin Steinsaltz took the title nasi in an attempt to reestablish the Sanhedrin in its judicial capacity as the supreme court of Judaism.
List of Nesi'im
During the Mishnaic period, the office of nasi was filled as follows:[10][11]
Nasi | Term in office | |
---|---|---|
Yose ben Yoezer |
170 BCE | 140 BCE |
Joshua ben Perachyah |
140 BCE | 100 BCE |
Judah ben Tabbai (who later absconded)[12] | 110 BCE | ca. 80 BCE |
Simeon ben Shetach | ca. 80 BCE | 60 BCE |
Sh'maya | 65 BCE | c. 31 BCE |
Hillel the Elder | c. 31 BCE | 9 CE |
Shimon ben Hillel |
9 | 9 |
Rabban Gamaliel the Elder |
30 | 50 |
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel |
50 | 70 |
Rabban Yohanan ben Zakai |
70 | 80 |
Rabban Gamaliel II of Yavne | 80 | 118 |
Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah | 118 | 120 |
Interregnum (Bar Kokhba revolt) | 120 | 142 |
Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel II |
142 | 165 |
Rabbi Judah I haNasi |
165 | 220 |
Gamaliel III | 220 | 230 |
Judah II Nesi'ah | 230 | 270 |
Gamaliel IV | 270 | 290 |
Judah III Nesi'ah | 290 | 320 |
Hillel II | 320 | 365 |
Gamaliel V | 365 | 385 |
Judah IV | 385 | 400 |
Gamaliel VI | c. 400 | 425 |
President | Term in office | |
---|---|---|
Chaim Weizmann | 1949 | 1951 |
Yitzhak Ben-Zvi | 1952 | 1963 |
Zalman Shazar | 1963 | 1973 |
Ephraim Katzir | 1973 | 1978 |
Yitzhak Navon | 1978 | 1983 |
Chaim Herzog | 1983 | 1993 |
Ezer Weizman | 1993 | 2000 |
Moshe Katsav | 2000 | 2007 |
Shimon Peres | 2007 | 2014 |
Reuven Rivlin | 2014 | 2021 |
Isaac Herzog | 2021 | incumbent |
Rabban
Rabban was a higher title than
The title rabban was restricted in usage to the descendants of
Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, who was nasi between 118 and 120 CE, was not given the title rabban, perhaps because he only occupied the office of nasi for a short while, after which it reverted to the descendants of Hillel.
Prior to Rabban Gamliel the Elder, no titles were used before anyone's name, in line with the Talmudic adage "Gadol miRabban shmo" ("Greater than the title rabban is a person's own name"). For this reason, Hillel the Elder has no title before his name: his name is in itself a title. Similarly, Moses and Abraham have no titles before their names, but an epithet is sometimes used to differentiate between biblical and historic personages, hence Avraham Avinu (Abraham 'Our Father') and Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses 'Our Teacher').
Starting with Rabbi
See also
References
- ^ Harry Gersh, The Sacred Books of the Jews, 1968, Stein and Day, New York, p. 104
- ^ Mishna Horayot 3:3 -ואיזה הוא הנשיא, זה המלך: שנאמר "ועשה אחת מכל מצוות ה' אלוהיו" (ויקרא ד,כב), ולהלן הוא {אומר "למען ילמד, ליראה את ה' אלוהיו" (דברים יז,יט)--מה "אלוהיו" האמור כאן, נשיא שאין על גביו אלא ה' אלוהיו, אף "אלוהיו" האמור כאן, נשיא שאין על גביו אלא ה' אלוהיו.
- ISBN 0-89906-454-X.
- OCLC 923562173.
- ^ M. Avi-Yonah, The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule, Jerusalem 1984 sections II to V
- ISBN 0-465-08273-4, 16 - 18.
- OCLC 333768.
- ^ Erich Brauer, Ethnologie der jemenitischen Juden, Heidelberg 1934, pp. 281–282
(Original German: Saphir hat die Organisation folgendermaßen beschrieben: "In jeder Stadt und jedem Dorf haben die Juden einen Mori. Er ist der Rabbiner, der Richter, der Schächter, Fleischbeschauer und Kinderlehrer. Ferner haben sie einen Naśī, den sie aus der Mitte der Gemeinde wählen…"
Der Naśī gehört wohl immer der vornehmsten und reichsten Familie des Ortes an, denn Reichtum bedeutet auch hier Einfluß und Macht. Eine direkte Wahl des Gemeindevorstehers gibt es nicht; Reichtum und Eunfluß bestimmen die Auswahl.
Im allgemeinen ist der Naśī auch ein Gelehrter, in der Tora bewandert, doch ist dies nicht Bedingung für sein Amt. Den Naśī von Ḫubēš schildert Jawneli als einen gänzlich ungebildeten Mann, der kaum ein Wort Hebräisch kann.
Der Naśī ist Vertreter der Gemeinde in allen Dingen, welche die Regierung betreffen. Er führt die Liste, bajān, der mannbaren Gemeindemitglieder, nach der die ğizjā eingezogen wird. Er hat für Ordnung unter den Juden zu sorgen und Streitigkeiten zu schlichten. Bei Beschuldigungen jeder Art wird der Naśī zum Imam oder Šēḫ gerufen, der ihm aufträgt, den Schuldigen innerhalb einer bestimmten Frist herbeizuschaffen. Für die richtige Einziehung der Steuer, bei Strafen oder Kontributionen, die den Juden auferlegt werden, trägt der Naśī die Verantwortung. Besonders häufig werden diese Strafen wegen Übertretung des Verbotes, Branntwein an Muslime auszuschenken, verhängt.) - ^ Schneersohn, Rabbi Menachem Mendel. Igrot Kodesh (in Hebrew). Retrieved 18 July 2017.
- OCLC 923562173.
- )
- ^ Mishnah (Hagigah 2:2)
- ^ Goldwurm and Holder, 322
Further reading
Jeremy Cohen, "The Nasi of Narbonne: A Problem in Medieval Historiography," AJS Review, 2 (1977): pp. 45–76,
Jones, Lindsay, ed. Encyclopedia of Religion. Detroit: Gale, 2005. s.v. "Yehudah Ha-Nasi."
Pearl, Chaim, ed. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life and Thought. New York: Digitalia, Inc., 1996. s.v. "Judah the Prince (Judah Ha-Nasi)."
Pearl, Chaim, ed. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life and Thought. New York: Digitalia, Inc., 1996. s.v. "Prince (Heb. Nasi)."