Nehunya ben HaKanah
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Nehunya ben HaKanah (Hebrew: נחוניה בן הקנה, romanized: Nəḥunyā ben haqQānā) was a tanna of the 1st and 2nd centuries.
It appears from
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;[1] two short prayers composed by him exhibit the same qualities.[2]
According to
halakhah.[3] In a post-Talmudic text, 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.[4] Nehunya is known also for his ethical saying: "Whoever accepts upon him the yoke of the Torah, from him is removed the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care; and whoever throws off the yoke of the Torah, upon him is laid the yoke of royalty and that of worldly care".[5]
As
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 Ana BeKoach, 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
, Sefer haTemunah, and of the Sefer ha-Peli'ah.
References
- ^ Megillah 28a
- Berakhot 4:2; Jerusalem TalmudBerakhot 4:2
- Eduyot6:2
- Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer43
- Avot of Rabbi Natan recension B, 32 [ed. Solomon Schechter, p. 68]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "NEḤUNYA BEN HA-ḲANAH". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
- W. Bacher, Ag. Tan. i. 54–56;
- Z. Frankel, Darke ha-Mishnah, p. 99;
- Rabbi Jehiel ben-Szlomo Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ii.;
- Cat. Bodl.cols. 2056 et seq.
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia article for Nehunya ben ha-Kanah, by M. Seligsohn.
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