Matteya ben Heresh or Mattithiah (
Hebrew: מתיא בן חרש) was a
Roman tanna of the 2nd century.
Biography
He was born in
Judea, probably a pupil of
R. Ishmael, and certainly a contemporary and friend of his pupils
R. Josiah and
R. Jonathan.
After his ordination Mattithiah went to Rome, apparently on account of the persecution by
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
; there he founded a school and a Jewish court which soon became prominent.
He associated with the Judean scholars who visited
Rome and sought instruction from them—from R.
Simeon bar Yoḥai and R.
Eleazar ben Jose
Eleazar (; ) or Elʽazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses.
Biblical narrative
Eleazar played a number of roles during the course of the Exodus, from cr ...
, for instance. A later legend in the
Midrash Abkir represents him as victoriously resisting a temptation placed in his path by
Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
.
Teachings
Halakhic
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
sentences by him have been preserved which show his desire to make the
Sabbath
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as G ...
laws less rigorous insofar as their fulfillment by the sick was concerned. He seems, however, to have devoted himself chiefly to the
Aggadah; a number of his homiletic sentences, especially to the
Book of Exodus, are extant. He has a maxim in the
Pirkei Avot: "Meet each man with friendly greeting; be the tail among lions rather than the head among
foxes".
[Pirkei Avot 4:15]
References
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
*
Z. Frankel
Zecharias Frankel, also known as Zacharias Frankel (30 September 1801 – 13 February 1875) was a Bohemian-German rabbi and a historian who studied the historical development of Judaism. He was born in Prague and died in Breslau. He was the foun ...
, Darke ha-Mishnah, pp. 130 et seq.;
*
Heinrich Grätz, Gesch. 3d ed., iv. 285;
*
W. Bacher
Wilhelm Bacher ( hu, Bacher Vilmos; yi, בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בּאַככֿר, he, בִּנְיָמִין־זְאֵב בכר ''Benjamin Ze'ev Bacher''; 12 January 1850 – 25 December 1913)Hermann Vogelstein Hermann or Herrmann may refer to:
* Hermann (name), list of people with this name
* Arminius, chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci tribe in the 1st century, known as Hermann in the German language
* Éditions Hermann, French publisher
* Hermann, Mis ...
and
Paul Rieger, ''Geschichte der Juden in Rom'', i. 110 et seq
External links
Jewish Encyclopedia article for Matteya ben Heresh by
Ismar Elbogen et al.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matteya Ben Heresh
Mishnah rabbis
2nd-century rabbis