Tzippori: The Kever of Rabi Yehudah Hanasi©

Some say that on the same day Rabi Akiva was killed by the Romans, Rabi Yehudah Hanasi was born. A seventh-generation descendant of Hillel Hazaken, Rabi Yehudah Hanasi was the son of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and of the royal line of Dovid Hamelech.

Known as Rebbi and Rabbeinu Hakadosh, he was the key leader of the Jewish community of Yehudah (Judea) during the occupation by the Roman Empire, toward the end of the 2nd century CE.He wasthe greatest of the fifth generation of Tanna’im. Rebbi was a talmid of the five main students of Rabi Akivah. He is best known as the compiler of the Mishnah. Rabi Yehudah Hanasi passed away on 15 Kislev, in approximately 188 CE.

The Gemara in Kesubos (104a) relates that before he died he lifted his ten fingers toward the heavens and declared that he had not enjoyed even a little finger’s worth of this world. (This was so even though he was enormously wealthy and greatly revered in Rome and had a close friendship with “Antoninus” [possibly the Emperor Antoninus Pius]).

Rebbi then requested of Hashem that he be able to rest in peace. In reply, a bas kol (heavenly voice) declared, “Yavo b’shalom ve’yanuach al mishkavo—He will come in peace and rest on his bed!” The Yerushalmi adds that because Rebbi’s death was brought on by Hashem Himself and not by the Angel of Death, the prohibition of tumas kohanim did not apply and kohanim were permitted to bury him.

Sefer Chassidim records that after his passing, Rabbeinu Hakadosh used to visit his home every Friday evening at dusk, wearing Shabbos clothes. He would recite Kiddush, and his family would thereby discharge their obligation to hear Kiddush. One Friday night there was a knock at the door. The maid revealed to the visitor that Rabbeinu Hakadosh was in the middle of Kiddush. From then on, Rabbeinu Hakadosh stopped coming, since he did not want his coming to the world to become public knowledge.

The root of Rebbi’s soul was that of Yaakov Avinu. It is said that Yaakov Avinu never died, and we see from the above story that Rabbeinu Hakadosh also did not die. Both Yaakov Avinu and Rebbi had the same task. Rebbi said that the last seventeen years of his life that he spent in Tzippori were equal to the last seventeen years of Yaakov Avinu’s life which the Patriarch spent in Egypt.

Yaakov taught Torah during those last seventeen years of his life, thereby preparing the nation for its first galus that it was to endure in Egypt. Rebbi spent the last seventeen years of his life compiling the Mishnah in Tzippori, preparing Am Yisrael for the long, bitter Edomian exile.

Despite the tradition of the Yerushalmi (Kila’im 9:4) that Rebbi was buried in Beit She’arim, medieval traditions indicate that his kever is in Tzippori in the hills of the Galilee. Rabi Yochanan identified Rekes as Tzippori; it is so called because it is “above,” as a riksa (the bank of a river) is above the river.

In ancient times the city was called Sepphoris. It was fortified by the Assyrians, and then used by the Babylonians and later the Persians as an administrative center. It was the Chashmona’im who gave the city the name Tzippori when they settled there. Herod the Great took over the city and brought in Roman influences.

After Herod’s death, the Jews of Tzippori rebelled against Roman rule. Varus, the Roman governor, destroyed the city. He sold many of its Jews into slavery.

In 1 CE, when Herod Antipas became governor, he rebuilt the city and renamed it Autocratis. So beautiful was the city that it was described as “the ornament of the entire Galilee.” The Jews of the city chose not to rebel during the first Jewish Revolt, in 66 CE, when they opened their gates to the Roman army and signed a pact with them.

During the 2nd century the city was renamed Diocaesarea. After the Bar Kochba revolt many Jews moved there. Rabi Yehudah Hanasi moved the Sanhedrin from Beit She’arim to Tzippori. It was here that he compiled the Mishnah. It is to be noted that the sages of Tzippori also contributed to the Talmud.

Yerushalmi which was completed in the 4th century CE. In the year 351 CE, Gallus Caesar quelled a Jewish rebellion there.

In 363 CE the city of Diocaesarea was destroyed by an earthquake, and was subsequently rebuilt.

During the Byzantine period, Jews, Romans, and Christians lived there peaceably.

From 634 CE the Arabs, under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties, conquered and ruled the city, then known as Saffuriya.

In the 12th century, the Crusaders arrived and renamed the city La Sephorie. They built a fortress overlooking the city.

In 1187, when Saladin conquered the city, he reinstated the city’s name of Saffuriya. In 1516 CE, the Ottomans conquered the country.

Over the next 400 years, Tzippori was a small village of a few hundred Muslim and Jewish families. The village thrived on its pomegranate and olive produce.

Today Tzippori is a national park that is famous for its beautiful ancient mosaic floors and 1st century CE tunnels and cisterns, which one can enter and walk though. The Jewish part of town has been excavated; this includes a mikveh and a cobblestone street.

To reach the tzion of Rabi Yehudah Hanasi from the Movil’s intersection, turn right onto Road 79 going south-north, in the direction of Nazareth. After 4 km turn left into Tzippori, travel though the moshav, and after about 3.4 km go onto a dirt road till Har Hoshah. Just after this, the road joins a dirt road. Turn left onto a path, and some 150 meters down is the last resting place of Rabbeinu Hakadosh.