("teacher," from an Aramaic verb meaning "to study" or "repeat"; pl.
tannaim). Designation for scholars of the
Oral Law whose period of activity extended from around 20 CE until the days of
Judah Ha-Nasi (c.200 CE). Their immediate predecessors were
Hillel and
Shammai, although some say that the earliest
tanna was
Simeon the Just, one of the survivors of the
Great Assembly (c. 330 BCE;
Avot 1:2). The
tannaim were responsible for first setting down the
Oral Law in writing, in the
Mishnah (edited by Judah ha-Nasi), the
Tosefta, the
Baraita, and the
Midrash Halakhah. Over 120
tannaim are mentioned by name in the Mishnah; others are referred to in the extra-Mishnaic
baraitot. With few exceptions, they were all Palestinian by birth and education.
Five generations of tannaim are usually distinguished, the first headed by R. Gamaliel the Elder and R. Johanan Ben Zakkai, whose teaching center was Jerusalem. After the Second Temple's destruction in 70 CE, it was chiefly through the efforts of R. Johanan that tannaitic learning revived in Yavneh and the fabric of Judaism emerged unimpaired. Subsequently, other teaching centers were established in Erets Israel (for details, see Academies). Leading tannaim of the next generation included R. Gamaliel II and R. Eleazar Ben Azariah of Yavneh, Eliezer Ben Hyrcanus, and JOSHUA BEN HANANIAH.
Anti-Jewish persecution under the Roman emperor Hadrian and the collapse of the bar kokhba revolt in 135 CE, only two generations after the loss of the Temple, had a profound influence on tannaitic activity and scholarship. As spokesmen for the Jewish community of Erets Israel, R. Gamaliel II, R. Joshua, and R. Eliezer journeyed overseas to make contact with Rome's growing Jewish community and to intercede with the Roman authorities. So did R. AKIVA, a third-generation tanna, who also visited other Diaspora communities. Together with R. ISHMAEL BEN ELISHA and R. Hananiah ben Teradyon, Akiva was among the TEN MARTYRS of the Hadrianic era. The halakhic Midrashim (MEKHILTA, SIFRÉ, etc.) stemmed from the academies of R. Akiva and R. Ishmael, both of whom also formulated principles of HERMENEUTICS for the interpretation of Scripture which promoted the development of rabbinic law (HALAKHAH).
Akiva's pupils, tannaim of the fourth generation, included SIMEON BAR YOḤAI, YOSÉ BEN ḤALAFTA, and MEIR (who had also studied under R. Ishmael). They, together with R. Simeon ben Gamaliel II and JUDAH BAR ILAI, gave fresh impetus to rabbinic learning after 135 CE. Judah ha-Nasi was the outstanding fifth-generation tanna, and with his redaction of the Mishnah this period of scholarship is said to have ended. A sixth, transitional generation may have flourished, however, between the Mishnaic era and that of the talmudic rabbis (see AMORA). It is thought to have comprised younger contemporaries of R. Judah such as @hiyya Rabbah and Bar Kappara, who collected halakhic material and baraitot.
The word tanna also designates a class of "interpreter" (METURGEMAN) who memorized long sections of the Oral Law and recited them aloud for the benefit of students in amoraic times (BM 76b).
