“Great is circumcision, for by it the righteous Abraham was called perfect.”
— (Nedarim 31b)

Rabbi Nehemya (Nejemiá), a disciple of Rabbi Meir

Tanná of the fourth generation (second century CE). Figure legalistic and exegete with a profile sober, associated to the line of Rabbi Meir and the tradition that links the “anonymous” of the Tosefta to your school.

(1) the Identity, age and teachers

• Chronology and membership generational. Lived towards the middle of the second century CE, in the the fourth generation of the Tanaím (a contemporary of R. Yehuda bar Ilai, R. Yosé, R. Shimon bar Yojái). The literature of reference place around the year 150 CE.
• Teachers. It has traditionally been counted among the disciples of Rabbi Meir (in turn, a disciple of R. Akiva). In the chain of ordinations in times of persecution, several sources mention that received semijá along with other students through the use of R. Yehuda ben Bava (talmudic tradition).
• Profile socio-economic. The tradition of late conserved in Sefaria remembers him as very poor and potter craft (yotzer), a detail that illustrates his ethos, practical and austere. These biographical details are both plain and come from thematic compilations modern collected midrashim and notes of the middle ages.

2) Link with Rabbi Meir and his circle

• School and method. The proximity to R. Meir is reflected in the emphasis on the logic casesthe taste for the distinctions fine and use sober derashot. The tradition amoraica formulates a rule programmatic: “Setam Mishnah (the anonymous Mishnah) = R. Meir; Setam Tosefta (anonymous of the Tosefta) = R. Nehemya”.
  This does not means exclusive composition, but seal doctrinal materials anonymous; it is an indicator of school and transmission.

“When the insolence increase, the respect will disappear, and the face of the generation will be like that of a dog.”
— (Sotah 9:15)

3) who is the Editor of the Tosefta?

• Attribution old. The Jewish Encyclopedia recorded the views (today discussed) that Nehemya would be the “author” or editor-in-chief of the Tosefta.
• State of the question. The modern research tends to reject the authorship only, but maintains that R. Nehemya it had weight, editorial or doctrinal in various layers of the Toseftain line with the rule “Setam Tosefta = R. Nehemya”.

4) primary Sources: where does it appear

• Mishnah and Baraitot. His name appears in multiple treaties with the formula “R. Nehemya says...”. Examples:
  • Nedarim: magnifies the circumcision as a rule of special power of attorney (discussion compared with leprosy and shabbat).
  • Sotah 9:15 (periods late): tradition attributed to R. Nehemya on social signals in messianic times (“insolence... values invested...”), transmitted via the Mishnah with gloss talmudic.
• Context of Mishnah. Compiled to 200 CE by R. Yehuda hanassi, preserves discussions of previous generations; R. Nehemya belongs to that corpus pre-compilation.

“The study without work leads to sin; the work without study, into the void.”

5) Core of your work and teaching (topics and examples)

5.1 Halachah (law)

• Principle of traceability regulations. His name appears to fine-tune limits between prohibited/permitted, pure/impure, with argument casuistry disciplined. This fits in with their association to “anonymous” of the Tosefta, where the rule is exposed without personal attribution, as standard school.
• Example (brit milah). In Nedarim, “Great is circumcision...”: stresses hierarchies of values between precepts and capacity of a precept to prevail over other frameworks (forms of leprosy, pollution), giving priority to identity of the covenant.
• Testimony and evidence. In the rabbinic tradition later cited in discussions about testimony and probative valuehighlighting the rationalization of evidence (e.g., scholarly readings identified in its line-a non-devaluation automatic testimony to female, according to reconstructions of passages; it is literature academic high school, not an opinion mishnaico explicit unambiguous).

“Do not be afraid to be a little in-a-generation large; afraid to be big in-a-generation small.”

5.2 Agadá (ethics and theology)

• Diagnostic social-moral. The piece Sotah 9:15 attributed to him list social pathologies in critical times (insolence, loss of deference, the breakdown of social capital), with function parenética (warning).
• Work ethic. The tradition about your low trade (potter) is linked in the literature homiletic with an ethics of livelihood worthy, common in such tannáicos on crafts. (Compare the dossier on labour/trades in compendiums classics; illustrative, not evidence for his biography).

6) hermeneutical Method and style

• Sobriety exegetical. In front of expansions midráshicas more bold, your style tends to the precise definition, useful for set operating lines in ritual, purity and foreclosures.
• “School of the anonymous”. The weight of your line in the Tosefta suggests a regulations by default: when a text baraita appears no namethe tradition amoraica read there the voice of Nehemya or his school. This explains his disproportionate influence despite having fewer appointments explicit R. Meir in the Mishnah.

“The wise man is not measured by how it responds, but for what it leaves unsaid.”

7) Relationships with peers

• With R. Yehuda bar Ilai. The literary sources (e.g., work of outreach academic collection in Sefaria) presented to R. Nehemya in tension methodological with R. Yehuda, which reflects diversity intrarrabínica in criteria of fixation. (Secondary literature, useful as a map; it does not replace the passages in talmudic).
• With R. Akiva (via R. Meir). The grammar conceptual akiviana —classifications, “action” categories— lives on in his line through R. Meir, with a bias more operating that speculative.

8) Doctrines/notes outstanding

1. Circumcision as a rule paradigmatic (Nedarim): hierarchy of mitsvot and its ability to displace other standards in defined circumstances.
2. Critical sociomoral in times of crisis (Sotah 9:15): reading ethics from the history and messianism.
3. Authorship/school of the Tosefta: thesis ancient favorable (Jewish Encyclopedia) vs. modern review (critical consensus).

“Blessed is the one who transforms poverty and humility and not in spite.”

9) Legacy

• In Halachah: By “large individual opinions”, his imprint is perceived in the texture anonymous of the Tosefta, which served as the backup and contrast for the Mishnah of R. Yehuda hanassi.
• In the Agadá: His sayings are read as barometers moral; examples such as Sotah 9:15 traversed centuries of reception in preaching and literature ethics.
• Model of scholar-craftsman: The memory of his low trade it became the emblem of the dignity of manual labour in the rabbinical culture.

“Who gives shape to the clay, to understand how the Creator shaped the man.”

10) references and sources for rigorous study

• Primary sources (open-access):
  • Mishnah (text and translation) in Sefaria; search for occurrences of “אמר רבי נחמיה / R. Nehemya or Nehemiah says”.
  • Sotah 9:15 (with Talmud).
  • Nedarim (explanation 3:11:4) about brit milah.
  • Dossier, “Rabbi Nehemiyah” (topic cured). Useful as an index of texts.
• Secondary classical:
  • Jewish Encyclopedia (Tosefta; historical note on attribution to Nehemya).
  • Article from the Jewish Virtual Library about Tosefta and the maximum “Setam Tosefta = R. Nehemya” (collects Sanh. 86a).
• Synthesis modern:
  • Input “Rabbi Nehemiah” (general view; use with criterion critic).
  • Page “Tosefta” (the state of the research on writing and the role of Nehemya).

“Learn from everyone, but don't go at all.”

11) key Points

1. Who was: Tanná of the second century, the circle of R. Meirwith influence structural in the Tosefta.
2. What he taught: Halachah of court casuistic and accurate; agadá with reading ethics of historical processes (e.g., Sotah 9:15); emphasis in hierarchies of precepts (e.g. circumcision).
3. How it influenced: Your school set patterns “anonymous” in the Tosefta, which shapes the regulations by default the Amoraím read and discuss.
4. What we do not know with certainty: Biographical details accurate; the craft of the potter and his poverty they are traditional gift for transmission later; authorship of the Tosefta today not held thesis strong, yes its influence.

“Purity of heart is worth more than a thousand arguments.”