Born in Ur Kasdim (Ur of the Chaldees); by tradition the son of Terach the idol-maker.

The family settles in Charan, where Terach dies. Here Avraham receives the call — Lech Lecha — to leave for the land God will show him, departing at age 75.

His first stop in Canaan; he builds an altar to God at Shechem.

Encamps between Beth-El and Ai and builds an altar, calling on the name of God.

Descends to Egypt to escape a famine in Canaan, returning to the land afterward.

Settles by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron; here he is visited by three angels and pleads for the people of Sdom.

Digs a well and makes a covenant with Avimelech at Be'er Sheva.

The Akeidah — the binding of Yitzchak — on Mount Moriah, the future site of the Temple.

Dies at age 175 and is buried by Yitzchak and Yishmael in the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron.

Born to Yitzchak and Rivka; grows up in the land of Canaan.

Fleeing Esau toward Charan, he dreams of the ladder reaching heaven with angels ascending and descending.

About twenty years with Lavan; marries Leah and Rachel and fathers eleven sons and a daughter.

Returning to Canaan, he wrestles a divine being at the Jabbok ford and is renamed Israel.

Arrives at Shechem and buys a parcel of land (later identified as Joseph's Tomb).

Returns to Beth-El and receives a renewed blessing.

Near Bethlehem, Rachel dies giving birth to Binyamin and is buried by the road.

Dwells in Hebron in the land of Canaan with his father Yitzchak.

Descends to Egypt in the famine, reunited with Yosef after 22 years; settles in Goshen and dies at 147.

Embalmed in Egypt, his body is carried back and buried in the Cave of Machpelah.

Sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, Joseph rose from prison to become viceroy under Pharaoh, saved the region from famine, and lived there until his death at 110. (His bones were later carried to the Land of Israel and buried at Shechem.)

Born to Amram and Yocheved during the enslavement; hidden in a basket on the Nile and raised in Pharaoh's palace; flees after striking an Egyptian taskmaster.

Shepherds the flock of Yitro and marries Tzipporah; at the burning bush on Mount Horeb, God commissions him to free Israel.

Returns to confront Pharaoh, brings the Ten Plagues, and leads Israel out in the Exodus, splitting the sea.

Receives the Torah and the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Leads Israel through forty years of wandering in the wilderness.

Ascends Mount Nevo, sees the Promised Land from afar, and dies there at 120.

Youngest son of Yishai; a shepherd, anointed in secret by the prophet Shmuel.

Enters King Saul's court as a musician and warrior.

Defeats the Philistine champion Goliath in the Valley of Elah.

A fugitive from Saul, he gathers his followers at the cave of Adullam.

Hiding in the wilderness of Ein Gedi, he spares Saul's life.

Takes refuge among the Philistines and is given the town of Ziklag.

After Saul's death, anointed king over Judah, reigning seven and a half years in Hebron.

Conquers Jerusalem from the Jebusites, makes it his capital, brings up the Ark, and reigns over all Israel until his death.

Served as High Priest and leader of the Great Assembly, preserving Jewish law and practice during the early Hellenistic period.

Sefer Yetzirah

Peri Etz Hadar

Led the Sanhedrin as Nasi of the second Zug, alongside Nittai of Arbel.

Fled to Alexandria in Egypt during the persecution of the Pharisees under the Hasmonean king Alexander Yannai.

Returned to Jerusalem after Shimon ben Shetach sent word that the persecution had ceased and peace was restored.

Served as president of the Sanhedrin and enacted major takkanot regarding marriage contracts and women's property rights.

Became president (nasi) of the Sanhedrin and established rabbinic school that dominated Jewish law for centuries.

Active in late-Hasmonean Judea; murdered during the 65 BCE Hasmonean civil war according to Josephus.

Born into an Idumean family of power, he was appointed governor of the Galilee (47 BCE), ruling from Sepphoris (Tzippori) and suppressing unrest in the region.

Fleeing the Parthian invasion, he sailed to Rome, where the Senate — with Mark Antony and Octavian's backing — declared him King of Judea (40 BCE) and gave him an army.

Captured Jerusalem in 37 BCE and reigned 33 years. He rebuilt and dramatically enlarged the Second Temple, raised the Antonia fortress and a royal palace, and founded Caesarea, Masada and the Herodium. He died at Jericho in 4 BCE.

After Antony's defeat at Actium, Herod met the victorious Octavian on Rhodes (30 BCE), candidly avowed his past loyalty to Antony, and was confirmed as king — beginning his long alliance with the emperor Augustus.

Active in the late-Hasmonean / early-Herodian Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.

Served as av beit din alongside Hillel, establishing the stringent House of Shammai as a major halakhic authority.

Active in the late Second Temple Jerusalem rabbinic circle.

Served as Nasi (president) of the Sanhedrin and led the Jewish community during the Second Temple's final decades.

Lived and wrote in Alexandria, the largest Jewish community of the Greco-Roman world, producing his allegorical commentaries on the Torah.

Led the Alexandrian Jewish embassy to the emperor Caligula in Rome (40 CE), an episode he recorded in his Embassy to Gaius.

Long-lived Tanna bridging the late Second-Temple period and the Yavneh generation.

A Herodian princess of Judea who, with her brother Agrippa II, sought to calm the unrest in Jerusalem before the Great Revolt.

Closely tied to the Roman commander Titus, she lived for a period at Rome.

Led the Pharisaic academy and served as Nasi before the Temple's destruction in 70 CE.

Established the academy after the Temple's destruction, becoming the center of Jewish learning and rabbinic authority.

A sage of the academy at Yavneh under Rabban Gamliel II.

Convert traditionally credited with the Aramaic Targum Onkelos.

Onkelos Genesis

Onkelos Exodus

Onkelos Leviticus

Onkelos Numbers

Onkelos Deuteronomy

Born into a Jerusalem priestly family of Hasmonean descent; a learned envoy who around 64 CE travelled to Rome to secure the release of imprisoned priests.

Appointed commander of the Galilee at the outbreak of the Great Revolt (66 CE), he defended the fortress of Yodfat (Jotapata) for 47 days before surrendering to Vespasian in 67 CE — predicting that the general would become emperor.

Freed when Vespasian became emperor (69 CE), he took the name Flavius, accompanied Titus to the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), and settled in Rome under imperial patronage, where he wrote The Jewish War and the Antiquities of the Jews. He died around 100 CE.

Travelled to Rome (c. 95 CE) as part of the famous delegation of sages — Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh, R. Yehoshua ben Chananya, R. Elazar ben Azaryah and R. Akiva — who journeyed together to the imperial capital.

Established his academy and trained thousands of students, making Bnei Brak a major center of Torah study.

Studied under Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua at the academy, becoming a leading sage of the Yavneh school.

Presided over the academy at Yavneh and led the Sanhedrin's reconstitution after the Temple's destruction.

Established an academy that became a major center of Torah learning in the Diaspora during the second century.

Lived and taught in Modi'in in Judea; a contemporary of Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer. By tradition he perished during the fall of Betar in the Bar Kokhba revolt (135 CE).

Teacher of R. Akiva in the Yavneh-era circle. His derashic methodology shaped Akivan exegesis.

Served as head of the academy and led the Sanhedrin during its reconstruction after the Temple's destruction.

Studied at Yavneh under Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya and Rabban Gamliel II.

Active in the Yavneh-era circle before his apostasy. R. Meir continued to learn from him after his break with the rabbinic community.

Active in the Yavneh-era Tannaitic circle.

Lived and taught in the Galilee; killed near Usha-Shfar'am while ordaining the next generation of Tannaim.

Active in the Yavneh-era Akivan circle. Died c. 135 during or shortly after the Bar Kochba period.

Yavneh-era Akivan circle; died during or shortly after the Bar Kochba period.

Heikhalot Rabbati

Reconvened the Sanhedrin after the Bar Kokhba War and served as Nasi during the early Severan period.

A sage of the Land of Israel in the Usha generation, remembered above all for urging students to seek out a place of Torah.

A Tanna active in the Galilee during the Usha period of the Sanhedrin; a disciple of Rabbi Akiva and colleague of Rabbi Meir, celebrated for both halachic and aggadic teachings.

Established his academy and became a leading authority in the Mishnaic period after the Bar Kokhba revolt.

Ancient port city on the northern coast of the Land of Israel. The
Ramchal moved here at the end of his short life; he and his family
died there in a plague.


Center of Sephardic learning and printing in the 17th-18th centuries.
Where the Ramchal relocated under the agreement that ended the
Sabbatean controversy over his kabbalistic writings.


Barcelona's Jewish community flourished from the 11c. through the late 14c. Major figures: Rashba, Ra'ah of Barcelona, Bahya ben Asher. Site of the 1263 Disputation with Pablo Christiani.

Bnei Brak became the post-WWII center of Lithuanian-style Orthodoxy in Israel, under R. Avraham Yeshayahu Karelitz (Chazon Ish, 1933-1953).

The Jewish Spring

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