Rabbi Ishmael רבי ישמעאל

The baraita that opens the Sifra begins: "Rabbi Ishmael says: by thirteen principles is the Torah expounded." Then follows the list — from the argument a fortiori and the analogy of expressions to the rules of the particular and the general, and of two verses that contradict each other until a third comes and decides between them. This text entered the morning prayers and is therefore known by heart by many.

His dispute with Rabbi Akiva is one of the two great methodological arguments in the Talmud. Rabbi Akiva read meaning out of every particle, every repetition and every superfluous letter. Rabbi Ishmael objected with a formula that became famous: "the Torah speaks in the language of people" — that is, speech has its own turns of phrase, and not every repetition proves something.

Both approaches stood, and all later halakhah runs along both roads at once.

Tradition counts him among the Ten Martyrs executed under Hadrian; his name stands in the liturgical poem read on Yom Kippur.