Persecutions of Hadrian

In the aftermath of the crushing of the Bar Kokhba revolt, the emperor Hadrian turns his attention no longer to the combatants but to the practice itself. Circumcision, Sabbath rest, the ordination of masters, and the public study of Torah are forbidden in Judea, henceforth renamed Syria-Palestine; Jerusalem becomes Aelia Capitolina, whose gates are closed to Jews.

The rabbinic tradition gathered under the name of the "ten martyrs" the masters executed during those years, foremost among them Rabbi Akiva, martyred at Caesarea. The account, taken up in the Kippour liturgy under the title of Elleh Ezkerah, fixed the memory of this persecution for centuries. The center of gravity of study then shifts toward the Galilee, where the Mishna would be committed to writing a generation later.