Rabbi Chananya ben Akashya was a Tanna whose exact period is unknown. Some scholars place him in the fourth generation of Tannaim, in the early second century, based on the sages mentioned near him in the Mishnah, though this is not conclusive. He may have been the brother of Rabbi Shimon ben Akashya, another Tanna who appears only once in the Mishnah.

Very few of his teachings have survived: one passage in the Mishnah (Makkot 3:16), one in the Tosefta (Shekalim 3:18), dealing with where the prepared parts of a sacrifice were placed and apparently reflecting a tradition from Second Temple times, and a halachic ruling in Tractate Soferim (5:5).

His best-known saying is the Mishnah: "רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל, לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות" – the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to give Israel merit, and therefore gave them Torah and mitzvot in abundance. Maimonides explained that performing a single mitzvah perfectly and with proper intention is enough to earn the World to Come.

The saying is recited after communal Torah study, after Mussaf on Shabbat in Mizrahi communities, and at the end of each chapter of Pirkei Avot in the Ashkenazi summer custom, since it closes the study with a verse and its explanation and allows Kaddish deRabbanan to be said.

A medieval tradition places his grave near Kfar Chananya in the Galilee, in a burial cave said to also hold his wife and students. His hillula is observed on 29 Sivan.