Judah bar Ilai, also known as Judah ben Ilai, Rabbi Judah or Judah the Palestinian ( , translit

Transliteration

Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...

: Yehuda bar Ma'arava, lit. "Judah of the West"), was a tanna

Tannaim

The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

of the 2nd Century and son of Rabbi Ilai I

Rabbi Ilai I

Rabbi Ilai was a third Generation, and 2d Century Jewish Tanna sage, Father of the well-known Tanna sage, Judah ben Ilai, and disciple of Eliezer ben Hurcanus and Gamaliel II.Rabbi Ilai is cited once in the Mishnah, and six times in the Tosefta....

. Of the many Judahs in the Talmud, he is the one referred to simply as "Rabbi Judah" and is the most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah

Mishnah

The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...

.

Judah bar Ilai was born at Usha in the Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

. His teachers were his father, who had studied with Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiba

Akiba

Akiba may refer to:*Akiba-kei, a Japanese slang term*Tadatoshi Akiba , mayor of Hiroshima* Akiba, a subgenus of protozoa in the genus LeucocytozoonIn entertainment:* Akiba , a 2006 Japanese film...

. He was ordained by Rabbi Judah ben Baba

Judah ben Baba

Judah ben Baba was a rabbi in the 2nd century who ordained a number of rabbis at a time when the Roman government forbade this ceremony. The penalty was execution for the ordainer and the new rabbis. The rabbis ordained by Rabbi Judah ben Baba include Judah ben Ilai. Rabbi Judah ben Baba was killed...

 at a time when the Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 government forbade ordination. Judah bar Ilai was forced to flee Hadrian

Hadrian

Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...

's persecution.

Obadiah of Bartenura

Obadiah ben Abraham

Obadiah ben Abraham of Bertinoro was a 15th-century rabbi best known for his popular commentary on the Mishnah, commonly known as "The Bartenura".He was born and lived in the second half of the 15th-century in Italy and died in Jerusalem, Palestine about 1500...

 visiting his tomb wrote in 1495:

"About as far from Safed as one may walk on a Sabbath is the grave of the talmudic master Rabbi Judah bar Ilai; and there is a little village there called Ein Zetim. On the grave is a handsome tomb at which candles are lit..."

Itatlian pilgrim Moses Basola (1523) wrote:

"They say that once a Muslim woman climbed the tree on the grave in order to gather almonds, upon which the other women told her to first ask the saint's permission. But she showered them with curses. She fell off the tree, breaking all her limbs. She then pledged the gold bracelets on her hands to the saint, purchasing olive trees with them. Subsequently others made pledges as well, and at present he [the saint] has four hundred olive trees. This episode of the woman took place about sixty years ago."

Sources of his teaching

Judah taught the Mishnah of Eliezer, which he had received from his father (Men. 18a),

In his interpretation of the Scriptures and in the deduction of legal requirements from it Judah adhered strictly to the method of his teacher Rabbi Akiba.

Many of Judah's maxims and proverbs have likewise been preserved; they include:

• "Great is beneficence: it quickeneth salvation" (B. B. 10a).
• "Great is toil: it honoreth the toiler" (Ned. 49b).
• "Who teacheth his son no trade, guideth him to robbery" (Ḳid. 29a).
• "The best path lies midway" (Ab. R. N. xxviii.).

Judah lived to a ripe old age, surviving his teachers and all of his colleagues. Among his disciples who paid him the last honors was Judah ha-Nasi.