Biography
Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah the Second, known in English sources as Judah III, was the son of Rabban Gamliel the Fourth and grandson of Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah the First, and held the office of Nasi from about 290 to 320. By his lineage he was the tenth generation from Hillel the Elder. His rebbi was Rabbi Yochanan, and after Rabbi Yochanan was niftar he sat and learned before Rabbi Ami. Sending Rav Ami a question about the timing of the new moon, he introduced a teaching he had from Rabbi Yochanan with the words that this is what Rabbi Yochanan taught them all his life.
He charged Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi, talmidim of Rabbi Yochanan who led the yeshivah of Teveria after Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, with organizing the schools for children in the cities of Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Ami served as his counsel in matters of aggadah, though he objected to the number of fast days the Nasi set in times of trouble, holding that the community should not be overburdened. Rabbi Chelbo once asked him to join a fast-day service held in the city square, which his presence would strengthen.
The notable event of his nesiut was the visit of the emperor Diocletian, who reigned from 284 until he stepped down in 305. The Nasi was summoned to him at short notice on a Friday at Caesarea Philippi, and the speed of his journey there from Teveria gave rise to an account in which the aged Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman appears. When he was niftar, Rabbi Chiyya bar Abba obliged his colleague Rabbi Zeira, who was of priestly descent, to set aside the laws of a kohen in honor of the Nasi; this took place in the synagogue of the vine in Tzippori. His son Hillel Nesiah followed him in the office.
Where traditions differ. The Mishnah and Gemara do not clearly distinguish him from Rabbi Yehudah Nesiah the First, since both carried the title Nesiah; which is meant in a given citation can be judged only from the chachamim named alongside. ; The sources place him in the second, third or fourth generation of the amoraim of Eretz Yisrael. ; Tradition holds he was buried at Ovnit, while the account of his passing at Tzippori suggests burial there.
רבי יהודה נשיאה השני, היה בנו של רבן גמליאל הרביעי, ושימש כנשיא הסנהדרין בדור השני או השלישי לאמוראי ארץ ישראל. לפי ייחוסו, היה דור עשירי להלל הזקן.
Judah III, Yudan Nesiah, was a prominent Jewish sage, who held the office of Nasi of the ancient Jewish Sanhedrin between about 290 and 320 CE.
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