רבי יהודה בר טיטס

Rav Yehuda bar Titas was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the fourth generation, brought several times in the Talmud Yerushalmi. He states teachings in the name of Rav Acha bar Chanina and of Rav Yehuda ben Pazi, and it may be that he taught Torah in Caesarea, since the rabbanan of Caesarea bring teachings in his name more than once.

His father’s name is written in several ways. In the Leiden manuscript and in the first printing of the Yerushalmi at Venice it is always Titas; the Vilna printing has Titam once, and other printings read Titus. Rav Chaim Benveniste held that a Jew would not have been called by the name of Titus who destroyed the Beit HaMikdash, and read the father’s name as Antignos; Rav Aharon Hyman suggested the original form was Sitos, the samech having been exchanged for a tet through the likeness of the two letters.

When he wished to travel to Rome, semicha was given him on condition that he return to Eretz Yisrael and not settle there, for chachamim were ordained only in Eretz Yisrael.