Biography
Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava was a tanna of the third generation, at the start of the second century, and one of the Ten Martyrs. He lived through the years of the Bar Kochba revolt and was a close friend of Rabbi Akiva, though the two stood as opponents in many halachic disputes; when Akiva was put to death by Rome, Rabbi Yehuda forbade the use of perfumes as a sign of mourning.
The Gemara calls him a chasid, and it teaches that wherever it speaks of a certain unnamed chasid, the reference is either to him or to Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai. It is told that all his deeds were for the sake of Heaven save one: when he fell ill in his throat and the physician said he would be healed only by warm milk, he bought a goat — small cattle that may not be raised in Eretz Yisrael — and drank of it for his cure, though by law pikuach nefesh set the prohibition aside.
When the wicked kingdom decreed that whoever performs semichah be killed, whoever receives it be killed, and the city in which it is done be destroyed, Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava went and sat between two mountains, between Usha and Shefaram, in a spot belonging to no settlement so that no town would be razed on its account. There he ordained five elders: Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Shimon, and Rav Elazar ben Shammua — and Rav Avya adds Rabbi Nechemia. When the enemy caught sight of them he told his talmidim to flee, saying he was too old and would lie before them like a stone that cannot be overturned; the soldiers drove three hundred iron spears into his body. Because one does not eulogize those slain by the government, his mourners could not proclaim over him, “Here is a chasid, here is an anav.”
Among his rulings brought in the Mishnah is that a single witness to a husband’s death suffices to permit his wife to remarry, and two teachings in Eruvin on the laws of the pasei bira’ot and the karpaf. He differed with Rabbi Akiva on whether one who does teshuvah must specify his sin. By traditions dating from the seventeenth century his kever is placed at Shefaram.
רבי יהודה בן בבא היה תנא בדור השלישי. אחד מעשרת הרוגי מלכות.
Judah ben Bava 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. Rabbi Judah ben Bava was killed by Hadrian's soldiers at the age of seventy, and is known as one of the Ten Martyrs. Rabbi Judah ben Bava was caught by Hadrian's soldiers while ordaining his students Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah bar Ilai, R' Shimon bar Yochai, R' Jose ben Halafta, and R' Elazar ben Shamua in a place between Usha and Shefaram. He told his students to run, but he himself was too old. Hadrian's soldiers threw 300 javelins at him, causing his death.
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