רבי יהודה בן בתירא השני

Rav Yehudah ben Beseira (Beteira) II was a tanna of the third generation, at the beginning of the second century, whose main place of dwelling was Netzivin in Bavel. He was the grandson of the first Rav Yehudah ben Beteira, and in the Tosefta and the Yerushalmi his name is written ben Beteira or ben Peteira. That there were two sages carrying this name is the conclusion the Tosafot reached in Menachot: they asked how Rav Yehudah ben Beseira could be found differing with Rav Yossi, who belonged to a later period, and answered that perhaps there were two of them — one in the days of the Beit HaMikdash and one after it.

After the churban and the failure of the Bar Kochva revolt, seeing that the Roman gezeirot and the ruin of the Torah centers of Yerushalayim and Yavneh left no hope for learning Torah in Eretz Yisrael, he resolved together with Rav Chananya the nephew of Rav Yehoshua and Rav Matya ben Charash to raise up a spiritual center in the exile, one that would carry the authority to intercalate years and fix the months. When they reached the border of Eretz Yisrael they lifted their eyes, their tears fell, and they tore their garments at having to go out from the Land — and then turned back and came again to their place.

His beit din in Netzivin acquired a name of its own. On the words “tzedek tzedek tirdof” it was said that a man should follow after a fine beit din — after Rav Matya to Rome, after Rav Yehudah ben Beseira to Netzivin, after Rav Chananya to the Golah. When Rav Chananya went on intercalating years and fixing months in the exile even after the center in Eretz Yisrael had been established anew following the shemad, word was sent to him from the Land that unless he ceased taking for himself an authority that belonged there, he would stand under niduy. He came and laid the matter before Rav Yehudah ben Beseira in Netzivin, who counselled him to go after the chachamim of Eretz Yisrael — “after them, after them!” — and by this the unity of the people and its Torah was saved.

Rav Elazar ben Shamua and Rav Yochanan HaSandlar set out for Netzivin to learn Torah from him; when they reached Tzidon they felt they could not leave Eretz Yisrael and returned to their place, saying that dwelling in the Land weighs against all the mitzvot of the Torah. In Avot d’Rabbi Natan he teaches that Moshe did not break the luchot of his own accord but was told to do so from the mouth of the Gevurah, as it says “peh el peh adaber bo.” Together with Rav Yehoshua he gave the testimony brought in Eduyot that the widow of an isa is fit for kehunah.