Editing Judah ha-Nasi (section)

===Youth===
[[File:Ancient Galilee.jpg|thumb|right|225px|The [[Galilee]] in [[late antiquity]]]]
Judah was born in 135 in the newly-established Roman province of [[Syria Palaestina]] to [[Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel II]]. According to the [[Talmud]], he was of the [[Davidic line]].<ref>{{cite book |first=M. |last=Avi-Yonah |title=The Jews of Palestine |others=English translation |location=New York |publisher=Schocken |year=1976 |isbn=0-8052-3580-9 |page=58 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Ephraim E. |last=Urbach |title=The Sages |others=English translation |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Magnes Press |year=1979 |isbn=965-223-319-6 |page=599 }}</ref><ref>[[Genesis Rabbah]] 98:8; Shabbat 56a; Ketuvot 62b; see discussion in [https://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/vayechi/zol.html Shevet uMechokek MiBeit Yehudah]</ref> He is said to have been born on the same day that [[Rabbi Akiva]] died as a [[martyr]].<ref>Midrash [[Genesis Rabbah]] 53; Midrash [[Ecclesiastes Rabbah]] 1:10; Kiddushin 72b</ref> The [[Talmud]] suggests that this was a result of [[divine providence]]: God had granted the Jewish people another leader of great stature to succeed Akiva. His place of birth is unknown.

Judah spent his youth in the city of [[Usha (ancient city)|Usha]] in the [[Galilee|Lower Galilee]]. His father presumably gave him the same education that he had received, including [[Koine Greek]].<ref>[[Sotah (Talmud)|Sotah]] 49b</ref> This knowledge of Greek enabled him to become the Jews' intermediary with the Roman authorities. He favoured Greek as the language of the country over [[Jewish Palestinian Aramaic]].<ref>Sotah 49b</ref> In Judah's house, only the [[Hebrew language]] was spoken, and the maids of the house became known for their use of obscure Hebrew terminology.<ref>Megillah 18a; Rosh Hashana 26b; Nazir 3a; Eruvin 53a</ref>

Judah devoted himself to the study of the oral and the written law. He studied under some of Akiva's most eminent students. As their student and through conversation with other prominent men who gathered about his father, he laid a strong foundation of scholarship for his life's work: the editing of the Mishnah.