Editing Judah ha-Nasi (section)

===Death===
[[File:Catacomb no. 14, The Cave of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.jpg|thumb|300px|Catacomb no. 14, the Cave of Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi in [[Beit She'arim (Roman-era Jewish village)|Beit Shearim]].]]
The year of Judah's death is deduced from the statement that his student [[Abba Arikha]] left Eretz Yisrael for good not long before Judah's death, in year 530 of the [[Seleucid era]] (219 CE).<ref>See "R. E. J." 44:45-61</ref> He assumed the office of patriarch during the reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Lucius Verus]] (c. 165). Hence Judah, having been born about 135, became patriarch at the age of 30, and died at the age of about 85. The [[Talmud]] notes that Rabbi Judah the Prince lived for at least 17 years in [[Sepphoris]], and that he applied unto himself the biblical verse, "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years" <small>(Genesis 47:28)</small>.<ref>[[Jerusalem Talmud]], ''Kelaim'' 9:3, 32a-b.</ref>

According to a different calculation, he died on 15 [[Kislev]], AM 3978 (around December 1, 217 CE),<ref>{{cite book |first=Judah |last=Goldin |chapter=The Period of the Talmud |editor-first=L. |editor-last=Finkelstein |title=The Jews: Their History |publisher=Schocken |location=New York |year=1970 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewstheirhistory00fink/page/172 172] |isbn=0-8052-0271-4 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/jewstheirhistory00fink/page/172 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=L. |last1=Margolis |first2=A. |last2=Marx |title=A History of the Jewish People |publisher=Atheneum |location=New York |year=1980 |isbn=0-689-70134-9 |page=225 }}</ref> in Sepphoris, and his body was interred in the [[Beit She'arim necropolis|necropolis of Beit Shearim]], {{convert|15.2|km}} distant from Sepphoris,<ref>Cf. [[Babylonian Talmud]] [[Kettubot]] 103a-b; [[Bava Metzia]] 85a; [[Pesachim]] 49b; [[Jerusalem Talmud]], ''Kelaim'' 9:3, 32a-b.</ref> during whose funeral procession they made eighteen stops at different stations along the route to eulogise him.

It is said that when Judah died, no one had the heart to announce his demise to the anxious people of [[Sepphoris]], until the clever Bar Ḳappara broke the news in a parable, saying: "The heavenly host and earth-born men held the tablets of the covenant; then the heavenly host was victorious and seized the tablets."<ref>Yerushalmi Kilayim 32b; [https://www.sefaria.org.il/Ketubot.104a.2?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Ketuvot 104a]; Yerushalmi Ketuvot 35a; Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:11, 9:10</ref>

Judah's eminence as a scholar, who gave to this period its distinctive impression, was characterised at an early date by the saying that since the time of [[Moses]], the Torah and greatness (i.e. knowledge and rank) were united in no one to the same extent as in Judah I.<ref>Gittin 59a; Sanhedrin 36a</ref>

Two of Judah's sons assumed positions of authority after his death: [[Gamaliel III|Gamaliel]] succeeded him as ''nasi'', while [[Shimon ben Judah HaNasi|Shimon]] became [[hakham]] of his yeshiva.

According to some [[Midrash]]ic and [[Kabbalah|Kabbalistic]] legends, Judah ha-Nasi had a son named Yaavetz who [[Entering heaven alive|ascended to Heaven without experiencing death]].<ref>אוצר המדרשים, עשר גלויות פרשה ב</ref><ref>דרך ארץ זוטא א יח</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Reshit_Chokhmah%2C_Chupat_Eliyahu_Rabbah%2C_Gate_of_Three.18|title=Reshit Chokhmah|website=sefaria.org}}</ref>