Lydda.

Here it was, that Ben Satdah was surprised and taken, and brought before the Sanhedrim, and stoned...

Since it was not lawful to intercalate the year any where but in Judea, "a great many went to Lydda out of the school of the Rabbi" (Judah Haccodesh, viz. out of Galilee. And a little after: "R. Jeremiah asked before R. Zeira, Is not Lydda a part of Judea? Yes, saith he. Wherefore, then, do they not transact the intercalation of the year there?--Because they are obstinate, and unskillful in the law."

"Lydda is a part of Judea." Let some maps mark this, which have placed a certain Lod, which never was any where, not far from Jericho, as was said before; because Lod, in the land of Benjamin, is brought in, Nehemiah 11:35: but they set Lydda far beyond the bounds of Judea in the land of Ephraim.

"Koshab Bar Ulla sometime got away to Lydda to Rabbi Josua Ben Levi, dwelling there, when he fled from the Romans. The Romans pursued him, and besieged the city. Unless you deliver him to us, say they, we will destroy the city. R. Josua Ben Levi persuaded him, and he was delivered to the Romans."

I might produce numberless things celebrating the name of Lydda; such as, "The chamber of Beth-Arum in Lydda." "The chamber of Beth-lebaza in Lydda." "The chamber of Beth-Nethaza in Lydda."--We suppose these were schools.

I might mention very many names of Rabbins residing at Lydda, besides those whom I have remembered before: such are, R. Chama Bar Chanina, and R. Hoshaia with him. R. Illai, and R. Eliezer; and others, who are vulgarly called the Southern, in the sense we produced before. Concerning R. Josua Ben Levi, by name, the author of Juchasin hath these words, "His habitation, or college, was in the south of the land of Israel." He means Lydda.

R. Eliezer, dying at Caesarea, desired to be buried at Lydda, whom R. Akibah bewailed as well with blood as tears. "For when he met his hearse betwixt Caesarea and Lydda, he beat himself in that manner, that blood flowed down upon the earth. Lamenting, thus he spoke,--O my father, my father, the chariot and horsemen of Israel. I have much money, but I want a moneyer, to change it." The Gloss is this, "I have very many questions; but now there is no man, to whom I may propound them."

There is a place between Jamnia and Lydda, which was called Bekiin; of which there is this mention: "R. Jochanan Ben Brucha, and R. Eliezer the blind, travelling from Jabneh to Lydda, met R. Josua in Bekiin," &c.

From Jamnia to Joppe (according to Benjamin, in his Itinerary [p. 51]) are three leagues, or parsae: "Now Lydda was nigh to Joppa," Acts 9:38.