Bnei Bathyra (, lit. ''"The Sons of Bathyra"''; Also referred to in the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

as זקני בתירא, lit. ''"The Elders of Bathyra"'') were a family of Jewish sages who were religious leaders around the period of the Destruction of the Second Temple. This family is known for its many important Jewish Sages over the course of several generations. Some tannaim are considered to belong to this family; the best known of these is Judah ben Bathyra, who resided in Nusaybin west to

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

. According to

Heinrich Graetz Heinrich Graetz (; 31 October 1817 – 7 September 1891) was a German exegete and one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. Born Tzvi Hirsch Graetz to a butcher family in Xions (no ...

, the family is named after the city Batira (בטירא), near

Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( / ALA-LC: ('Mountain of the Sheikh', ), , ) is a mountain, mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the Lebanon–Syria border, border between Syria and Lebanon a ...

, which was settled by Herod and gave its name to the settlers. However, others disagree with this assessment, as the story involving the family and

Hillel the Elder Hillel ( ''Hīllēl''; variously called Hillel the Elder or Hillel the Babylonian; died c. 10 CE) was a Jewish religious leader, Sage (philosophy), sage and scholar associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud and the founder of ...

(in which the family is already established as leaders in Jerusalem) takes place near the beginning of Herod's reign, leading to a chronological difficulty. According to the Talmud, in about 30 BCE they served as leaders of the

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

. However, they were unable to remember the law regarding whether the Passover sacrifice is offered when the 14th of

Nisan Nisan (or Nissan; from ) in the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars is the month of the barley ripening and first month of spring. The name of the month is an Akkadian language borrowing, although it ultimately originates in Sumerian ''nisag' ...

falls out on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

was able to answer the question for them, and as a result they were demoted from their position and Hillel took their place. As two brothers were not allowed to serve on the Sanhedrin at the same time, this suggests that the phrase "Sons of Bathyra" was not a

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

, but a family name (''nomen gentilicium''). About 100 years later, the sons of Bathyra are recorded disputing with Johanan ben Zakkai whether the shofar should be blown when Rosh Hashana falls on Shabbat.Rosh Hashana 29b Since this takes place about 100 years after the story involving Hillel, the sons of Bathyra mentioned here must have been descendants of the earlier leaders of the Sanhedrin, who probably still retained some of their ancestors' reputation.

References

See also