YEHUDAH BAR YEḤEZQEʾL (c. 220–c. 299), a leading second-generation Babylonian amora, based in Pumbedita. He studied chiefly with Rav and then Shemuʾel. Although remaining subservient to the exilarch (B.T., Qid. 70a–70b), the leader of the Jewish community appointed by the Persian authorities, Yehudah was empowered by him to apply rabbinic law in the marketplace and in civil and other matters that fell under his jurisdiction, especially through the enforcement of documents (B.T., Moʿed Q. 4b, Yev. 39b).

As a teacher of rabbinic tradition, Yehudah cited the Mishnah to draw out its subtle legal points and to emend or explain it to make it fit the physical and social conditions of Babylonian Jewry or extra-Mishnaic tannaitic traditions (Epstein, 1964). In interpreting and rewording the comments of Rav and...