Lod לוד

Lod is named already in the Tanakh, and in the days of the Mishnah it is the great study house of the south: the city of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, with Rabbi Akiva's Bnei Brak nearby. When Galilee became the centre, the southern Torah was still called "our masters of the south", and the law often followed Lod.

In the upper room of Nitza's house in Lod the sages met under persecution and settled two great questions: study is greater than deed, for it leads to deed; and everything in the Torah gives way to saving a life, except three things. From here too come "the slain of Lod", two brothers who took another's guilt upon themselves—of whom it is said that in the world to come no one stands within their enclosure.