Usha אושא
The Galilean town where the Sanhedrin regathered after the Bar-Kokhba disaster—here the Torah survived a second time.
After the fall of Beitar and Hadrian's persecutions the teaching seemed finished: no Sanhedrin, ordination banned, Rabbi Akiva's students dead. The survivors—Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—met at Usha, and the Sanhedrin gathered again under Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel.
The "enactments of Usha" entered the law: a father must feed his young children; a giver may not give away more than a fifth, lest he himself come to need. With Usha begins the Galilean chapter of Torah that leads through Shefar'am and Beit She'arim to Tzippori and Tiberias—all the way to the writing of the Mishnah.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Ketubot 49b-50a — the enactments of Usha
- Rosh Hashanah 31a-b — the ten removals of the Sanhedrin
Basis: Talmud and midrash.