Person
Rabbi Judah IV רבי יהודה נשיאה השלישי
the last patriarch but one, of whom almost only the name is known
Son of Gamaliel V, grandson of Hillel II, father of Gamaliel VI. The only act set to his name is that he apparently put to the aggadist Phinehas ben Hama a question about the book of Ruth.
This entry stands here not for his own sake but for the chain: without him there would be a hole in the row of patriarchs, and the ending of the patriarchate with his son would read as a break out of nowhere.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Ruth Rabbah — the patriarch's question about the book of Ruth
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years of office and that nothing more is known of him
Basis: Talmud and midrash.