Yehuda ben Tabbai יהודה בן טבאי
third pair; nasi according to Chagigah, av beit din according to the Jerusalem Talmud
Yehuda ben Tabbai made up the third pair together with Shimon ben Shetach — in the years of Alexander Jannaeus and Queen Salome Alexandra.
Which of them was nasi and which av beit din the sources tell differently. Chagigah 2:2 lists the pairs in order and adds the rule that the first was nasi and the second av beit din; there Yehuda stands first. The Jerusalem Talmud, and most scholars after it, place Shimon ben Shetach at the head and leave Yehuda the court. The disagreement is old and unresolved; in this reference it is recorded for both.
His saying in Avot 1:8 is about how a judge must carry himself: «Do not act as an advocate before judges; while the parties stand before you let both be guilty in your eyes; and when they have gone, having accepted the verdict, let both be innocent in your eyes.»
Behind those words lies his own grief. Makkot 5b tells that he put a false witness to death though the accused had not yet been punished — and only afterwards understood that by Pharisaic law false witnesses are executed only when there are two of them and the sentence has been carried out. The Talmud says he would come to the grave of the executed man and beg forgiveness, and Shimon ben Shetach told him: everything you say, you say out of your sorrow.
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Mishnah Avot 1:4–1:12 — the list of the five pairs and each man's saying
- Mishnah Chagigah 2:2 — who in each pair was nasi and who av beit din, and the dispute over laying hands on a festival
- Makkot 5b — the execution of a false witness and his remorse
- Jerusalem Talmud, Chagigah 2:2 — here Shimon ben Shetach is called nasi — at odds with Chagigah 2:2
Basis: accounts differ.