BAR DALA, BARDALA, BAR DALIA, BARDALIA:

By: Marcus Jastrow, S. Mendelsohn

A place near Lydda, which once harbored a rabbinic seat of learning (B. M. 10a et seq.; see Rabbinowicz, "Diḳduḳe Soferim," ad loc.; Beẓah 14a, see Rabbinowicz, ib.; Yer. 'Er. vi. 24a; Yer. Kil. i. 27a; Yer. Sheb. ii. 33d). It is supposed to be identical with Bet-Deli ('Eduy. viii. 5; Yeb. xvi. 7, in Yer. Mish. and Gemara 16a, "Badla"), which is recognized by some in Wady Ed-Dalia, between Tibnin and Safed in Galilee; by others, in Bet-Ulia (Dulia) on the road from Hebron to Jaffa. As the place was not far from Lydda—so that a Bardalian was sometimes considered as a Lyddan (Yer. Sanh. i. 18c)—the latter conjecture is the more probable. The local name is used in rabbinical literature as a surname, designating several scholars who hailed from that place (Abba Cohen of Bardala, Aḥa Bardala), and is occasionally employed as a prænomen; e.g., Bardala b. Ṭabyome (Ḥag. 5a; see also Zeb. 33b).

Bibliography:

Schwarz, Das Heilige Land, p. 89;
Neubauer, G. T. p. 263;
Z. Frankel, Mebo, p. 70a;
Jastrow, Dict. p. 190a;
Kohut, Aruch Completum, ii. 185b, ib. 67a;
Hirschensohn, Meḥḳere Arez, p. 75.

J. Sr. S. M.