Talmudic Academies In Babylonia
The Talmudic academies (yeshivot) of Babylon , also called academies gaoniques , although they were based on the period of Doctors of the Talmud , a few centuries earlier, were the center of Jewish education and the development of Jewish Law in Mesopotamia from roughly 220 CE to 1038 CE (or, as the Hebrew dates from 3980 AM to 4798 AM). It is their model that were designed later Talmudic academies.
The main work of these academies was the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud , begun by Rav Ashi and Ravina , the two spiritual leaders of the Jewish community in Babylon, about the year 550. The editorial work of their successors, Savoram , continued in this text during the 250 years that followed, not ending until around the year 700. The two most famous academies were located at Soura and Pumbedita : the first was long dominant, but his authority waned towards the end of the period gaonique, and gaonat Pumbedita took the ascendancy of . They were in office for four hundred years under the Islamic Caliphate, after the conquest of Persia in the seventh century.
During the period Amoraim the yeshivot founded by Rav and Shmuel was the seat of the production, transmission, compilation and writing of the Babylonian Talmud. Academies of Sura and Pumbedita in which the college was transferred to Nehardea, are considered the only major study centers, while smaller centers, generally peripheral, exert some influence. They are the only academy to survive persecution occurred at the time of Savoram , intermediate between those of Amoraim and Geonim.
Academies of Babylon took a significant upward on Jewish life during the period Geonim. The latter, who directed the great academies of Sura and Pumbedita, were generally regarded as the spiritual leaders of all communities in the Jewish diaspora , with the exception of possessions contemporary Fatimid (Egypt and Syria), directed by the Yeshiva of the land of Israel.
According to the Epistle of Sherira Gaon , which serves as reference for the period gaonique the first gaon of Sura was March Rav Mar, who assumed the office in 609 , and the last was Samuel ben Hofn , who died in 1034 (actually It seems that at least three Geonim he did briefly succeeded, but at his death, the academy of Sura was already closed ), the last gaon of Pumbedita was Hizqiah Gaon , deposed and tortured to death in 1040, according traditional sources (although modern studies do not seem to confirm ). However, it is generally thought that the period of Geonim stops at the death of Hai Gaon , in 1038 , thus covering approximately 450 years.
Summary |
History
From Ezra to Judah
The Jews of Babylonia were probably taken part in the changes and movements that Ezra and his successors, all natives of Babylonia, brought in the Land of Israel. However, for four centuries that separate Ezra the Scribe (around the fifth century BCE ) of Hillel the Elder (1st century BCE), there is no illuminating detail on the history of Jews in Babylon. The indications given by Flavius Josephus on the Parthian period, show a populous community, with elements of their more notable feats that their scholarship. For centuries, from Hillel to his descendant Judah the Prince , who lived about two centuries after his ancestor, a few scant information on the instruction of the Jews appear in the Babylonian Talmud.
Sherira Gaon , whose epistle is the principal source on the Babylonian schools, writes about this period: "While undoubtedly a public statement of the Torah was given here in Babylon, there was no outside exilarchs of school principals recognized until the death of Rabbi . "
The headquarters of the Babylonian Jewry is Nehardea , with the exception of a period of persecution following the death of Anilaos and Asinaos and the city is home to an ancient synagogue, built according to tradition at the time of King Joacihin. Rabbi Akiva , emissary of the Sanhedrin , it makes the period preceding the coming of Hadrian , to discuss a point of marriage law with Bet Nehemia Dli, a local Sage . At Huzal , a locality close to Nehardea, a synagogue is located not far from the ruins of the Academy of Ezra.
At the same time, Judah ben Bathyra holds his school Nisibis , where many scientists Palestinian refuge during Roman persecutions.
Believing the study center in the land of Israel destroyed, Hananiah , the nephew of Joshua ben Hananiah , rebuilt at a center -Nehar Peod ; doctors of the land of Israel, however, ensure that it is reduced in importance, so as not to cause schism between the land of Israel and Babylon. These are also the Babylonians to help with the revival of the Jewish center.
Foundation Academies
Among these Babylonian Jews who returned to the land of Israel to meet its study centers following the campaigns and persecutions of Hadrian, is distinguished Rabbi Nathan , parent of the exilarch , appointed head of the academy Oush which continues its activity even under Judah ha-Nasi (while the centers have been identified). Another Babylonian Rabbi Hiyya , is one of the most important thinkers of the end of the era of Tannaim. A midrash relates that Rabbi Hiyya have taught his nephew Rabbi "all rules of Torah study by the method of Babylonia . "
The return of Rabbi in Babylonia in the year 530 of the advent of the Seleucids (that is to say in 219 CE ), marks an epoch, the beginning of the predominance of Babylonian Jewry in Jewish life, until 'the death of Hai Gaon in 1038 CE.
When Rabbi arrives at Nehardea , major scholars as Rabbi Chila and Shmuel , there are already teaching. This will give the instruction of Jews Nehardea Rav founded a new academy, 20 parasangs away in the city of Sura. Thus there exist two academies in Babylonia contemporary, quite distant from each other not to interfere in their mutual business. Rav and Shmuel both enjoying a high reputation and a name less prestige, their academies are seen as equal importance and influence. During discussions and Rav Shmuel and form the first layer in the composition of the Babylonian Talmud. The coexistence for many decades these two colleges of equal rank created the phenomenon where two Talmudic academies direct the spiritual life in Babylonia. These academies became, with minor interruptions, a permanent institution and a major factor in the development of Babylonian Judaism.
When Odenatus Nehardea destroyed in 259 - two years after the death of Rav and Shmuel of five after that - the college of Nehardea is transferred to the nearby town of Pumbedita (currently Fallujah ), where Judah ben Ezekiel , better known as Rabbi Yehuda disciple of Rav and Shmuel, had founded his own school. Of both its founder, and still more that of his successors, the Yeshiva of Pumbedita acquires a reputation for intellectual acuity and subtlety, which often degenerates into quibbling . Pumbedita becomes the other pole of the intellectual life of the Babylonian Jews, and retains that role until the end of the period gaonique.
Nehardea regain its preeminence with Amemar , a contemporary of Rav Ashi. The luster of Sura (also known under the name of a nearby town, Meassya Mata , in which the academy is temporarily or intermittently) is enhanced by the disciple and successor of Rav, Rav Huna , under whose direction the number of students reached numbers not seen before. On the death of Rav Huna, in 297, Rav Yehuda, director of the Academy of Pumbedita, is also recognized by the wise as their director of Sura. However, after his death two years later, Sura became the only center of study, with Rabbi hisD headed. HisD had already rebuilt in time for the Academy of Rav Huna, fallen into ruins, while the College of Huna was at Mata Meassya . On the death of HISD, in 309, Sura loses his balance for a long period.
At Pumbedita , Rabba bar Nahmani (d. 331 ), Joseph (d. 333 ), and Abaye (d. 339 ) are repeated at his direction. Rava , then transports the college in his hometown Mahoza. The study of the Act achieved under these masters a new development, particularly the discussion of Abaye and Rava, forming a stratum of the Babylonian Talmud. Scholars fleeing Roman persecution in the land of Israel, also contribute greatly to raising the level of debate and knowledge.
Rava's death in 352, returned to college Pumbedita, its director, Nachman bar Isaac (d. 356) is a disciple of Rava. One can perceive in his method of teaching the first traces of attempts to systematize the huge volume of data that has accumulated in the Gemara of Babylon, which form the Mishna with the corpus of the Babylonian Talmud. Sura, however, is, not Pumbedita, he returned to perform this work after the death of Rava, another student at an academy founded Naresh near Soura, this academy is the first to have interfered with the growth of the school of Sura, but Sura regains supremacy after the death of Papa, thanks to Rav Ashi. Under his leadership, and for over half a century (Rav Ashi died in 427), Soura attracts so many people that exilarchs themselves go there every fall, to hold their traditional receptions. Pumbedita bows to Sura, and this for several centuries.
The unusually long period of activity of Rav Ashi, his high position and unchallenged, his erudition and historical context favorable, were all important factors in accomplishing the task he had undertaken: the collection and organization of material accumulated over the previous two centuries and in the Babylonian yeshivot. If the composition of the literary work itself, especially its discursive aspect, occurred only later, Rabbi Ashi is nonetheless, as stated by tradition, the father of the Babylonian Talmud. His work has certainly been greatly amplified by later, but its shape is unchanged.
The Babylonian Talmud must be considered as the work of the academy of Sura, which Rav Ashi submitted at each meeting semi-annual results of its investigation and its selection, treaty by treaty (this process made him even discussed, recorded in the Talmud). His successors continued to Soura, perfected and lay down on paper probably the result of work of Rav Ashi, they preserved during the persecutions which befell the Jews of Babylonia shortly after his death. It is these persecutions that are the source of the publication of the Talmud as a work complete. Ravina (or Rav Avina), Soura teacher is regarded by tradition as the last doctor in the Talmud , the year of his death (812 of the Seleucid era, that is to say 500 of the Common Era ) is considered the closing date of the Talmud.
After his death, the Jews fled to Pumbedita, relatively unscathed by the anti-Jewish persecution. Raba Yossi is the head of the academy. Sura declines, while the study continues to Pumbedita, which becomes the mistress-academy in Babylonia.
Eras of Savoram and Geonim
The three centuries of development of the Babylonian Talmud in the academies founded by Rabbi Shmuel and were followed for five centuries, covering the period Savoram , where the text was piously preserved, studied and discussed in schools, and drafted in final form and the period of Geonim , who did accept the norm by all Jewish communities in diaspora.
Sura Pumbedita and asserted themselves as the only major study centers, their colleges, and especially their managers, were considered authorities indisputes, opinions and decisions were qumandes in any place where life could hold a Jewish community. The Haggadah goes on to say that God created these two academies that the promise is made to never let the word of God to leave the mouth of Israel .
The periods of Jewish history immediately following the compilation of the Talmud are designated with the names of directors of these academies, and are therefore entitled "Savoram era" (499 CE - 589 CE) and "Geonim era" (589 CE - 1038 EC), respectively: the Jewish perspective, since these periods are not characterized by intellectual decline that has earned them the appellation of the Western world the Middle Ages , but rather an intense fermentation gave birth to the "science" and the Jewish civilization . However, if the Babylonian academies were at that time the center of Jewish life, they have not been the one pole, the land of Israel had imposed in many cultural fields at the time, including the Midrash and Massor.
The title of Gaon , formerly reserved for the rosh yeshiva of Sura , generalizes from the passage of Babylonia controlled Arab Muslim in the seventh century , when the position and rank and official exilarchs scholarchs is reviewed according to standards the conqueror. However, to maintain continuity between the defending champions, it must be accepted Savoram activity of the seventh century or accept an earlier origin of the title of Gaon. In fact, both titles are used interchangeably and has conventional title; Savoram Geonim and were all managers or Pumbedita Soura, and as such are the successors of Amoraim.
Rise and decline of the academies
The high status of Sura was maintained until the end of the eighth century , after which the academy Pumbedita, better funded, took the ascendancy and blows increasingly serious rival of one Geonim Pumbedita of the tenth century , Cohen Zedek in March , went so far as to suggest to appoint an honorary Gaon of Sura, headquartered in Pumbedita. Various attempts were made to meet Soura, the most memorable was the appointment of Saadia Gaon. This innovation in many fields, including linguistics, Hebrew, Jewish exegesis of the Bible, Jewish philosophy, Jewish liturgy and Jewish law, and gave a new youth to the Babylonian Jewry. Hofn ben Samuel , traditionally considered the last Gaon of Sura, was also a considerable influence, but not enough to prevent the academy to close.
Pumbedita, meanwhile, ended the era of Geonim in style with Sherira Gaon and his son Hai Gaon (died 1038). An academy continued to exist in Baghdad for a few more centuries, but she never played an important role in Judaism.
Several explanations can be advanced to explain this state of facts. If the decline of the Abbasid caliphate in Babylonia, and the rise of religious intolerance Bouyyides are often developed, there were other, internal to Judaism: the incessant struggles with the Academy of the land of Israel, or between Babylonian academies, which weaken the prestige of academia: the struggle for accession to gaonat, most often resulting in the inability of a gaon to exercise long enough to change the situation, and conflicts between Geonim exilarchs, which weaken each other and prevents them from dealing with the situation and finally, the rise of research center, Egypt, Tunisia, Cairo and in southern France, gradually freeing itself from Babylon, Babylonian academies away funds allocated for their maintenance .
Organization of academies
Babylonian academies were officially known by the term Judeo-Aramaic of metivta (equivalent of the Hebrew yeshiva) session. The dean of the academy was therefore called resh metivta (cf. Hebrew rosh yeshiva ). According to tradition, Rav Huna , Rav's successor was the first to bear that title, and before him, the term was resh sidra, "master of the organization . "Resh metivta remained the official designation of the dean of the academy until the end of the period gaonique; the term gaon would not go, but adjoining it, taking the meaning of excellence. "
Academies, like the Sanhedrin , played the role of supreme judicial authority in their districts, that is to say, the north and south of Babylonia (the center is, theoretically at least, the responsibility the exilarch ). The responsibility of Geonim mention also members of the College of the school as belonging to the "Great Sanhedrin" or "small Sanhedrin. "The Gaon held the position of Nassi and his second was av beit din (President of the Rabbinical Court ). This role could be held by gaonat contenders like Hai Gaon.
On the other hand, they were the world center of Talmudic studies, and acquired, from the second half of the period gaonique, a function even more important, the advisory authority of the entire Jewish Diaspora , in except Fatimid dominions (which included the land of Israel , of Egypt and Syria ). The emissaries often succeeded in Babylonia, in charge of donations for the sustenance of the academy, but also questions on points of ritual, calendar, civil law, etc.. Academies charge of the answer, in a literature sheelot outeshouvot called in Hebrew , and responsibility in Latin. The development of these responsa were usually held during the kallah ("general meeting").
The kallah, typical of Babylonian Jewry, and unparalleled in the land of Israel, had already been established at the time of Amoraim.
Due to the large expanse of Babylonia, and the need to gather 71 sages (Sanhedrin as a major requires a meeting of 71 persons for deliberation ), two Kallah were held each year at the off-season ( Agriculture was, until the establishment of the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad , the traditional business of Jews). The conduct and organization of the Kallah, the order of Procedure and hierarchies are related by Nathan HaBavli , a Jewish traveler of the tenth century :
- In the months of kallah - that is to say Elul , in late summer, and Adar , at the end of winter, the disciples go from their various places of residence to the meeting After having prepared the previous five months at the treaty announced at the end of the previous month kallah by the director of the academy. In Adar and Elul, they appear before the director, who looks on this treaty. They sit in order of rank as follows: immediately next to the president is the first row, consisting of ten men, seven of them are reshei kallah, three of them are called Haverim References
This article incorporates text from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906, article "ACADEMIES IN BABYLONIA" by Wilhelm Bacher , a publication now in the public domain.
- cf. Louis Ginzberg in geonic.
- Matt T. Rosenberg, Largest Cities Through History , about.com, 2007, New York
- Moshe Gil , Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages, pp. 404-405
- I. Singer & S. Mendelssohn, in Jewish Encyclopedia , Hezekiah Gaon
- Moshe Gil, ibid, pp. 111-116
- The exact dates of the missions of Ezra and Nehemiah, as well as their temporal relationship is uncertain, because each is dated in years of reign of King Achaemenid Artaxerxes. However, many kings bore this name, and ruled at times very different, which can locate the date of the mission of Ezra in 458 as in 397 ACS ACS - AJ Toynbee , A Study of History, vol.12 ( 1961) Oxford University Press, 1964 pp.484-485 Note 2
- Josephus, Antiquities , Book XVIII chap. 9
- Epistle of Rabbi Gaon Sherira , p.27
- Mishna Yebamot 16:6
- Bereshit Rabba 33:3, quoted by Adin Steinsaltz , Rabbi, in "Characters of the Talmud," p. 121
- TB Baba Metzia 38b
- Letter Sherira , ed. Neubauer
- See Letter from Sheri, and the work of David Weiss Halivni , especially Peshat and Drash: Plain and Applied Meaning in Rabbinic Exegesis, Oxford University Press, NY, 1991; Halivni supports the important role of Savoram , that he calls Stammam, without which the discursive aspect was absent from the Babylonian Talmud, which would have made highly similar to the Jerusalem Talmud
- Mid. Tan. , Noah , 3. The promise is in Isaiah 59:21
- George L. Burr, "How the Middle Ages Got Their name," American Historical Review, No. 20 (1914 - 1915), p. 813-815
- Heinrich Graetz , History of the Jews, the third period, second period, the first chapter
- Elinoar Bareket, (he) The Gaonite Era Jews Under Islamic Rule 7-12 Dring Centuries, p. 54-55, ed. Broadcasting University, Israel 2007 ( ISBN 978-965-05-1423-5 )
- Comp. Zacuto , Youhassin, "p. 118b, Knigsberg, 1857
- TB Sanhedrin 2a, from Numbers 11:16
- Neubauer, MJC ii. 87
See also
Related articles
Major yeshivas
Other Yeshivot
Bibliography
- (In) Moshe Gil , Jews in Islamic Countries in the Middle Ages , ed. Brill, 2004 ISBN 90-04-13882-X
- (He) Abraham Goldberg, Yeshiva, from the Fathers to the closing of the Talmud
- (He) Horvits Yehoshua, The Yeshiva at the age of Geonim
- (He) SK Mirsky, The yeshivot of Babylonia and their influence on the lives of our people
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