The Jewish Diaspora

Migration

Rise of the Babylonian academies

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200–600 CELand of Israel → Babylonia (Mesopotamia)

Why it happened

As the rabbinic center of Roman Palestine weakened under repression and a shrinking base of support,1 scholars driven from their homes by Roman tyranny2 joined a Babylonian Jewry that governed its own affairs under Sasanian rule.3

The migration

Rav (Abba Arika, c. 175–247), trained at the Palestinian academy of Sepphoris,4 returned to Babylonia and founded an academy at Sura on the Euphrates that became the intellectual center of Babylonian Jewry;5 his homecoming, in 219 CE, marks the epochal beginning of the Talmudic age there.5 His peer Samuel headed Nehardea,6 and after that town was destroyed in 259 CE6 its place passed to Pumbedita.6 Generations of amoraim (c. 200–500 CE)7 taught under the exilarch, the communal head who claimed Davidic descent3 and whose authority the Persian state recognized.3 At Sura, Rav Ashi (its president 375–427)1 and the sages who followed compiled the Babylonian Talmud;1 its Palestinian counterpart, cut short around 425 when Theodosius II suppressed the patriarchate,1 stayed less complete. As Palestine declined, Babylonia became the intellectual center and its Talmud the accepted one,1 leaving Sura and Pumbedita the undisputed authorities of the .2

Sources

  1. BStrack HL, Stemberger G. 1992. Einleitung in Talmud und Midrasch (8th ed.). C.H. Beck (Beck-Studium), München
  2. C2026. Talmudic academies in Babylonia. Wikipedia link
  3. BNeusner J. 2007. Exilarch. Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed., Gale) link
  4. C2026. Abba Arika. Wikipedia link
  5. BSherira Gaon. 1988. The Iggeres (Epistle) of Rav Sherira Gaon (orig. c. 987 CE), trans. Nosson Dovid Rabinowich. Jerusalem: Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press / Ahavath Torah Institute Moznaim
  6. BEncyclopaedia Judaica. 2007. Nehardea. Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed., Gale) link
  7. BGray AM. 2007. Amoraim. Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed., Gale) link