Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/455

409 409 erxes

ume,

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA "

Kohut Memorial

(Th. Reinach, in the

Vol-

Babylonia

himself compelled to slaughter twelve

thousand

457 et seq.). The schismatic Mani, founder of Manicheism, appeared at this time: his execution (doubtless because Manicheism exerted

Jews at Mazaga (Cfesarea), in Cappadocia, Samuel was ready to defend him (M. IC. 26a). Under Sapor began the bitter contest with the Romans for pos-

some influence upon Judaism) under Shabur tioned by Ibn Daud (p. 61).

session of the rich lands of the Euphrates, so thickly

pp.

is

men-

It was,

however, before the accession of the Sassanids that the powerful impetus toward the study of the Torah arose among the Jews of Babylonia which made that country the very focus of Judaism for more than a thousand years. An exact date may be determined: Sherira and those dependent upon him (compare "Seder Tannaim we-Amoraim," in the version of the Mahzor Vitry, p. 482) set as the date of Rab's return from Palestine the year 530 of the Seleucid era that is, 219 of the common era, or, according to Ibn Daud (I.e. p. 57), the year of the world 3979. It would seem that Palestinian scholarship had exhausted itself with the compilation of the Mishnah; and it was an easy matter to carry the finished work to Babylonia. When Rab returned thither, there was already an academy at Nehardea under the leadership of an obscure R. Shila, who bore the title "resh sidra." Upon the Academies death of the latter it was but natural Founded, that the much more eminent Abba Arika whose distinction is indicated by the title of " Rab " should become head of the school. But, in his modesty, Rab resigned the acad;

— —

emy

at

Nehardea

to his

younger countryman Sam-

while he himself founded a similar institution in Sura (known also by the name of an adjacent town, Mata Mehasya). Nehardea, a long-established seat of Jewish life in Babylonia, first attained flourishing eminence through this prominent teacher, Mar Samuel and when, with the death of Rab (247), the splendor of Sura vanished, Nehardea remained for seven years the only academy ("metibta") in Babylonia. From this period on, the history of the Jews in Babylonia, hitherto obscure, becomes quite clear (see Academies in Babylonia). The mass of tradition zealously preserved in the Babylonian academies furnishes a series of dates and uel,



facts

which illuminate

their life.

The

resh galuta

about this time appears to have been Mar 'Ukba, or Nathan 'Ukban (c. 210-240) the chief judge was a certain Kama while Rab held the much more troublesome than brilliant official position of an "agoranomos" (Yer. B. B. v. 15*). Although even Rab himself had to endure harshness at the hands of the exilarch's officers, from this time on it would appear that the exilarchs, in acSapor I. cordance with the prevailing spirit of veneration for learning, began to devote themselves to the acquisition of knowledge as well as of power, approaching thus the example of the Palestinian King Sapor I. (240-271) favored Samuel patriarchs. with such a degree of intimacy that the latter was sometimes called " King Sapor " and " Arioch " (friend of the Arians; see Kid. 39a; Shab. 53a), and the peoDle generally spoke of him with respect as " the Jewish sage " (Shab. 129a). But Samuel, too, liked the Persians. He was the author of the celebrated " saying, " The law of the land is the law to go by (B. B. 54b), referring, of course to civil matters; and even when his king, in the exigencies of war, felt



populated by Jews. R. Johanan aptly remarked concerning these struggles that " Holwan, Adiabene, and Nisibis are the three ribs which the prophet Daniel describes as being held in the mouth of the beast, sometimes crunched and sometimes dropped " The Persians pene(Kid. 72a; see Dan. vii. 5). trated to the very heart of the Roman territory, until Odenath, prince of Palmyra, moved against them and took their booty from them (261). Several Talmudic passages speak of a certain Papa bar Nazor, who is identified by Cassel and Graetz with Odenath, while Noldeke (I.e. p. 22, note 2) makes him a brother of Odenath. Zenobia, wife of Odenath, quite distinctly referred to in the Talmud. According to non- Jewish writers, Odenath only penetrated as far as Ctesiphon while Jewish sources (Sherira, the " Small Chronicle " and the " Seder Tannaim ") refer to the calamity of the destruction of Nehardea by Papa bar Nazor. Samuel was then no longer alive; his daughters were taken prisoners; and his disciples fled to Shekanzib, Shelhi, and Mahuza Nehardea ceased to be the principal focus of Jewish life, although its academy still continued in existence. Many rabbis also escaped to Pumbedita, which city now became the seat for a thousand years of the most celebrated Babylonian Jewish college is





next to Sura.

The Jews then enjoyed, it would appear, half a century of repose; not too long a respite for the enormous intellectual work going on. By Christian writers the Jews are accused without warrant of having instigated the slaughter of twenty-two bishops by Sapor II. (310-382) as part of his antagonism to the Christian predilection for 8;

Rome (Sozomen

ii.

Burckhardt, "Die Zeit Constantins des Grossen," 2d ed.,1880, p. 90). The " Small Chron-

Sapor

II.

icle"

narrates that

when Huna was

and Rabbah chief of the academy, Sapor went against Nisibis and conquered it. A persecution of the Jews is mentioned as taking place in 313 (Theophanes, ed. De Boor, p. 25) but Sapor was at that time still a child. Rabbah b. Nahmani, the head of the academy at Pumbedita (died exilarch,



a victim to persecution. The charge was against him that the 12,000 disciples who assembled twice a year for the usual public study (" kallah " see Academies in Babylonia) did so merely to avoid paying the tax (see B. M. 86a). Rabbah fled and perished miserably, lost in a place 331), fell

made



called

Agma

successors, R.

(swamp?) (see Sherira, I.e. p. 31). His Joseph the Blind and Raba (who fol-

lowed Abaye), enjoyed the favor of the queenmother Ifra Hormiz (B. B. 8a, 106; Ta'anit 24*; Niddah 20* Zeb. 116*) which did not, however, prevent Raba from being imprisoned upon a baseless

charge (Ber. 56a).



Rabbah and,

still

more, his pupils

Abaye and Raba

are considered as the founders of the acute Talmudic dialectics practised in PumAfter the short presidencies of R. Joseph bedita.

and Abaye, the renowned Raba became the head of Pumbedita in his days it was the only remaining