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The history of the Jews in Babylonia is largely unknown for the four centuries covering the period from Ezra (c. 5th century BCE) [7] to Hillel the Elder (traditionally c. 110 BCE – 10 CE); and the history of the succeeding two centuries, from Hillel to Judah the Prince (fl. 2nd century CE), furnishes only a few scanty items on the state of learning among the Babylonian Jews.
The origins of the Jewish community in Babylonia go back to the First Temple period. [3] Beginning in the 3rd century CE, Babylonia became the center of the Jewish world. [3] Babylon was the only major Jewish community outside of the Roman Empire, which attracted Jews and influenced their spiritual world. [3]
The Neo-Babylonian Empire under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar II occupied the Kingdom of Judah between 597–586 BCE and destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem. [3] According to the Hebrew Bible, the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, was forced to watch his sons put to death, then his own eyes were put out and he was exiled to Babylon (2 Kings 25).
Many Palestinian sages refused to consider Babylonian scholars their equals and would not ordain Babylonian students in their academies, fearing they would return to Babylon as rabbis. Significant Jewish emigration to Babylon adversely affected the Jewish academies of Palestine, and by the end of the third century they were reliant on donations ...
Judah's revolts against Babylon (601–586 BCE) were attempts by the Kingdom of Judah to escape dominance by the Neo-Babylonian Empire.Resulting in a Babylonian victory and the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah, it marked the beginning of the prolonged hiatus in Jewish self-rule in Judaea until the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE.
In general, the documents show a similarity between the life of the Jews and other exiles in the kingdom at the time. In principle, it can be said that the documents attest to the tension between the preservation of Jewish identity, language, culture and religion and the need, and sometimes the will, to integrate into life in Babylon.
Nehardea or Nehardeah (Imperial Aramaic: נהרדעא, romanized: nəhardəʿā "river of knowledge") was a city from the area called by ancient Jewish sources Babylonia, situated at or near the junction of the Euphrates with the Nahr Malka (the Royal Canal), one of the earliest and most prominent centers of Babylonian Judaism.
The Geonim officiated, in the last place, as directors of the academies, continuing as such the educational activity of the Amoraim and Saboraim.For while the Amoraim, through their interpretation of the Mishnah, gave rise to the Talmud, and while the Saboraim definitively edited it, the Geonim's task was to interpret it; for them it became the subject of study and instruction, and they gave ...