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L e s s o n 23:Israel and Babylonia

1. Outlinea. Israel-diaspora relations in ancient timesb. Babylonian diaspora as a case studyc. Babylonian vs. Jerusalem Talmud

2. IntroductionA Jewish diaspora has existed since the times of the First Temple. The balance of powerbetween Eretz Yisrael and the diaspora was in a constant flux, depending on the sizes ofthe communities, their economic and political wellbeing, and the existence of a templewhich served as the religious center for the Jewish world. In this unit we'll look at EretzYisrael-diaspora relations in the time of the second Temple and after its destruction, alwayskeeping in mind the (somewhat striking) parallels with phenomena we observe today. Asan example of a large and powerful community (somewhat like the North-AmericanJewish community today?) we will examine in more detail the Babylonian community.We'll look at the two Talmuds, one from Babylonia and the other from Eretz Yisrael, to seethe differences and why they emerged, and examine one particular story which appears inboth Talmuds, with subtle but telling differences.

3. Lesson goalsa. Understanding of the characteristics of Eretz Yisrael -diaspora relations in ancient timesb. Knowledge of the structure of the Babylonian communityc. Reflection on the parallels and differences in Eretz Yisrael -diaspora relations then andnow

4. Expanded outline

a. Eretz Yisrael -diaspora relations in ancient times"Now these Jews are already gotten into all cities; and it is hard to find a place in the habitableearth that hath not admitted this tribe of men, and is not possessed by them" (Strabo ofCappadocia, Greek historian and geographer of the 1st century BC, quoted in Flavius Josephus,Antiquities of the Jews, 7).

The existence of a sizeable Jewish diaspora was brought on by a number of factors: forcedexpulsions by ruling powers, political and religious pressures in Judea, economicopportunities abroad and a trend of conversion to Judaism. All these resulted in the Jewsbeing spread all over the known world, mostly under the rule of the Hellenistic-Romanempires, with the important exception of the Babylonian community. Diaspora Jews followeda variety of occupations, and were usually well-treated in their lands, with their religiousfreedoms respected and a degree of autonomy within the community.The relationship between Eretz Yisrael and the diaspora manifested itself in several ways, andcontributions went in both directions.From diaspora to Eretz Yisrael:

While the Temple stood, Jews from the diaspora brought sacrifices and other gifts, andcontributed half-shekels to the upkeep of the Temple. These funds were not only used

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for the temple worship itself, and the supplementary services it provided (courts,library, etc.) but to the upkeep of the city of Jerusalem in general – roads, watersystems and other infrastructural projects. Jerusalem and the Temple were consideredassets of the entire Jewish people. After the destruction, rabbis from Eretz Yisrael weresent on missions to the diaspora communities, to collect funds for the upkeep of thepresidency, courts and yeshivas.

While the Temple stood, Jews from the diaspora came on pilgrimages to Jerusalem.Pilgrims often stayed for longer periods, taking the opportunity to study with the localrabbis, so that when they returned to their home countries they still regarded therabbis of Jerusalem as spiritual authorities. Pilgrimages where also an opportunity tomeet Jews from all over the world, thereby strengthening national unity.

Several Jews who originated from the diaspora came to positions of power in theleadership of the institutions of Judea, both in the Sanhedrin and in the Temple.

Jews in the diaspora used their influence to affect decisions by Roman rulers whichpertained to Judea.

From Eretz Yisrael to the diaspora, contributions included: Setting the calendar (see also lesson 24 for more details): The decision on the

declaration of a new month was made in Jerusalem, and then conveyed to thediaspora by means of a system of beacons (see source #1) and later emissaries.Decisions on leap years were transmitted to the diaspora by letter (see an example insource #2).

The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was considered the higher court by Jewish courts all overthe world, who sent it their questions.

Important rabbis went on long journeys, visiting communities across the world. Thesemissions were primarily for the purpose of fund-raising, but the rabbis also taught andlectured during their visits.

Rabbis could only receive ordination in Eretz Yisrael, so scholars from the diaspora hadto travel there for their accomplishments to be formally recognized.

Kings of Judea used their influence to lobby for the rights of Jewish minorities in citiesof the Roman Empire.

The central archive of the Jewish world was kept in Jerusalem, where family records ofthe Kohanim were kept.

The rabbis in Jerusalem translated the Torah into Greek (in what was to be known asthe Septuagint) for the benefit of Jews in the diaspora whose first language was Greek.

A central library was maintained in Jerusalem, where scrolls were collected, collated,amended, copied and sent out to the Jewish world.

During the 3rd century CE, it became customary for Jews to ship their bodies for burialin Eretz Yisrael. This resulted in additional travel to Eretz Yisrael of families bringingtheir loved ones to burial, or returning to visit their graves (see an interesting parallelin Meir Shalev's novel "The Blue Mountain", whose main character is a morticianmaking a fortune burying former Second-Aliyah pioneers who went abroad and wishto be buried in Israel).

How does this picture compare to today?

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Can we think of modern-day parallels to the items on the lists above? What are thedifferences/similarities? Was the diaspora- Eretz Yisrael connection stronger or weaker than it isnowadays? If we had an equivalent to the Temple, how would it affect our relation to Israel?Do our modern-day experiences raise questions about the past (e.g. did the leaders of Judeathink about the effect of their decisions on the Jews of the diaspora; did the leaders of Judeaactively enlist the Jewish diaspora in lobbying for their causes; did the Jews in the diaspora tryand affect how the money they contributed was being used in Judea; did the Jews considerspending some of the money on strengthening the communities in the diaspora?).

b. Babylonian diaspora as a case studyWhile the stormy and colorful events of the Hasmonean and Roman periods had beenunfolding in Jerusalem, the national center of Jewish life, a large population of Jews wasquietly living a few hundred miles to the east, in the Persian empire. While they were inconstant contact with the center in Judea, the Jews of Babylonia lived their own lives anddeveloped their own institutions, in a cultural milieu very different from that in the Hellenisticworld to the west. By the time the Mishnah was compiled and transmitted to Babylonia, thecommunity numbered in the millions, and completely dominated cities and whole regions ofthe kingdom. In their number and in their economic power, they were by far the mostsignificant of the Diaspora communities.

Within a few centuries of the completion of the Mishnah, the glorious leadership of PalestinianJewry had declined, as had the demographic, economic, and intellectual significance of thecommunity in general. Palestine was eclipsed by Babylonia. The Babylonian community wasthe dominant center of Jewish life for over 700 years, until it, too, went into decline, and thecenter moved westward, to the rising communities of Europe and North Africa.

Because of this chronology of the development of cultural centers, the Babylonian centerserved as the conduit for the transmission of the cultural heritage of Palestine to Europe. Assuch, it made its own unique contribution to Jewish law and thought. In Babylonia, we findthe development of the leadership structure that became standard in Diaspora communities:the Exilarch, or “lay” leader, whose authority was based on his wealth and/or his relationshipwith the government, in tandem with the Gaonim, or heads of the academies, whose authoritywas based on knowledge of Torah. In theory, there was a division of powers; in reality,tensions between the two authorities were not infrequent. The parallel in North Americandiaspora life is the relationship between lay and professional leaders in general, and inparticular, that between the synagogue president and the rabbi.

Read excerpts from Benjamin of Tudela's account of his visit to Baghdad (available on line athttp://www.myjewishlearning.com/history_community/Medieval/MedievalCultureTO/Baghdad.htm - note that this description dates many centuries after the period which we have recentlybeen discussing). Benjamin made a number of expeditions from his home in Tudela, throughoutsouthern Europe and the Middle East, all the way to India, in the 1160s and 1170s. Heresearched Jewish life in each place he visited, and left a detailed account of his findings. Hevisited Baghdad in 1168. In general, his descriptions seem to be realistic and accurate, althoughhis population estimates are often problematic. Benjamin’s straightforward account of his visitto Baghdad is rich in details that reveal the dynamic of the leadership structure of thecommunity.

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Note that there is a hierarchical system, with the chief rabbi, or Gaon, reputed to be adescendant of Moses. The community supports a full-time judiciary and administrativebureaucracy.

Also, note that the Gaon, as well as the rabbis and religious functionaries of outlyingcommunities, are appointed by the Exilarch.

What is the nature of the “lay” leadership?

There are two bases of the Exilarch’s authority: he is a descendant of David, and his family wasgranted authority by Mohammed. The descriptions of the Exilarch’s garb, relations with theCaliph, and installation make it clear that the key to his power is his relationship with theMoslem ruler.

Note also the emphasis on the Exilarch’s wealth, and the fact that “at his installation, [he] givesmuch money to the Calif.” Apparently wealth was another of the bases of his power.

And what is the nature of the relationship between the two leaders?

Benjamin doesn’t give us much information on this, except to indicate that the Exilarchappoints the Gaon and other rabbinical leadership. However, it is of interest to discuss variousquestions about their relationship and to connect them with modern parallels: based on thetext, which seems more prestigious, more authoritative? In a conflict, who would win? Whydoes the community need both? What distinctive roles are played by each? Could one personcombine both sets of requirements and thus fulfill both roles?

c. Babylonian vs. Jerusalem Talmud

With the redaction of the Mishnah, the process of development of the Oral Law did not stop.The scholars whose teachings are included in the Mishnah are called Tannaim. All of theTannaim lived in Eretz Yisrael. Their successors, who continued the process, were theAmoraim; there were Amoraim in both Babylonia and Eretz Yisrael, with a good deal of trafficback and forth as scholars from Babylonia went to study in the academies in Eretz Yisrael.Ultimately, two collections of the teachings of the Amoraim were assembled: the Palestinian(or Jerusalem) Talmud (about 400 C.E.) and the Babylonian Talmud (about 500).

Both Talmuds are organized according to the order of the Mishnah; generally the text ispublished in alternating blocks: a passage of Mishnah followed by the text of the Talmudicdiscussion based on that passage (Note: you may want to bring a Talmud to the classroom toshow the structure of a page – see also an online illustration athttp://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudPage.html; an online English translation of (mostof) the Babylonian Talmud is available at http://www.come-and-hear.com/tcontents.html).There is a great deal of overlap between the two collections, as similar traditions on manytopics were current in both communities. The texts are still very different:

In the Babylonian Talmud, the parts which are not in Hebrew are written in EasternAramaic (spoken in Babylonia), with a smattering of Persian words. In the JerusalemTalmud the non-Hebrew parts are in Western Aramaic (spoken in Syria and EretzYisrael), with a large number of Greek words (spoken all over the Roman empire.

The Jerusalem Talmud is much shorter than the Babylonian, and does not contain asmuch of the legal back-and-forth that the latter does. This is usually attributed to thehardships endured by the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael at the time of the Talmud'sredaction.

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Many issues are decided differently in the two texts, due to differences in customs orcircumstances between the two communities.

The Jerusalem Talmud covers the whole order of Zeraim (Seeds), which is concernedwith agricultural laws, while the Babylonian covers only one book of the order –Berakhot (blessings).

There is also a difference in the fates the two texts met. The Babylonian Talmudbecame the constitutive text of Jewish law, and is the most studied text in yeshivas.The Jerusalem Talmud's influence hardly spread beyond the borders of Eretz Yisrael,and as the importance of the community in Eretz Yisrael declined, the text wasneglected and barely survived.

Why the differences? What does the language of the Talmuds tell us about the influence of external culture

on Jewish texts? Was it limited to the language? What did the difference in languagebetween the two main communities – Eretz Yisrael and Babylonia – mean for therelationship between them? Do we see a similar effect today?Apparently the influence of the language of the surrounding culture was so strongthat it even penetrated texts that were considered (to some extent) holy. It's hard tobelieve that concepts, ideas, and norms did not. And the differences in language andculture probably meant that some level of misunderstanding existed between thecommunities.

Why doesn't the Babylonian Talmud cover the agricultural laws (it does, for example,cover the order Kodashim – Holy Things - which described the worship in the Temple)?One might say that the Babylonian Talmud does not cover the agricultural lawsbecause they pertain mostly to agriculture in Eretz Yisrael, and therefore are irrelevantto the community of Babylonia. But then so are the laws of the Temple worship, whichare covered! The usual explanation is that study of the laws of the Temple worship wasconsidered equivalent to performing them. But then why does this not apply to theagricultural laws as well?

Why did the Babylonian Talmud so surpass the Jerusalem Talmud in importance andinfluence in the Jewish world?Several explanations have been offered: the Babylonian Talmud was redacted laterthan the Jerusalem Talmud, so supercedes it; the Babylonian Talmud is more extensiveand easier to read; the influence of the Babylonian yeshivas extended to Europe andNorth Africa long after the community in Eretz Yisrael had declined and lost itsdominance.

It is interesting to examine in detail one case of a story that is told in both Talmuds. Thisparticular story was chosen as it describes a power struggle between the Rabbis of Eretz Yisraeland Babylonia, in the context of the setting of the calendar (see sources 3 and 4). The storyhappened after the Bar Kochba revolt (132-134 CE), when the Rabbis of Eretz Yisrael werepersecuted and killed by the Romans.

What are the emissaries hinting at when they tell Hananiah "Don't cite R. Akiba, wholeft not his equal in the Land of Israel"? How does Hananiah respond? And to whatsituation in Israel are they alluding to in their goat metaphor?Perhaps they're telling him not to compare himself to the great R. Akiba. To his claimthat the rabbis of Eretz Yisrael are too weak to serve as the center for purposes of the

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setting of the calendar, they respond that a new generation has arisen. How is "thecenter" of the Jewish world" decided upon? Is it always Jerusalem? Or should it shift tothe strongest community? And if so, how should this be decided, and by whom? Whatare the criteria – wealth, observance, learnedness, political power…? How does thisplay out today?

What do they mean when they say: "…let them go up to the mountain, let Ahia buildan altar and let Hananiah play the harp, and let them all become renegades and saythat they have no portion in the God of Israel"?The setting of the calendar is considered so fundamental, that founding an alternativecenter for this purpose is considered equivalent to building an alternative Temple!Compare this idea to Heschel's thesis that Judaism consecrates time, not space.

Notwithstanding the similarities between the two stories, the differences are telling.To mention a few:1. The Babylonian version is longer and more detailed, as is usually the case.2. In the Babylonian version, it is the two scholars who challenge Hananiah's

authority, whereas in the Jerusalem version it is the Nasi (president) of theSanhedrin himself, in a letter.

3. In the Babylonian version, the emergence of great rabbis in Eretz Yisrael is stressedmuch more than in the Jerusalem version (perhaps to hint that when this situationchanges, the setting of the calendar may well shift to Babylon after all?).

4. On the other hand, the Jerusalem version stresses "For out of Zion shall go forththe law" more than the Babylonian (perhaps to claim that this is a ruleindependent of the state of Torah learning in Eretz Yisrael, and holds at all times).

5. In the Babylonian version, the decision to follow the Eretz Yisrael rabbis is made bythe people, in a dramatic and emotional scene (and we are not told what theleaders think of this procedure, and whether they go along with it); the Jerusalemversion has the decision made by Rabbi Yehuda ben Betera, a great Babylonianrabbi – as formal and high up as it gets, and this is followed by a scene in whichHananiah abjectly rides from town to town to admit his error. One can almost seethe Eretz Yisrael rabbis who wrote this story enjoying the Babylonian upstart'sdiscomfort…

More background on the Babylonian community and its relationship to Eretz Yisrael:http://www.jewishgates.com/file.asp?File_ID=40

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Sources

1. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2, 3-4In what manner did they kindle the beacons? They used to bring long poles of cedar woodand rushes and pine wood and tow flax, and a man tied these together with twine. He wentup to the top of the hill and set them on fire and waved them to and fro and moved them upand down until he saw his fellow doing likewise on the top of the next hill; and also similarlyon the top of the third hill.

And from where did they kindle the beacons? From the Mount of Olives to Sartaba, and fromSartaba to Agrippina, and from Agrippina to Hauran, and from Hauran to Beth Baltin; and fromBeth Baltin they did not go, but waved to and fro and moved up an down until he could seethe whole of the diaspora before him like a mass of fire.

2. Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin, 11bIt once happened that Rabban Gamaliel was sitting on a step on the Temple-hill and the wellknown Scribe Johanan was standing before him. …[Rabban Gamliel said:] write to ourbrethren the Exiles in Babylon and to those in Media, and to all the other exiled [sons] of Israel,saying: "May your peace be great for ever! We beg to inform you that the doves are still tenderand the lambs still too young and that the crops are not yet ripe. It seems advisable to me andto my colleagues to add thirty days to this year".

3. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berakoth, 63 a-b.R. Safra said: R. Abbahu used to relate that when Hananiah the son of R. Joshua's brother wentdown to the Diaspora, he began to intercalate the years and fix new moons outside Palestine.So they [the Beth Din] sent after him two scholars, R. Jose b. Kippar and the grandson of R.Zechariah b. Kebutal. When he saw them, he said to them: Why have you come? – Theyreplied: We have come to learn Torah [from you]. He thereupon proclaimed: These men areamong the most eminent of the generation. They and their ancestors have ministered in theSanctuary (as we have learnt: Zechariah b. Kebutal said: Several times I read to him out of thebook of Daniel). Soon they began to declare clean what he declared unclean and to permitwhat he forbade. Thereupon he proclaimed: These men are worthless, they are good fornothing. They said to him: You have already built and you cannot overthrow, you have made afence and you cannot break it down. He said to them: Why do you declare clean when Ideclare unclean, why do you permit when I forbid? – They replied: Because you intercalateyears and fix new moons outside of Palestine. He said to them: Did not Akiba son of Josephintercalate years and fix new moons outside of Palestine? – They replied: Don't cite R. Akiba,who left not his equal in the Land of Israel. He said to them: I also left not my equal in the Landof Israel. They said to him: The kids which you left have become goats with horns, and theyhave sent us to you, bidding us, 'Go and tell him in our name. If he listens, well and good; ifnot, he will be excommunicated. Tell also our brothers in the Diaspora [not to listen to him]. Ifthey listen to you, well and good; if not, let them go up to the mountain, let Ahia build an altarand let Hananiah play the harp, and let them all become renegades and say that they have noportion in the God of Israel. Straightway all the people broke out into weeping and cried,Heaven forbid, we have a portion in the God of Israel. Why all this to-do? – Because it says "Forout of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem".

4. Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 19a.

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Hananiah, Rabbi Yehoshua's nephew, set leap years outside the Land. Rabbi [Shimon benGamaliel – president of the Sanhedrin] sent him 3 letters by the hands of Rabbi Yitzhak andRabbi Natan. In one he wrote: To His Holiness Hananiah; in one he wrote: Lambs you left havebecome rams; in one he wrote: If you do not accept, go to the wilderness of the brambles, youwill slaughter and Nehunin will sprinkle [the blood]. He read the first and honored them, readthe second and honored them, read the third and wished to chasten them. They told him: Youcannot, as you have already honored us. Rabbi Yitzhak rose and read in the Torah: 'These areHananiah, Rabbi Yehoshua's nephew's appointed feasts". They said: "These are the LORD'sappointed feasts" (Leviticus 23, 3)! He said: "With us!" Rabbi Natan rose and read the Haftorah:"The law will go out from Babylon, the word of the Lord from the Pakod river". They said: "Thelaw will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah 2, 3)! He said: "With us!"Hananiah went and complained of them to Rabbi Yehuda ben Betera in Nezivin, who said tohim: Follow them, follow them… So Hananiah rose and rode his horse, set right those placeshe reached, while the others continued in error.