Nehardea
Encyclopedia


Nehardea or Nehardeah ( "river of knowledge") was a city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 of Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...

, situated at or near the junction of the Euphrates
Euphrates
The Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...

 with the Nahr Malka (also known as Nâr Sharri, Ar-Malcha, Nahr el-Malik , and King's Canal), one of the earliest centers of Babylonian Judaism
History of the Jews in Iraq
The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities....

. As the seat of the exilarch
Exilarch
Exilarch refers to the leaders of the Diaspora Jewish community in Babylon following the deportation of King Jeconiah and his court into Babylonian exile after the first fall of Jerusalem in 597 BCE and augmented after the further deportations following the destruction...

 it traced its origin back to King Jehoiachin. According to Sherira Gaon
Sherira Gaon
Rav Sherira Gaon was the head of the Academy of Pumbeditha. He was one of the most prominent Geonim of his period, and the father of Hai Gaon, who succeeded him as gaon.Sherira was born in 906 and died in 1006. Rav Sherira Gaon (Hebrew: רב שרירא גאון or R. Sherira ben Ḥanina Gaon, Hebrew: רב...

 (Letter of Sherira Gaon, in Neubauer, M. J. C. i. 26), Jehoiachin and his coexilarchs built a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

 at Nehardea, for the foundation of which they used earth and stones which they had brought, in accordance with the words of Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

 cii. 17 (A. V. 16), from Jerusalem (comp. a similar statement in regard to the founding of the Jewish neighbourhood in the Persian city of Ispahan, in Monatsschrift, 1873, pp. 129, 181). This was the synagogue called "Shaf we-Yatib," to which there are several references dating from the third and fourth centuries (R. H. 24b; Avodah Zarah
Avodah Zarah
Avodah Zarah is the name of a tractate in the Talmud, located in Nezikin, the fourth Order of the Talmud dealing with damages...

 43b; Niddah
Niddah
Niddah is a Hebrew term describing a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh ....

 13a), and which Abaye
Abaye
Abaye was a rabbi of the Jewish Talmud who lived in Babylonia [בבל], known as an amora [אמורא] born about the close of the third century; died 339 . His father, Kaylil, was the brother of Rabbah bar Nachmani, a teacher at the Academy of Pumbedita. Abaye's real name was Nachmani, after his...

 asserts (Meg. 29a) was the seat of the Shekhinah
Shekhinah
Shekinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling divine presence of God, especially in the Temple in Jerusalem.-Etymology:Shekinah is derived...

 in Babylonia. The Aaronic
Kohen
A Kohen is the Hebrew word for priest. Jewish Kohens are traditionally believed and halachically required to be of direct patrilineal descent from the Biblical Aaron....

 portion of the Jewish population of Nehardea was said to be descended from the slaves of Pashur ben Immer, the contemporary of King Jehoiachin (Kiddushin 70b).

Mention by Josephus

There are also other allusions in the Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 (ib.) casting doubt upon the purity of blood
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 of the Nehardean Jews. The fact that Hyrcanus II
Hyrcanus II
Hyrcanus II, a member of the Hasmonean dynasty, was the Jewish High Priest and King of Judea in the 1st century BC.-Accession:Hyrcanus was the eldest son of Alexander Jannaeus, King and High Priest, and Alexandra Salome...

, the high priest
Kohen Gadol
The High Priest was the chief religious official of Israelite religion and of classical Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem...

, lived for a time in that city as a captive of the Parthians
Parthian Empire
The Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...

 (Josephus
Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus , also called Joseph ben Matityahu , was a 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian and hagiographer of priestly and royal ancestry who recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the 1st century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, which resulted in the Destruction of...

, Ant. xv. 1, § 2) may explain the circumstance that as late as the third century certain of its inhabitants traced their descent back to the Hasmoneans. The importance of the city during the last century of the existence of the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...

 appears from the following statement made by Josephus (ib. xviii. 9, § 1):
Reference to the extent of the territory of Nehardea is made in the Talmud also (Ket. 54a). In addition to the Euphrates, the "King's Canal" (Nehar Malka) formed one of the natural defenses of the city (Ḳid. 70b; Shabbat
Shabbat (Talmud)
Shabbat is first tractate in the Order of Moed, of the Mishnah and Talmud. The tractate consists of 24 chapters.The tractate primarily deals with laws relating to Shabbat , and the activities prohibited on Shabbat and distinguishes between Biblical prohibitions and Rabbinic prohibitions...

 108b); the ferry over the river (or perhaps over the canal) is likewise mentioned (Ḳid. 70b; Ḥul. 50b). "Nehardea and Nisibis
Nisibis
Nusaybin Nisêbîn) is a city in Mardin Province, Turkey, populated mainly by Kurds. Earlier Arameans, Arabs, and Armenians lived in the city. The population of the city is 83,832 as of 2009.-Ancient Period:...

," says Josephus further (ib.), "were the treasuries of the Eastern Jews
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...

, for the Temple taxes
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

 were kept there until the stated days for forwarding them to Jerusalem." Nehardea was the native city of the two brothers Anilai and Asinai
Anilai and Asinai
Anilai and Asinai were two Babylonian-Jewish robber chieftains of the Parthian Empire whose exploits were reported by Josephus.They were apprenticed by their widowed mother to a weaver. Having been punished for laziness by their master, they ran away and became freebooters in the marshlands of the...

, who in the first third of the 1st century C.E. founded a robber-state on the Euphrates, and caused much trouble to the Babylonian Jews. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Nehardea is first mentioned in connection with Rabbi Akiba's sojourn there (Yeb., end). From the post-Hadrian
Hadrian
Hadrian , was Roman Emperor from 117 to 138. He is best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Roman Britain. In Rome, he re-built the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. In addition to being emperor, Hadrian was a humanist and was philhellene in...

ic tanna
Tannaim
The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

itic period there is the anecdote referring to the debt which Aḥai ben Josiah had to collect at Nehardea (Giṭtin 14b; Bacher, Ag. Tan. ii. 385).

Nehardea at the end of the Tannaitic period

Nehardea emerges clearly into the light of history at the end of the tannaitic period. Shela's
Rav Shela
Shela was a Babylonian teacher of the latter part of the tannaitic and the beginning of the amoraic period, and head of the school at Nehardea . When Abba Arika visited Babylon, he once officiated as an expounder for R. Shela at his public lectures...

 school was then prominent, and served to pave the way for the activity of the Babylonian academies
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...

. Samuel ben Abba, whose father, Abba ben Abba, was an authority in Nehardea, established the reputation of its academy, while Abba Arika
Abba Arika
Abba Arika was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the 3rd century who established at Sura the systematic study of the rabbinic traditions, which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud...

, who likewise taught there for a time, made Sura
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...

, situated on the Euphrates about twenty parasang
Parasang
The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of itinerant distance comparable to the European league.In antiquity, the term was used throughout much of the Middle East, and the Old Iranian language from which it derives can no longer be determined...

s from Nehardea, the seat of an academy destined to achieve a still greater reputation. The history of Nehardea is summed up in that of Samuel's activity. Soon after his death (254) it was destroyed by Papa ben Neser (Odenathus), in 259, and its place as seat of the second academy was taken by Pumbedita
Pumbedita
Pumbedita was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia close to the modern-day city of Fallujah....

.

Nahman ben Jacob

Nehardea, however, soon regained its importance, for the eminent Nahman ben Jacob dwelt there. There are several references to his activity (see Ḳid. 70a; B. B.
Bava Batra
Bava Batra is the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law...

 153a; Kettubot 97a; Meg. 27b). Raba
Rava (amora)
For the third generation Amora sage of Babylon, with a similar name, see: Joseph b. Hama .Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama, who is exclusively referred to in the Talmud by the name Rava , was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora, born in 270. He is one of the most often-cited Rabbis...

 tells of a walk which he took with Naḥman through the "Shoemaker street," or, according to another version, through the "Scholars' street" (Ḥul. 48b). Certain gates of Nehardea, which even in the time of Samuel were so far covered with earth that they could not be closed, were uncovered by Nahman (Er.
Moed
Moed is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people . Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of Moed consists of 12 tractates:# Shabbat: or Shabbath deals with the 39 prohibitions of "work" on the Shabbat...

 6b). Two sentences in which Nahman designates Nehardea as "Babel
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

" have been handed down (B. Ḳ. 83a; B. B. 145a). Sheshet
Sheshet
Rav Sheshet was a Babylonian amora of the third generation and colleague of R. Naḥman bar Jacob, with whom he had frequent arguments concerning questions of religious law. His teacher's name is not definitely known, but Sheshet was an auditor at Huna's lectures...

 also dwelt there temporarily (Ned. 78a). According to a statement dating from the 4th century, an amora
Amora
Amoraim , were renowned Jewish scholars who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Their legal discussions and debates were eventually codified in the Gemara...

 heard in Nehardea certain tannaitic sentences which had until then been unknown to scholars (Shab. 145b; Niddah
Niddah
Niddah is a Hebrew term describing a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh ....

 21a). Nehardea always remained the residence of a certain number of learned men, some of whom belonged to the school of Mahuza, which was of considerable prominence at that time, and some to that of Pumbedita
Pumbedita
Pumbedita was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia close to the modern-day city of Fallujah....

. About the middle of the 4th century the famous scholar Ḥama
Hama
Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria north of Damascus. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria—behind Aleppo, Damascus, and Homs—with a population of 696,863...

 was living at Nehardea; the maxim "By the 'amoraim of Nehardea' Ḥama is meant" (Sanh. 17a) became a canon in the Babylonian schools.

Amemar

Toward the end of the 4th and at the beginning of the 5th century Nehardea again became a center of Babylonian Judaism through Amemar
Amemar
Amemar was a Jewish Amora sage of Babylon, of the fifth and sixth generation of the Amora era. He is accounted as one of the most prominent sages of his generation and the Headman to his town's sages, Nehardea...

's activity, though this was overshadowed by that of Rav Ashi, the director of the Academy of Sura
Sura
A sura is a division of the Qur'an, often referred to as a chapter. The term chapter is sometimes avoided, as the suras are of unequal length; the shortest sura has only three ayat while the longest contains 286 ayat...

. It was Rav Ashi who had the seat of the exilarchate, which belonged as an ancient privilege to Nehardea, transferred to Sura (Letter of Sherira Gaon
Sherira Gaon
Rav Sherira Gaon was the head of the Academy of Pumbeditha. He was one of the most prominent Geonim of his period, and the father of Hai Gaon, who succeeded him as gaon.Sherira was born in 906 and died in 1006. Rav Sherira Gaon (Hebrew: רב שרירא גאון or R. Sherira ben Ḥanina Gaon, Hebrew: רב...

, l.c. i. 32). Amemar attempted in Nehardea to introduce the recitation of the Decalogue
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...

 into the daily prayer ritual, but was dissuaded from doing so by Ashi. Another of Amemar's liturgical innovations is mentioned in Sukkot
Sukkot
Sukkot is a Biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . It is one of the three biblically mandated festivals Shalosh regalim on which Hebrews were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.The holiday lasts seven days...

 55a (on the relation of Ashi to Amemar see Halevy, Dorot ha-Rishonim, ii. 515 et seq., iii. 68 et seq.).

Other scholars of the 4th and 5th centuries who are mentioned in the Talmud as natives of Nehardea are:
  • Dimi (Ḥul. 113a), who subsequently presided at Pumbedita as second successor to Ḥama (Letter of Sherira Gaon, l.c.)
  • Zebid (M. Ḳ. 27b)
  • Nahman
    Rav Nachman
    Rav Nachman bar Yaakov was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an Amora of the third generation, and pupil of Samuel of Nehardea. He was chief justice of the Jews who were subject to the exilarch , and was also head of the school of Nehardea...

     (Ḥul. 95b)
  • Ḥanan
    Hanan
    Hanan is a name of Hebrew origin of the meaning "God is gracious", "gracious gift of God". In Hebrew it is a masculine name, and in Arabic a feminine one...

     (Ḳid. 81b; Niddah
    Niddah
    Niddah is a Hebrew term describing a woman during menstruation, or a woman who has menstruated and not yet completed the associated requirement of immersion in a mikveh ....

     66b)
  • Simai (Sheb. 12b; Mak. 16a)
  • Adda b. Minyomi was called the "judge of Nehardea" (Sanh. 17b).
  • Aḥa of Be-Ḥatim from the vicinity of Nehardea is mentioned by Sherira Gaon
    Sherira Gaon
    Rav Sherira Gaon was the head of the Academy of Pumbeditha. He was one of the most prominent Geonim of his period, and the father of Hai Gaon, who succeeded him as gaon.Sherira was born in 906 and died in 1006. Rav Sherira Gaon (Hebrew: רב שרירא גאון or R. Sherira ben Ḥanina Gaon, Hebrew: רב...

     (Halevy, l.c. i. 25) as one of the saboraic authorities of the 6th century.
  • Mar R. Ḥanina is mentioned, among the earliest geonim
    Geonim
    Geonim were the presidents of the two great Babylonian, Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority...

     of Pumbedita, as residing at Nehardea at the time of Muhammad
    Muhammad
    Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

    . This is the last reference in Jewish history to Nehardea. Benjamin of Tudela
    Benjamin of Tudela
    Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...

    , however, mentions the ruins of the synagogue Shaf-Yatib, two days' journey from Sura, and one and one-half from Pumbedita (Itinerary, ed. Grünhut, p. 64).


A few scattered data concerning Nehardea may be added. It was an ancient liturgical custom there to read pericopes from the Hagiographa on Sabbath
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...

 afternoons (Shab. 116b). The surrounding country was said to be unsafe because of Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

 robbers (B. B.
Bava Batra
Bava Batra is the third of the three tractates in the Talmud in the order Nezikin; it deals with a person's responsibilities and rights as the owner of property. It is part of Judaism's oral law...

 36a). An ancient rule of procedure of the court of Nehardea is mentioned in Ket. 87a. Lydda
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...

 in Palestine, and Nehardea are mentioned in the 3rd century as cities whose inhabitants were proud and ignorant (Yer. Pes. 32a; comp. Bab. Pes. 62b; see Bacher, Ag. Pal. Amor. i. 60). Nehardea is famous in the history of the Masorah
Masoretes
The Masoretes were groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq...

 because of an ancient tradition relating to the number of verses in the Bible; it is here said that Hamnuna (Bacher, l.c. i. 2) brought this tradition from Nehardea, where he had received it from Naḳḳai (see M. J. C. i. 174; Strack, Diḳduḳ Ṭe'amim, p. 56). Certain readings of the Biblical text are characterized by tradition—especially by the Masorah to the Pentateuch Targum
Targum
Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and the national sport of South Korea. In Korean, tae means "to strike or break with foot"; kwon means "to strike or break with fist"; and do means "way", "method", or "path"...

 (Onkelos
Onkelos
Onkelos is the name of a famous convert to Judaism in Tannaic times . He is considered to be the author of the famous Targum Onkelos .-Onkelos in the Talmud:...

)—as being those of Sura, and certain others as of Nehardea (see Berliner, Die Massorah zum Targum Onkelos, pp. xiii. et seq., 61-70, Leipsic, 1877).

See also

  • Nehardea Academy
  • Anbar (town) (Firuz Shapur)
  • Fallujah
    Fallujah
    Fallujah is a city in the Iraqi province of Al Anbar, located roughly west of Baghdad on the Euphrates. Fallujah dates from Babylonian times and was host to important Jewish academies for many centuries....

  • Talmudic Academies in Babylonia
    Talmudic Academies in Babylonia
    The Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, also known as the Geonic Academies, were the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Mesopotamia from roughly 589 CE to 1038 CE...

  • Pumbedita Academy
    Pumbedita Academy
    Pumbedita Academy was a Jewish Yeshiva academy in Babylon, during the era of the Jewish Amora and Geonim sages. The academy was founded at the beginning of the second generation of the Amora era, by R...

  • Pumbedita
    Pumbedita
    Pumbedita was the name of a city in ancient Babylonia close to the modern-day city of Fallujah....

     (City)
  • Mahuza
  • Pum-Nahara Academy
    Pum-Nahara Academy
    Pum-Nahara Academy was a Jewish Yeshiva academy in Babylon, during the era of the Jewish Amora sages, in the town of Pum-Nahara, Babylonia, that was within the area of jurisdiction of Sura city, and was situated on the east bank of the "Sura" river, nearby the Sura river's estuary to the Tigris...

  • Sura (city)
    Sura (city)
    Sura was a city in the southern part of ancient Babylonia, located west of the Euphrates River. It was well-known for its agricultural produce, which included grapes, wheat, and barley...

  • Sura Academy
    Sura Academy
    Sura Academy was a Jewish Yeshiva Academy in Babylon, one of the two major Jewish academies, along with the Pumbedita Yeshiva Academy, from the beginning of the era of the Amora sages and up till the end of the era of the Geonim. The Yeshiva Academy was founded by the Amora Abba Arika , a disciple...

  • Talmudic Academies in the Land of Israel
    Talmudic Academies in the Land of Israel
    The Talmudic Academies in the Land of Israel were yeshivot that served as centers for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in the Levant and had a great and lasting impact on the development of world Jewry....


Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

  • Neubauer, G. T. pp. 230, 350;
  • Hirschensohn, Sheba Ḥokmot, p. 164, Lemberg, 1885.

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