Pumbedita was the name of a city in ancient 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...

 close to the modern-day city of 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....

.
The city had a large Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 population and was a major center of 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....

 scholarship that, together with the city of Sura

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...

, gave rise to the Babylonian Talmud. The academy there was founded by Judah ben Ezekiel

Judah ben Ezekiel

Judah ben Ezekiel , was a Babylonian amora of the 2nd generation. He was the most prominent disciple of Rav , in whose house he often stayed, and whose son Hiyya was his pupil...

 in the late third century.

The Babylonian Talmud mentions an incident where Rav Sheishet, a famous Rabbi/judge from Nehardea, uses Pumbedita as part of a jest in an argument with Rav Amram after Rav Amram made a forced argument regarding whether children can assume ownership of a father's property in a case of doubtful transference of real property rights. After Rav Amram stated his position, Rav Sheishet retorted: "Are you from Pumbedita, where they push an elephant through the eye of a needle?" (Baba Metzia, 38b) As in most debates, the jest was not the end of the argument.

See also

• 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...
  
  
• 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....
  
  
• 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...
  
  
• Mahuza
• Nehardea
  Nehardea
  Nehardea or Nehardeah was a city of Babylonia, situated at or near the junction of the Euphrates with the Nahr Malka , one of the earliest centers of Babylonian Judaism. As the seat of the exilarch it traced its origin back to King Jehoiachin...
  
  
• Firuz Shapur
• 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....