Nehardea

NEHARDEA, town in Babylon, situated on the Euphrates at its junction with the Malka River, which was an important Jewish center and seat of a famous academy. Nehardea was surrounded by walls and by the Euphrates River, preventing its penetration by enemies (Jos., Ant., 18:311). The Jewish settlement of Nehardea was an early one. The first settlers were, according to tradition, those exiled in the time of Jehoiachin, king of Judah in the sixth century B.C.E. These exiles erected there a synagogue which they built with stones and earth brought from the site of the Temple. The synagogue was called Shaf ve-Yativ, i.e., "[the Divine Presence has] removed [from the Temple] and settled [in this place]" (Iggeret Rav Sherira Ga'on, ed. by B.M. Lewin (1921), 72 and appendices). The existence of its Jewish settlement in the century before the destruction of the Temple is attested by the fact that the Jews of Babylon concentrated in it the half-shekel offering and their donations and offerings for the Temple and dispatched them from there to Jerusalem (Jos., ibid.). Josephus also relates the exploits of *Anilaus and Asinaus who were natives of Nehardea. At the beginning of the second century C.E., Akiva visited Nehardea and there intercalated the year, thus testifying to the importance of the local Jewish settlements (Yev. 15:7). Nehardea was also the seat of the exilarch and his bet din. The town attained the zenith of its influence in the first half of the third century in the days of *Samuel, who headed its academy, and its influence was widespread (Ket. 54a). Of the scholars active there at the beginning of the amoraic period, Karna, Shila, and Abba b. Abba (Samuel's father) were noteworthy. The academy of Nehardea was destroyed in 259 by Papa b. Neẓer and its scholars moved to *Pumbedita. When spiritual activity was renewed there, many important scholars were active in it, including Dimi and Amemar.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.