Rav and Shmuel: The Academies of Sura and Nehardea

Abba Arikha, whom everyone called simply Rav—the teacher, no name needed—was the nephew and student of Rabbi Chiya and had studied under Rabbi Yehuda haNasi. In 3979 he returned from the Land of Israel to Babylonia and, arriving at Sura on the Euphrates, found that even basic law was unknown there. He stayed and opened an academy that drew thousands.

A hundred kilometres away, in Nehardea, Shmuel headed an academy—physician, astronomer and judge. The paths of heaven are as clear to me as the streets of Nehardea, he said, and it was no boast: he calculated the calendar. His is the rule that shaped Jewish life in every land of exile: dina demalkhuta dina, the law of the kingdom is binding where it does not contradict the Torah. He kept relations with King Shapur I, and Babylonian Jewry gained relative calm.

Their disputes run through the whole Talmud, and the rule settled: in the permitted and forbidden the law follows Rav; in monetary law, Shmuel. They established the kallah months of Adar and Elul, when farmers are free and thousands gather to study a tractate announced in advance—learning ceased to be the business of a narrow circle. When Nehardea was sacked in 4019 its academy moved to Pumbedita, and Babylonia kept two poles that would argue with each other for another eight hundred years.