Between a Spiritual Center and International Trade: The Story of Nehardea's Development and Influence Throughout the Generations
Nehardea – a city and a mother in Babylon
(*) The following series of articles is based on old research I conducted during my master's degree studies at the Department of History at Tel Aviv University several decades ago. The research was conducted under the guidance of my teacher and late rabbi, Prof. Shmuel Safrai of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who dedicated his time to guiding me along the straight path, and as a result, obscure horizons were clarified for me and many difficulties were fully resolved.
In this study, I come to review, following the thumb side, the development of Nehardea in light of two criteria, namely according to a cross-section - a chronological review, and according to a longitudinal section - an internal examination and seeing what is happening, in the city and in the yeshiva, from different starting points.
Nehardea – the city and yeshiva, today supposed to be located near the city of Baghdad, served as a symbol of Babylonian Judaism (now Iraq), because for a considerable period it served as both the spiritual and physical center of that Judaism.
In this way, in my work presented here, I have tried to point to the obvious conclusion that, although Nehardea was damaged in 259 CE, as a result of the Palmyrene and Palmyrene invasion, led by the architect of the robbery and plunder – Papa Bar Netzer, it recovered and healed from its destruction, and once again occupied a key position and a dominant level of importance in the Jewish-Babylonian diaspora. However, the seeds that were buried in the soil of culture continued to grow branches of influence and tie crowns to it, even in the periods after the signing of the Babylonian Talmud, that is, the Middle Ages.
I am going to discuss on this subject several issues that shed light on the Judeo-Babylonian city, namely Nehardea, its history and findings throughout the Mishnah and Talmud period.
However, two problems confront us as a kind of stumbling block in the continuous development of the city's history, along with its function in the external and internal system of Babylonian Jewish life, and these are: first - the number of testimonies available to us is small, in addition to the negligible information from post-Jewish sources; second - the testimonies that are at our disposal are also scattered throughout the length and breadth of the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, and although they are small together, the number of gaps will outweigh the number of authentic proofs.
However, we will not give up and will try, step by step, to follow the problems that are closely intertwined with and associated with the city's history.
The city of Nehardea stood at an angle, between the Euphrates River on one side and the Malka River on the other, and served as a border point between Mesopotamia and the desert. This situation determined in no small measure the attitude of the Parthian-Persian government towards it. That is to say – the local government, in light of the invasions of the desert tribes, which disturbed the peace of the local population and in light of the danger and threat of a Roman invasion through the Nehardea area, understood well that the greatest importance lay in the reconstruction of the city and therefore, did not impose its hand heavily on the local residents.
On the other hand, the city's location, between important trade routes, those that bridged the territories of the East and the West, added a new dimension to Nehardea's position as an economic center for Jews on the one hand and foreigners on the other.
As noted, there was little evidence concerning the history of the city. That is, the evidence that we have begins and ends with two upheavals. Namely, the rebellion of the two Jewish brothers – Hasinai and Hanilai at the beginning of the first century CE on the one hand, and the Tadmor invasion, which left painful echoes in the city in the middle of the third century CE on the other. And from this last date, the information concerning the history of the city of Nehardea and its residents has become increasingly scarce.
However, during these years, the city of Nehardea occupied a central position in the life of Babylonian Judaism in many respects - politically, socially, economically, religiously and culturally. At its head was the city of Sura, which functioned in a status identical, to a certain extent, to that of Nehardea, until Babylon was divided into two centers - Nehardea and Sura, headed by senior figures - Shmuel in Nehardea and a rabbi in Sura.
However, despite Nehardea's status as the center of Judaism at the time, it did not sever its diverse ties with the Land of Israel. On the contrary, it emphasized in many cases its significant, independent dependence on the Land of Israel.
The city of Nehardea was an ancient city. We hear about it as early as Josephus, as it was a fortified city and served as one of the station cities for collecting the half-shekel toll to Jerusalem, and therefore it can be assumed that Nehardea existed as early as the days of the Second Temple.
Many researchers have addressed the problem of the city's location. That is, where was the city located in ancient times? With which city can it be found to be topographically and geographically similar? And more of this kind.
Some have concluded that the identification of the location of Nehardea coincides with the location of the city of Anat or Anatu. Some have mentioned the city in the context of Julian the Apostate's journey in 363 CE to Mesopotamia, when his route was as follows: From Carrhe, Julian chose to continue his journey to Nicoforum, to Circassion, and from there to Dura-Europos, and from there to Anat, and this city was located about 235 km north of Nehardea according to a scale estimate, and then Julian reached the city of Hit, which also lies north of Nehardea.
I believe that Nehardea should be identified with the ancient city called Sippar, or with its contemporary name – Abu Khaba (according to the British Museum). There, we encounter evidence of Babylonian astronomy, and the ancient Babylonians' knowledge of the wisdom of the attribute – namely – the star map and a display of maps dealing with the study of the cosmos and especially the five stars that are expressed in the tables of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Also, we distinguish from these tables the signs of the zodiac, along with a considerable list of the stars of the Sabbath (scoring – purple, purple).
The role of the ancient astronomer, multifaceted, was expressed and revealed in determining the annual calendar, based on examining the lunar orbit and informing the king of this, precisely when the moon appeared at its full.
The names of the months were different from the ancient Hebrew names. However, according to the Babylonian dynasty, their names were similar to those in the Hebrew calendar. And for our purposes – if we say about Samuel, whose nickname was "Yarchinai" (meaning "lunar stars") and who dealt to a certain extent with the intricacies of the stars, the attribute, and in that place, there is certainly a connection between the things. In other words, perhaps the Babylonian Samuel used the tablets he found, or the places that were convenient for the contents of the cosmos at that time.
It should also be noted that since Sippar was known as a very ancient city, since the Akkadian period, it can be assumed that the first Jews to settle in Nehardea, a convenient place to establish themselves. Another fact to be noted is that in the city in question an interesting monument was found, to which the Mishnah alludes (Chapter 3:2) – “Whoever finds fragments of idols, these are permissible…”, and the explicit commentary by Samuel (Talmud Bavli Avoda Zara, 51 pp. 1-2): “Samuel said – even fragments of idol worship … standing on their bases, I will say – idol worship that broke of itself…” as a hint at a monument in the city that was some kind of cosmological installation. And we know that the ancient city of Sippar was composed of two districts: Sippar of the sun god and Sippar of the goddess Anonitum, and we cannot avoid the assumption that some of the statues of these gods, or at least one of them, survived during Samuel’s time.
Further evidence to strengthen the identity between Narda'a and Sifar lies in the topographic situation. That is to say – according to a historical-topographic map, we see that Sifar was located in a high topographic place, and the Talmud also clarifies that Narda'a was located in a relatively high place. We learn this from the expression "alu" which is cited in the Talmud (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 26, p. 1) and serves to emphasize the high location of Narda'a (perhaps Sifar...).
It is also said that a strong fortress was known in Sippar, which was commanded by the city governor since the time of Hammurabi. The same source emphasizes the existence of a ziggurat eight meters high and its base is estimated to be 40 meters long and wide. The structure was placed on a strong foundation and dedicated to the sun god "Shemesh" (Fatah, Kimetz). In parallel, it was found that Nehardea was fortified with a strong structure, according to Josephus.
The name of the city – Nahardea – has several interpretations, and in any case I have worked hard to try and match the name of the city, i.e. Nahardea – phonetically of course, with ancient settlements in the area, which lay between the Euphrates and the Tigris, and this effort was in vain, which led me to propose at least two interpretations for the name of the city in question, i.e. Nahardea. The first interpretation strives for the meaning “river of trees”. This is because the expression “aa” in Aramaic means “tree”. This suggestion stems from the numerous testimonies about ships and rafts, rigs, that sailed along the river, the Malka River, for trade purposes.
The second proposal presents the name of the place, Nehardea, as "the river of knowledge," which seems narrow and not in the least far from the logic of the previous interpretation. And perhaps, due to the abundant fertility of the aforementioned geographical-geological region, what emerges from the literature of the Sages and from the words of Josephus in his book "The Antiquities of the Jews" (18:311) describing the nature of the place in the words "a good and spacious land and full of people," it is possible to extract, allegorically, the meaning of the aforementioned place.
And what about the history of the city's Jews, their origin and beginnings? We learn about this from the words of the Amora Abaye that the Jewish inhabitants of the place were descendants of Yarach, servants of Pashhur ben Imer, residents of Judah. We also learn that King Jeconiah of Judah and his party - exiles to Babylon, established the synagogue known as "Shef Ve'ti'iv" in Nehardea. This is, in any case, from the words of Rav Sharira Gaon in his famous letter.
Here we will present a somewhat obscure source passage, which may be difficult to rely on with "eyes closed" as follows: "Mr. Ukba, I will forget the letter. In Hada it is written, 'And I will strengthen my nose and the noses of my friends,' added on the thirty-day letter" (Talmud Yerushalmi Megillah, Chapter 1, Leaf 1, top of page 1). In other words, Mr. Ukba, who served as the head of the exile leadership in Nehardea, states that he found two letters, such as those sent on behalf of the presidency in the Land of Israel during the Temple period, or a few days after the destruction of the First Temple. From this we learn about the strong ties between Babylon and the Land of Israel, especially in relation to the Hebrew annual calendar.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
One response
A completely linguistic hypothesis arose in my "drilling" mind, based on the Akkadian language, that there is a phonetic connection, and perhaps even more, between the structure called "ziggurat" and the verb "zaker", meaning to erect, and this is indeed the name of the elevated, somewhat pyramidal structure in ancient Nehardea whose "head" is in the sky. And the linguistic context is "to erect."