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Tell me about Sura and Pumbedisa.
A sura (also spelled surah, surat; Arabic: ????? s?rah) (pl. suwar) is a division of the Qur’an, often referred to as a chapter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sura
Fallujah = Pumbedisa
That was the locations of the yeshivos of Rav and Shmuel.
Are you sure about your identification of Pumbedisa? I thought Fallujah was N’harda’a. Anyway, they were the two major academies of Bavel where Jews traveled from all over the known world for yarchei kalla until the collapse of the Roman and Persian empires made the roads too dangerous.
When did the Yeshivos in Sura and Pumbedisa close?
Shmuel is nehardea
See Artscroll Talmud Kiddushin, in the notes they show a map of Babylon, including Pumbdesia and Sura.
The map shows the River Tigris (west of modern Iraq) and the River Euphrates (east of Modern Iraq) diverging from each other like horns.
On the River Tigris, Pumbdesia is lower down (more south to Eretz Yisroel), Sura is is a bit higher up along the river (more north).
Pumbdesia was alot larger both in size and population, Sura was smaller.
Both are mentioned throughout Shas many times (if anyone can jog my memory to where there mentioned-it would be much appreciated).
As far as I can remember Benjamin of Tudela (the famous traveler) in 1160 went at least as far as Bagdad mentions either Sura or Pumbdesia as still existing in his time.
Google
ACADEMIES IN BABYLONIA Jewish Encyclopedia
For some information on Sura and Pumbdesia.
So the Yeshivos were still in operation when Rashi was alive.
You can read “The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela” in English online at seforimonline.org
On pg. 37 in the book, he writes that when he got to Pumbedisa/Neharda, he found a community of 3000 Jews. He reports that Baghdad had 40,000 Jews and 10 yeshivos.
Was the Yeshiva in Pumbedisa when Benjamin of Tudela arrived there, the same Yeshiva that was in Pumbedisa that is mentioned in the Gemorah?
And isn’t Pumbedisa and Neharda separate places?
IIRC, both Sura and Pumbdesia relocated to Baghdad by the 800’s (from Rabbi Wein’s sefer).
My mistake. It is page 34 of the book, (page 51 of the PDF document available from the site seforimonline.org).
The exact quote from the book which is an english translation of the original is.
“Thence it is 2 days to El-Anbar which is Pumbedisa in Neharda. Here reside 3000 Jews and amongst them are learned men, at their head being the chief Rabbi, R’ Chen….”
The way I understand it, Pumbedisa is a city in Neharda (perhaps Neharda is a larger district made up of several cities?). It goes on to describe that the kevorim of Shmuel and R’ Yehuda are there as are the “synagogues which they built in their lifetime” (exact quote of the translation, did not see the original hebrew).
Whether it is the SAME yeshiva as existed in the gemara, I have no idea. Torah was being learned in the city if that answers your question.
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