Talmudic Academies in The Land of Israel - Levantine Judaism Restored

Levantine Judaism Restored

In the fertile ground of the Yavne Academy the roots of the literature of tradition — Midrash and Mishnah, Talmud and Aggadah — were nourished and strengthened. There, too, the way was paved for a systematic treatment of Halakhah and exegesis. In Yavne were held the decisive debates upon the canonicity of certain Biblical books; there the Jewish liturgy received its permanent form; and there, probably, was edited the Targum on the Pentateuch, which became the foundation for the later Targum named after Onkelos. It was Yavne that inspired and sanctioned the new Greek language version of the Bible — that of Akylas (Aquila of Sinope). The events that preceded and followed the great civil revolution under Bar Kokhba (from the year 117 to about 140) resulted in the decay and death of the school at Yavne. According to tradition, the Sanhedrin was removed from Yavne to Usha, from Usha back to Yavne, and a second time from Yavne to Usha. This final settlement in Usha indicates the ultimate spiritual supremacy of Galilee over Judea, the latter having become depopulated by the war of Hadrian. Usha remained for a long time the seat of the academy; its importance being due to the pupils of Akiba, one of whom, Judah ben Ilai, had his home in Usha. Here was undertaken the great work of the restoration of Levantine Judaism after its disintegration under Hadrian. The study of the Law flourished anew; and Shimon ben Gamliel II, was invested with the rank that had been his father's in Yavne. With him the rank of nasi or patriarch became hereditary in the house of Hillel, and the seat of the academy was made identical with that of the patriarch.