Talmudic Academies in The Land of Israel - The Jerusalem Talmud

The Jerusalem Talmud

The imperishable monument to the school of Tiberias is the Palestinian or, as it is commonly called, the Jerusalem Talmud, of which Johanan ben Nappaha laid the foundation; for which reason he is generally styled, although erroneously, its redactor or author. In point of fact, however, this work was not completed until nearly a century and a half after Johanan's death; and its close is undoubtedly connected with the extinction of the patriarchal office (about 425). But Tiberias did not therefore cease to be a seat of learning, although very little of its subsequent activity is known. According to a Babylonian legend, a scion of the Babylonian exilarch's house fled to Tiberias in the first third of the sixth century, and there became a resh pirqa (ἀρχιφερεχίτης = head of the school); a hundred years later a Syrian bishop made an appeal to the sages of Tiberias for the purpose of inducing Dhu Nuwas, the Jewish king of Himyar, to cease his persecution of the Christians there.