Babylonian+Academies

Babylonian Academies

Starting around the year 560 CS, These Academies, also known as Geonic Academies (In Hebrew //Geonim// is the plural of גאון {//Gaon//}, which means pride or splendor) were the center of Jewish learning and are responsible for the development of Jewish law and the Babylonian Talmud. The two most famous academies were located at [|Sura] and [|Pumbedita] ; the [|Sura Academy] is usually thought of as dominant, but its authority waned towards the end of the Geonic period and the [|Pumbedita academy] 's Gaonate gained ascendancy. [|[2]] Major [|yeshivot] were also located at [|Nehardea] and [|Mahuza]. The Babylonian academies were seemed to have been birthed out of the Sanhedrin, acting as a religious authority for the Jewish people. Most were found in the major cities cultural and centers of the world at that time, and were prominent for over four hundred years and survived through many different political dynasties. The three centuries in the course of which the [|Babylonian Talmud] was developed in the academies founded by Rav and Samuel were followed by five centuries during which it was zealously preserved, studied, expounded in the schools, and, through their influence, recognized by the whole diaspora. Sura and Pumbedita were considered the only important seats of learning: their heads and sages were the undisputed authorities, whose decisions were sought from all sides and were accepted wherever Jewish communal life existed.