Thursday 3 May 2012

Did the Ascendancy of Bavel Serve to Calcify Talmud and Halachah

«In his response Rav Hai Gaon admits that this was, in fact, the reality, but expresses the opinion that the Jews of Eretz Yisrael are mistaken.

==>It bears noting that this is by no means the only instance of the Torah authorities in Babylon taking a more hard-line and conservative approach than their counterparts in Eretz Yisrael.»


Torah for Those Who Dare to Think

http://machonshilo.org/en/eng/list-articles/47-hagim/329-rosh-hashana-a-holiday-in-transition

Shalom and Regards, RRW

2 comments:

micha berger said...

That article is pure fiction. The Y-mi discusses 2 day yamim tovim even after the calendar was computed. There is no indication they believed Bavliim would keep 2 days Shavuos, but to preserve the same history, Israelis would not keep 2 days RH.

The Y-mi is more bound to quoted rulings. The Bavli will reason out a ruling -- and if the amoraim think the argument is compelling enough, they will even question the accuracy of the quotation. Which is more fluid?

Avraham said...

i simply don't understand the idea here. the yeshivot were closed after two rebellions against the Persian government in which Jews took a part. after that when the yeshivot were reopened by the caliph the level of scholarship was simply gone. Not less. Just gone. in my mind it is a good thing that the halcha authority remained in the Talmud itself because after that i have not seen anything which approaches the depth and rigor of Talmudic thought. I see lots of rabbis today that want the same authority of the Talmud and think they can make up their own decrees. This would perhaps be more reasonable if these modern day rabbis had the mental capacity to read an page of gemara rashi and tosphpt and understand on the most minimum level.