Nehardea

Nehardea was an important center of Jewish learning and the seat of a famous academy. The city lay in Babylonia at the confluence of the Euphrates and the channel Malka, connected the Euphrates with the Tigris. Flavius ​​Josephus mentions in his Antiquities Judaicae that the city walls and the river Euphrates was surrounded to prevent intrusion of enemies.

The first settlers came to the tradition according to from the time of the first Babylonian exile, the time of King Jehoiachin. They built a synagogue here, for which they used earth and stones from the Temple in Jerusalem. Here, the half shekel and other donations in the temple at Jerusalem were collected before they were sent to the Holy Land. Before the Babylonian revolt Rabbi Akiva traveled in 114 of Yavneh off after Nehardea and here laid down the data of the leap year. Later was Nehardea seat of exilarch and his Beth Din. The greatest importance was Nehardea at times the scholar Samuel von Nehardea, who headed the University's Academy, which then exerted a significant influence. In the year 259, the Academy of Nehardea Papa ben Neser was destroyed, and the local Talmud scholars moved to Pumbedita, which was considered a successor settlement of Nehardea and was often equated with it. Even Benjamin of Tudela, who traveled the area around 1170, Pumbedita identified with Nehardea.