Shaf ve-Yativ Synagogue, Nehardea

Społeczność żydowska

Nehardea was the first seat of rabbinic authority in Babylonia. Rav Sherira Gaon wrote that Jeconiah's exiles, with craftsmen, smiths and prophets among them, were brought to Nehardea, and that before Rav founded his academy at Sura there was already a great court at Nehardea; Shmuel led it, and Shmuel and Rav were the two heads of Babylonian learning in the early third century CE. Sherira dates Shmuel's death to the Seleucid year 564, about 254 CE. His students carried on in Nehardea, Pumbedita and Shilhi. In the year 570, about 259 CE, Papa ben Netzer came and destroyed Nehardea, and Sherira's ancestor Rabbah bar Avuha moved to Shekhantziv, Shilhi and Mahoza. The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Papa ben Netzer with Odenathus of Palmyra, and the Talmud in Ketubot 51b treats ben Netzer as a robber who made himself a petty king. Learning continued in the district: Sherira names a sixth-century sage from Bei Hatim near Nehardea, and says that in the seventh century the Pumbedita academy moved to Peroz-Shapur close to Nehardea, where a gaon, Mar Rav Hanina, reigned in the days of Muhammad.

Architektura i projekt

Nothing is known of the building's plan, size, materials beyond tradition, or decoration, and no remains have been found or excavated. The written sources supply only a few details. Rav Sherira Gaon says it was founded with stones and earth brought from the Temple in Jerusalem, in fulfilment of the verse 'For your servants take pleasure in her stones and favour her dust' (Psalm 102). The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 24b and Avodah Zarah 43b) says that its stones had been moved from a destroyed synagogue and rebuilt so that it stood in Nehardea, and that a statue of the king stood inside it; the rabbis nevertheless prayed there, reasoning that in a public building the statue was understood as ornament rather than an object of worship. Niddah 13a tells of Rav Yehuda and Shmuel standing on its roof, which shows the roof was accessible. The Aramaic name Shaf ve-Yativ is explained by Sherira as 'it travelled and settled', while the modern Koren translation on Sefaria renders it 'destroyed and rebuilt'. Its architect, builder, style and capacity are unknown.

Życie w synagodze

The Talmud presents the synagogue as a place of prayer and of encounter with the Divine Presence. According to Megillah 29a, Abaye said that in Babylonia the Shekhinah rested sometimes in the ancient synagogue of Huzal and sometimes in the synagogue that was destroyed and rebuilt in Nehardea, and that whenever he came within a parasang of one of them he went in to pray. The same passage tells that Shmuel's father and Levi were sitting there when the Divine Presence came and they heard a loud sound, so they rose and left; and that the blind Rav Sheshet once stayed seated when it came, and when angels tried to frighten him away he protested to God, who told them to leave him. Rosh Hashanah 24b says that Rav, Shmuel, Shmuel's father and Levi all entered and prayed there despite the statue of the king. Niddah 13a records Shmuel teaching Rav Yehuda a point of conduct while they stood on its roof. Sherira's version of the Megillah passage attributes the Huzal tradition to Rav and the Shaf ve-Yativ tradition to Shmuel.

Zniszczenie

How and when the synagogue was destroyed is unknown. Rav Sherira Gaon writes only that in the Seleucid year 570, about 259 CE, Papa ben Netzer came and destroyed Nehardea, and that the scholars moved elsewhere. He does not say what happened to the synagogue. The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Papa ben Netzer with Odenathus of Palmyra, and Wikipedia allows that he may have been one of Odenathus's generals. The Talmud's accounts suggest the building survived this raid or was restored: Abaye speaks of praying there whenever he came near, and Rav Sheshet, whom Sherira lists among Shmuel's students, sat in it; if Abaye belongs to a later generation, as is generally held but not stated in the sources read, the building was still in use after the raid. Benjamin of Tudela, travelling around 1170, wrote that at Shafjathib, near Nehardea, there was a synagogue built from the earth and stones of Jerusalem; the Jewish Encyclopedia describes this as a mention of its ruins. After that it disappears from the record, and no source read names who destroyed it.

Los społeczności

Jewish life in the Nehardea district outlasted the raid of about 259 CE by many centuries. Rav Sherira Gaon records that Rabbah bar Avuha and other scholars left for Shekhantziv, Shilhi and Mahoza, and that Pumbedita became the main academy of the region. He also says that after years of persecution at the end of Persian rule the Pumbedita academy came to Peroz-Shapur in the vicinity of Nehardea, where its geonim taught in the seventh century, and that one of them went out to meet Ali ibn Abi Talib when he conquered the town. The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the residence of Mar Rav Hanina at Nehardea in Muhammad's time is the last reference to the city in Jewish history. Benjamin of Tudela, around 1170, found about 3,000 Jews at El-Anbar, which he identified with Pumbedita in Nehardea, with a synagogue and house of study attributed to Rav and Shmuel. The later history of the Jews of this district, and of the Jews of Anbar province in modern Iraq, is not covered by the sources read for this entry.

Miejsce dzisiaj

The site of the synagogue is unknown, and even the exact location of Nehardea has not been established. The Jewish Encyclopedia places the city at or near the junction of the Euphrates with the Royal Canal, and Wikipedia describes it as adjacent to or identical with Anbar, whose ruins lie about 5 km northwest of Fallujah in Iraq's Anbar province. Benjamin of Tudela put Shafjathib a day and a half's journey from El-Anbar, which suggests the synagogue stood some distance from Anbar itself. No excavation has identified the building, no remains are recorded, and no marker exists. The map pin marks the ruins of Anbar as an approximate stand-in for the Nehardea district and should not be read as the synagogue's location.

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