525) Tashlich, water and 'bribing' demons

Introduction

Although the Jewish world after Maimonides (1138–1205) gradually embraced a mystical ethos—particularly following the publication of the Zohar some eighty years after his death—his followers remained wary of the burgeoning mystical practices that took root within Judaism, often approaching them with scepticism, if not outright rejection. Drawing on rationalist principles and a commitment to biblical authenticity, Maimonides challenged many mystical rituals, which he saw as later additions rooted in superstition or non-Jewish origins. His opposition reflects a broader philosophical stance: that religious expression should be grounded in reason, ethical clarity, and Torah-based tradition. This article—based extensively on the research by Rabbi Dr Israel Drazin[1]—examines the Tashlich ceremony and attempts to understand Tashlich within the broader context of medieval Jewish thought and its Maimonidean/rationalist reinterpretation. 

198) WERE THE EDITORS OF THE BAVLI MORE POWERFUL THAN ITS WRITERS?

BABYLONIAN INFLUENCES ON THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD.  PART II

INTRODUCTION:

Professor Rabbi Yaakov Elman, as we saw in the previous article, had some fascinating observations concerning the influences of popular Babylonian culture on the Babylonian Talmud.

Accordingly, many of these cultural influences were reflected more in the Talmud Bavli than in the Talmud Yerushalmi which was written in Eretz Yisrael.

Continuing along the same theme, in this article, we shall explore the ‘agonistic’ nature of the Babylonian Talmud (180-500 C.E.) - something which is noticeably absent from the Jerusalem or Palestinian Talmud (180-420 C.E.).

I have drawn largely from a scholarly article[1] by Rabbi Dr Richard Hidary, who had studied under R. Elman and is currently a professor at Yeshiva University.

‘THE AGONISTIC BAVLI’: 

             

R. Hidary speaks of an ‘agonistic’ Babylonian Talmud.

This he took from his teacher, R. Elman, who had written:

“Perhaps the most striking thing about the bavli is its nature as a continual and unending dialogue, from beginning to end – its agonistic nature.”[2]

The term ‘agonistic’ should not be confused with ‘antagonistic’.

The definition of ANTAGONISTIC is “showing or feeling active opposition or hostility towards someone or something.”

On the other hand, AGONISTIC is “being aggressive to an individual, usually of the same group or species.”

This being the case, how and why is the Talmud Bavli ‘aggressive to itself’?

OBSERVATIONS REGARDING ORAL TRADITIONS:

Although the Babylonian Talmud is said to have assumed a written form around the year 500 C.E., essentially it was an oral tradition which had been passed down through the generations.

An oral tradition is positive insofar as it keeps teachings and traditions alive, but it carries risks that not too many are aware of:

R. Hidary cites Walter Ong who explains that it is the nature of all oral cultures to be “extraordinarily agonistic in their verbal performances...

When all verbal communication must be by direct word of mouth, involved in the give-and-take dynamics of sound, interpersonal relations are kept high – both attractions and, even more, antagonisms.”[3]

Walter Ong continues to explain that once a culture has moved to a state of literacy, with writings and a literature, it begins to take on the style of its own writing – even in its oral communications. 

This means that “they organize, to varying degrees, even their oral expression in thought patterns and verbal patterns that they would not know of unless they could write.”[4]

The Jewish people, however, would have fallen into some type of intermediate category because we already had a written tradition with the Tanach. It was only the discussion of our legal codes that remained in oral form.

THE STYLE OF THE BAVLI vs THE YERUSHALMI:

Why were the Jews of the Land of Israel not affected by the consequences of an equal oral tradition which they shared with their Babylonian colleagues?

The answer must lie in cultural differences between the Jews of Babylonia and those more mannerly and less hostile Jews of Eretz Yisrael.

Anyone who has ever studied the Babylonian Talmud would be very aware of the extremely argumentative nature if the text. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it brings out a great deal of clarity in the matter at hand – but the exchanges are not always complimentary and the text can be quite harsh and even hostile from time to time.

Some would argue that this is just the style and nature of Talmudic debate and nothing more should be read into it. However, this agonism is largely absent from the Talmud Yerushalmi which was formulated at a corresponding time across the border in Eretz Yisrael.

In fact, the Talmud Bavli itself records that, as opposed to the Sages of the land of Israel who are gracious to each other in their exchanges, the Babylonian Sages “damage each other in legal debate.”[5]

The Bavli then goes on to describe its own hostile style of debate in even harsher terms:

“Three hate each other, and they are: Dogs, fowl and [Zoroastrian or Babylonian] priests. And some add prostitutes. And some add the [Jewish] Sages of Babylonia.”[6]

GRECO-ROMAN INFLUENCE:

R. Hidary argues that the Jews of Babylonia must have been more influenced by a sharper form of debate which was inherent to Persian Hellenistic culture and specifically the agonistic nature of Greco-Roman rhetoric.

We find that Aristotle had trained his students to skilfully argue the pros and cons of both sides of a debate.

Similarly, we find in the Babylonian Talmud that a person is only qualified to sit on the highest court, namely the Sanhedrin, if he can argue that a reptile is a pure creature – based on wording from the Torah itself![7]

R. Hidary posits that the Greco-Roman influence may have infiltrated into Babylonia through, among other conduits, the relocation of the Eastern Church to places like Machoza (near modern-day Baghdad) which was an important centre for the redacting or editing of the Talmud Bavli.[8]

There happen to be many similarities between the Eastern Christian schools and the Babylonian yeshivot. Surprisingly, they shared similar terminologies such as rav, siyuma and metivta as well as many other cultural and scholastic constructs, including style of debate and “dialectic and reconciliation of disparate sources.”

Although these influences took place towards the latter part of, and even after, the Talmudic period, they nevertheless had a significant sphere of influence because that was when the Babylonian Talmud was undergoing its crucial editing period.

And editors are more powerful than writers.

R. Hidary goes on, in great detail in his paper, to show examples of how sections of the Babylonian Talmud follow the same structures as Greco-Roman rhetoric which include “arrangement, arguing both sides of an issue, and the creation of suspense.”

He concludes:

“...the strikingly agonistic nature of the BT [Babylonian Talmud] derives not only from its oral setting, but also from the agonistic roots of Greco-Roman rhetoric as transmitted through the scholastic and rhetorical culture of the Syriac Christians...

The practice of arguing both sides of a dispute and creation of suspense are also well established rhetorical techniques. The rabbis had a good sense for the art of public speaking...

...it remains clear that the BT’s agonism and rhetorical style owes much of its character and form to Greco- Roman rhetorical oratory.”

EDITORS ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN WRITERS:

According to Jeffrey Rubenstein, the Savoraim (500-650 C.E.) also known as the Stammaim [9], who edited the Talmud during the one and a half centuries after the Talmudic period, depicted a “competitive environment characterized more by struggle than by mutual collaboration.”[10]

Thus the apparent agonism in the argumentative style of the Babylonian Talmud is largely a result of the editing process which began towards the end of the Talmudic period (500 C.E.).

During that editing period, which in fact continued for quite some considerable time, the anonymous Stammaim served as redactors of the Talmud. 

According to Rav Sherira Gaon, the final form of the written Talmud may only have taken place very much later, towards the end of the Gaonic Period around 1000 C.E.! [see Everyone Knows When The Talmud was Written Down]

R. Elman writes that the editorial work of the Stammaim “constitutes just over half of the total text of the Babylonian Talmud and which frames the discussion of the rest.

This framework, post dating the statements of identified figures [in the Talmud[11]], introduces questions, often provides solutions, and, in general, controls the interpretation of the earlier sources.”[12]

The term ‘redaction’ is commonly used in many accounts which deal with the editing of the Talmud – but it actually means far more than a cursory checking of the text.

Definition of REDACTION: “Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined (redacted) and altered slightly to make a single document.”

According to the research of R. Elman, it seems as if the Stammaim have even overstepped the dictionary definition of redaction, as their stylistic alterations were more than slight.

This notion may be borne out by comparing the actual terms Amoraim (Talmudic Sages) and Stammaim (Editors): Amoraim means 'those who say' (i.e. primary Talmudic sources), whereas Stammaim means 'closed, vague or unattributed sources' (i.e. anonymous, unnamed secondary sources). 

These redactors, as we have seen, may have been influenced the agonistic Roman-Greco style, layout, presentation and framing of legal arguments – which had begun to permeate Babylonian Jewish centres of learning (particularly Machoza where much of the redaction took place).

This is why the methodology of the Babylonian Talmud is more agonistic, competitive and apparently hostile than the Jerusalem Talmud. 

The Yerushalmi was not edited anywhere near the extent that the Bavli was. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to say that it was disbanded, as a result of Roman persecution, rather than redacted.

The Yerushalmi, therefore, lacked the lengthy editorial incubation period which retroactively defined the Bavli.

Hence the Sages of the Yerushalmi present as being more polite and less vitriolic and agonistic than their Babylonian counterparts.

UPDATE:

Following on this article, I posed the following question to Rabbi Dr Hidary:

"If the Bavli is known to be more agonistic than its counterpart the Yerushalmi – and one of the reasons for this is Greco-Roman influences as you show – then why do we not find the same agonism in the Yerushalmi which would have been even more exposed to those selfsame influences?"

This was his response: 

"In response to your insightful question, there has been a scholarly assumption of little Hellenism in Babylonia. This makes sense considering that Palestine was under Roman rule and Babylonia was under the Persians. 

However, more recent work discussed by Boyarin shows that this assumption is not correct. 

Historians of rhetoric find use of rhetorical handbooks and training among the Syria Christians in Babylonia. Babylonia was after all under Hellenistic rule for centuries before the Persians reconquered it. 

Also, Christians and Jews are transferring information from Roman areas across the border on a regular basis.

The main reason the Bavli has MORE agonistic dialogue and debate than the Yerushalmi is because it has at least 200 more years of development in Stammaitic study circles who particularly focused on dialectics as the essential ingredient of their intellectual culture. 

So I think that it derived in both Talmuds from Greco-Roman rhetoric but is then developed internally as well – and the latter happens more and for a longer period in the Bavli."

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[1] Richard Hidary, “The Agonistic Bavli – Greco-Roman Rhetoric in Sasanian Persia”.                                          

[2] Yaakov Elman, “Orality and the Redaction of the Babylonian Talmud”, Oral Tradition 14:1 (1999): 84.

[3] Walter Ong, “Orality and Literacy - The Technologizing of the World,” 44-45.

[4] Ibid. Orality and Literacy, 56.

[5] Sanhedrin 24a.

[6] Pesachim 113b.

[7] Sanhedrin 17a.
[8] Pinchas Hayman, “From Tiberias to Mahoza: Redactional and Editorial Processes in Amoraic Babylonia.”
[9] A term coined by David Weiss Halivni.
[10] Jeffrey Rubenstein, “The Culture of the Babylonian Talmud.” 64.
[11] Parenthesis mine.

[12] Yaakov Elman, “The Babylonian Talmud in its Historical Context.”

197) BABYLONIAN INFLUENCES ON THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD:

                                                                        PART I:

Rabbi Professor Yaakov Elman (1943-2018) who specialised in Talmudo-Iranica.

INTRODUCTION: 

                           

It is quite surprising to discover just how much literature exists on the influence that popular Babylonian culture had on the Babylonian Talmud.

Evidently, a great portion of what is usually assumed as being particularly Talmudic and dominantly Jewish thought and law, is in actual fact a reflection of the norm and culture of Babylonian (which includes Persian, Iranian, and Sasanian) society.

Many of these adaptations are not to be found in the Palestinian or Jerusalem Talmud, and clearly, there was some degree of cultural and even Halachic divide between the two Talmudic communities.

THE BAVLI AND YERUSHALMI TALMUDIM:

The Mishna remains the standard and base text for both Talmudim.

Of the two Talmudim, the first is the Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi which very few know or even refer to. It was begun around 180 C.E. (following after the Mishnaic Period) and was worked on in the Holy Land for approximately 240 years until it was redacted (or more accurately disbanded because of Roman persecution) in 420.

The second is the more popular Babylonian Talmud or Talmud Bavli which most people are familiar with. It also began around the year 180 and was worked on in Babylonia for approximately 320 years (80 years longer than the Yerushalmi) until it was finally redacted around the year 500. It is the Babylonian Talmud that we are dealing with in this article.

COMPARISON TO OTHER CONTEMPORARY LEGAL TEXTS:

The Talmud Bavli is considerably larger than other contemporaneous non-Jewish legal works of the time. The largest Persian compilation, known as the Dēnkard, has 169,000 words. And the greatest compilation of Roman law, Justinian’s Digest of 534 C.E., has about a million words. The Talmud has 1,836,000 words.

RABBI PROFESSOR YAAKOV ELMAN:

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in understanding the context of the Babylonian culture which birthed much of Talmudic thought. One of the pioneers in this field - which is known as Talmudo-Iranica - was the late Rabbi Professor Yaakov Elman (1943-2018).[1]

R. Elman, who also studied Assyriology, was a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and believed that the cultural context of the Bavli was not just important but the key to really understanding the Talmud Bavli.

As Shai Secunda puts it:

“...ignorance of the Bavli’s context has come at the expense of gaining a deep appreciation of the Talmud’s laws, narratives, and other forms of discourse.”

POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY:

As opposed to the Jews of the Holy Land (then known as Syria Palaestina) who were oppressed and persecuted by the Romans, the Jews of Babylonia has coexisted mostly peacefully with their Persian and Iranian neighbours for more than eight hundred years. 

This peaceful coexistence was not an accident, but intentionally engineered that way the Babylonian authorities. The Jews were a significant minority, and besides living in the breadbasket of the empire, were also strategically positioned in an area most susceptible to Roman invasion. 

It was therefore in the interests of Babylonian officialdom to keep the Jews in their realm happy. The Babylonian Christians, however, were more likely to side with the Romans especially after Christianity became recognized by the Romans in 313. So it was clearly in the interest of the Babylonians not to antagonise the Jews and to rather keep them as allies.

It was during this period, that the Babylonian Talmud was formulated (180-500 C.E).

PHYSICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY SAFE IN BABYLONIA:

The Talmud records an interesting statement of Rav Huna (third-century) declaring that the Jews of Babylonia had their ‘minds at ease’ in Babylonia, as opposed to the Jews of other lands including Eretz Yisrael whose minds were not ‘at ease’ with their Roman authority.[2]

אמר רב הונא אלו גליות של בבל שדעתן מיושבת עליהן 

This being ‘at ease’ was more than just feeling politically safe, but showed that they were well-embedded within Babylonian society and Babylonian religious culture. This enmeshment within the milieu of Babylonia was both welcomed and feared by the rabbis of the Talmudic Period as we shall see.

ZOROASTRIANISM – THE RELIGION AND CULTURE OF BABYLONIA:

Zoroastrianism is an ancient Iranian monotheistic faith system which believes in a Creator, the avoidance of idolatry, the existence of good and evil, heaven and hell, reward and punishment, angels and demons, and has a messianic vision of the revival of the dead and good triumphing over evil. They also believed in the importance of perpetuating oral transmission of sacred texts.

If we substituted Hebrew translations for these concepts one could be forgiven for thinking we were speaking about Judaism.

From the seventh century onwards, Zoroastrianism was suppressed by the Muslim conquest of Persia/Iran.

Clearly, the Jews of Babylonia were more comfortable with the culture, laws and belief system of their host land, than with the Paganism and Christianity which was prevalent in the Holy Land under the Romans. However, some conflict arose as to the value and degree of acclimatisation with this seemingly benign Babylonia culture.

THE BABYLONIAN IDEOLOGICAL BATTLEGROUND:

“According to Elman, it is possible to classify some of the most important amoraim - the talmudic sages who flourished during the third to fifth centuries C.E. – as either accommodating or resisting upper-class Persian mores.”[3]

The two main players in this cultural divide were Rav Nachman and Rav Yehudah:

Rav Nachman lived in Machoza (just outside modern-day Baghdad) which was then an important metropolitan capital and centre of Zoroastrianism.

Rav Yehuda, on the other hand, lived in Pumbedita (modern-day Fallujah) which was smaller and less exposed to cosmopolitan influences.

The Talmud depicts Rav Yehuda as being less accommodating of pervasive Babylonian ideology than Rav Nachman whom in some instances seemed to have embraced it. Rav Yehuda would ridicule Rav Nachman who he accused of using a more upper-class Iranian vocabulary and adopting Babylonian mannerisms and trying to assume greater authority over the other rabbis.

Rav Nachman, mentioned 1500 times in the Talmud,  was more liberal regarding the place of women in society and his daughter was not given a Hebrew name but was called Denag (after a Sasanian Queen).

Furthermore, Rav Nachman’s city of Machoza was home to many gerim or converts to Judaism because of the intermingling of the cultures. In a fascinating narrative, the Talmud describes how the large community of converts pelted R. Zeira with etrogim because he had the audacity to say that a convert can marry a mamzeret or an illegitimate child. [4]

Clearly, Machoza was a centre of cultural intermingling and mutual exchange of religious ideas.

In Babylonia, a general “Persian religion” developed amongst the multifaceted populace, which was a general synthesis of many forms of theology.

R. Yaakov Elman quotes Samuel N.C. Lieu:

“Although the official religion of the ruling dynasty was Zoroastrianism, Judaeo-Christian sects and Semitic pagan cults jostled with each other in splendid confusion in Mesopotamia. To these was added a strong Jewish presence in Babylonia...”[5]

Thus we find that in Babylonia, a rather unique culture developed where “interreligious dialogue and polemic were the order of the day.”

THE ‘GIFT THAT MUST BE RETURNED’:

To practically illustrate the Babylonian cultural influence on the development of some Talmudic law, R. Elman points to the case of ownership of the Lulav and Etrog on the Festival of Sukkot:

According to the Halacha, one must own the Lulav set before the mitzvah can be fulfilled. That’s fine for one person who acquires his own set – but what happens if only one set is available to a group of people who want to participate in the mitzvah?

The Tosefta[6] advises that in such a case, each person has to take complete ownership of the set and theoretically can perpetuate that ownership indefinitely if he so desires.

Obviously, the Tosefta’s suggestion would create problems if a recalcitrant individual refuses to relinquish his ownership of the set and the others lose out on performing the mitzvah. However, Rav Nachman offers an ingenious innovation, whereby the set is given as a ‘matanah al menat lehachzir’, or a gift given (with temporary ownership rights) on the condition that it is to be returned after the mitzvah has been fulfilled.

What is striking about Rav Nachman’s innovation is the fact that it was most likely influenced, according to R. Elman, by a Sasanian[7] law book, known as The Book of a Thousand Judgements.  This dated back to the seventh-century[8], developed system of temporary ownership which exactly parallels Rav Nachman’s solution to the ownership of the Lulav problem.

'TEMPORARY MARRIAGES' AND POLYGAMY: 

This notion of ‘temporary ownership’ was firmly established within the Babylonian culture and even extended to ‘temporary marriages’. As it happens, it was also Rav Nachman (as well as Rav) who contracted temporary marriages when away from home.[9]

Interestingly, polygamy had virtually been eliminated from Eretz Yisrael, while it continued to be practised in Babylonia. The abolishment of polygamy amongst the Palestinian Jews was due to two reasons: 

Firstly, Jews became Roman citizens in 212 C.E. and thus became subject to Roman law which outlawed bigamy.

Secondly, the third-century Palestinian Amora, R. Ami had declared that a man would have to divorce his first wife before taking his second wife.

R. Elman writes: "Conditions in Babylon, however, were different, and there is ample evidence that polygamy continued to be practised there."  (Babylonian Echoes in a Late Rabbinic Legend, p. 15.)
                     

THE STORY OF IFRA HORMIZ:

According to Jewish tradition, Ifra Hormiz was the mother of the Sasanian king[10] who apparently wanted to keep the laws of family purity. She sent a technical question to Rava who resolved the matter.

This story captivated the hearts and souls of many Jewish scholars who were intrigued that such a powerful non-Jewish woman would even be interested in Jewish laws of ritual purity. Later, the commentator Rashi (1040-1105) felt compelled to state that “she would keep the menstrual laws and she was close to converting (to Judaism).”

However, as Secunda exclaims:

“Had these commentators more fully considered the significance of menstrual impurity in Zoroastrian culture and the competition between Jews and Zoroastrian on this matter, they would have been better positioned to unravel the meaning of this Talmudic story and appreciate the intercultural dynamics that it reflects.”[11]

PRIVATE AFFAIRS:

R. David Bar-Hayim speaks a lot about the differences between the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmudim and questions why the Bavli was indeed elevated over the Yerushalmi. Fascinatingly, he suggests that it could have been as a result of collusion with the Babylonian authorities who were happier with the Babylonian Talmud for political and other reasons. 

He also notes that the Babylonian Talmud’s view toward sexuality was more repressed than that of the Yerushalmi.

Michael Saltow notes in a similar vein:

“Babylonian sources reflect much more complex, and conflicted, sexual assumptions than do Palestinian sources.”[12]

R. Elman reminds us of the Babylonian Talmud’s teaching that according to R. Zeira, the “daughters of Israel had undertaken to be so strict with themselves as to wait for seven [clean] days...[although biblically they are required only to separate for seven days from the onset of menstruation]”[13]

“It is clear from Niddah (fol. 66a) that this stringency was a popular practice and not a rabbinic prohibition, probably in response to a ‘holier than thou’ attitude perceived by the populace as emanating from their Persian neighbors. It seems that Babylonian Jewish women had internalized their Zoroastrian neighbors’ critique of Rabbinic Judaism’s relatively “easy-going” ways in this regard...”[14]

According to this, stringencies in the Jewish laws of menstrual impurity resulted in longer periods of abstinence, and it was all based on not wishing to appear as being ‘less holy’ than their Babylonian counterparts. “This indicates just how much the values of the surrounding culture had been internalised into the Jewish value system.”[15]

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD:

It is also possible that the concept of the resurrection of the dead was somewhat influenced by Babylonian and Zoroastrian culture. Much space is given to this concept in the Talmud Bavli[16], whereas it is dealt with much more scarcely in the Talmud Yerushalmi.

THEODICY – WHY G-D ALLOWS EVIL TO EXIST:

R. Yosef developed a theory on the question of G-d and evil as follows:

Divine anger (evil) acts independently of G-d Himself.[17]

This is very similar to the notion of demonic anger which is found in Zoroastrianism. According to this view, G-d remains aloof from the very real issue of evil (which is hard to whitewash over by any theology). Now, it is not G-d but Forces of Evil that do evil.

This concept was further honed to allow for some measure of Fate to enter the equation:  

FATE:

In Babylonian Zoroastrianism, Fate featured as an important component of their theology. Accordingly, five elements were determined by fate or chance: One’s spouse, children, property and sustenance, lifespan and amount of authority one has.

In the Talmud, Rava suggests that three of those categories, namely ‘children, lifespan and sustenance’ are determined by astrology or Fate.[18]

Rava’s great-grandfather-in-law, Rav suggests ‘spouse and property (sustenance)’[19].

 Rav’s son-in-law, adds ‘authority’ to the list.[20]

Thus all five Babylonian elements are now also included in the Talmudic notion of Fate.

FEAR OF DEATH:

Another difference between the rabbis of Babylonia and those of Eretz Yisrael, was their attitude towards death.

Babylonian rabbis like Rav Nachman and Rava had a fear of death, or dying, which was considered painful.[21] This fear was paralleled in the Zoroastrian notion of death being painful which taught that “the soul of the righteous undergoes much pain when it departs from the world.”

On the other hand, the Palestinian sages appear to adopt a more robust and defiant position with regard to the Angel of Death.[22]

THE ‘LAW OF THE LAND’:

The well-known dictum of Shmuel that ‘the Law of the Land in your Law”[23], has bearing on this discussion and may now even take on new meaning. The Jews of Babylonia were clearly influenced by many of the ‘Laws of the Land’ and as we have seen, some appear to have become ‘our law’ as well. Here we have Shmuel, one of the greatest of the Babylonian rabbis, who was willing to come to terms with his host state’s norms and standards.

THE ‘CHAVER’:

R. Chaim Finkelstein pointed me to a fascinating comment by Rashi, who expounded on the meaning of the word ‘chaver’ as used in a particular context in Tractate Shabbat. [24]

Usually, chaver is an honorific title which refers to a rabbinical colleague – much like the term fellow is used in secular academia.

But Rashi, in this instance, explains it to refer to the Persians!

From this, we see that the Persians were elevated and respected to such an extent that they were regarded as our associates.

THE ‘ONE HUNDRED FASTS’:

Furthermore, R. Finkelstein offered another Talmudic statement that when R. Zeira went to Eretz Yisrael, he fasted ‘one hundred fasts in order to forget the Torah of Babylonia.’[25] 

Perhaps he felt the need to purge himself from some of these very issues we have been dealing with?

ANALYSIS:

R. Yaakov Elman’s pioneering work in the field of Babylonian culture influencing Talmudic thought, is quite compelling when one begins to understand the milieu in which the Talmud was formulated.

We do know that the ‘names of the Angels came from Bavel’ and that the Babylonians developed a complex system of Angelology. 

They also gave a prominent place to a hierarchy of Evil Spirits. These topics are therefore reflected far more in the Talmud Bavli than in the Yerushalmi.

[See The Revenge of the Talmud Yerushalmi for more on this issue.]

At the end of the day, this is one of those subjects that one either chooses to accept or reject and, generally, no amount of evidence will change the mind of the Reader either way.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context, by Shai Secunda.

Middle Persian Culture and Babylonian Sages: Accommodation and Resistance in the Shaping of Rabbinic Legal Tradition, by Yaakov Elman.

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[1] See: The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context, by Shai Secunda.

[2] Menachot 110a.

[3] Ibid. The Iranian Talmud, p. 3.

[4] “Rabbi Zeira taught in Mechoza: It is permitted for a convert to marry a mamzeret. Everyone stoned him with their etrogim, since the many converts present were insulted by his statement, which they understood to mean that converts are not members of God’s congregation. 

Rava said: Is there a person who teaches such a matter in a place where there are commonly converts? He should have been more circumspect. 

Rava himself taught this in Mechoza to ameliorate the situation: It is permitted for a convert to marry the daughter of a priest. They carried him on silk for elevating the honor of converts. 

He later taught them: It is permitted for a convert to marry a mamzeret. They said to him: You have forfeited the honor of your first sermon. Rava said to them: I have done for you what is good for you. If a convert wishes, he may marry from here, i.e., from those of pure lineage, and if he wishes, he may marry from here, i.e., a mamzeret.”  (Kiddushin 73a)

[5] Middle Persian Culture and Babylonian Sages: Accommodation and Resistance in the Shaping of Rabbinic Legal Tradition, by Yaakov Elman.

[6] The Tosefta - mainly written in Hebrew and following the same format of sedarim and masechtot as the Mishna - is a ‘Supplement’ to the Mishna, dating back to the latter portion of the Mishnaic Period (0-200C.E.).

[7] The Sasanian Empire was the last kingdom of the Persian (Iranian) Empire before the rise of Islam.             

[8] Although this Iranian law book was technically written after the time of the Talmudic period, it reflected a well-established system of temporary ownership that was already firmly entrenched within Babylonian society.

[9] Yoma 19b and Yevamot 37a.

[10] King Shapur II.    

[11] Ibid. Secunda p. 6.

[12] Saltow p. 75.

[13] Berachot 31a, Megilla 28b and Nidda 66a.

[14] See: Young Rabbis and all about Olives by Professor Marc B. Shapiro of The Seforim Blog, where he quotes R. Elman as sourced from Encyclopedia Iranica (RABBINIC LITERATURE and MIDDLE PERSIAN TEXTS).

[15] Ibid.

[16] Sanhedrin 90b.

[17] Bava Kama 60a, Avodah Zara 4b.

[18] Moed Katan 28a.

[19] Sota 2a.

[20] Berachot 58a.

[21] Moed Kattan 28a.

[22] Ketuvot 77b.

[23] Gittin 10b, Nedarim28a.

[24] Shabbat 11a.

[25] Bava Metzia 85a.