Ashi, known as Rav Ashi ("Rabbi Ashi"), (352–427) was a celebrated Jewish religious scholar, a Babylonian 'amora, who reestablished the academy at Sura and was first editor of the Babylonian Talmud. According to a tradition preserved in the academies, Rav Ashi was born in the same year that Rava, the great teacher of Mahuza, died, and he was the first teacher of any importance in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia after Raba's death. Simai, Ashi's father, was a rich and learned man, a student of the college of Naresh near Sura, which was directed by Rav Papa, Raba's disciple. Ashi's teacher was Kahana, a member of the same college, who later became president of the academy at Pumbedita. Events Liberius becomes Pope Earliest sighting of a supernova occurs in China Births Deaths Pope Julius I. Bishop Nicholas of Myra, Roman priest (or 345). ... Events Pyongyang is declared the capital of Goguryeo by king Jangsu Births Deaths December 24 - Sisinius I, Patriarch of Constantinople Categories: 427 ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי transliterated: Yehudi) is used in many ways, but generally refers to a follower of Judaism, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity; and often a combination of these attributes. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... Amora, plural Amoraim, (from the Hebrew root amar to say or tell over), were renowned Jewish scholars who said or told over the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and Palestine. ... See also: Sura (disambiguation). ... The Talmud (תלמוד) is considered an authoritative record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories. ... Rava was a Babylonian amora born in 270, and one of the most often-cired Rabbis in the talmud. ... Mahuza (in Hebrew and Aramaic sources, particularly Jewish ones, Maḥuza) is the name given to the metropolis formed by Ctesiphon and Seleucia on opposite sides of the Tigris River. ... The Talmudic Academies in Babylonia were the center for Jewish scholarship and the development of Jewish law in Mesopotamia and had a great and lasting impact on the development of world Jewry. ... Naresh Prodaturri is the worst fuker in the world. ... See also: Sura (disambiguation). ... Rav Papa (רב פפא) was a Babylonian Amora, he was a student of both Rava and Abaye. ... ITC Kahana is a sans serif decorative typeface created in 2004, based on Polynesian text. ... ...

While still young, Rav Ashi became the head of the Sura Academy, his great learning being acknowledged by the older teachers. It had been closed since Hisda's death (309), but under Rav Ashi it regained all its old importance. His commanding personality, his scholarly standing, and wealth are sufficiently indicated by the saying, then current, that since the days of Rabbi Judah haNasi, "learning and social distinction were never so united in one person as in Ashi." Indeed, Rav Ashi was the man destined to undertake a task similar to that which fell to the lot of Judah I,. The latter compiled and edited the Mishnah; Rav Ashi made it the labor of his life to collect after critical scrutiny, under the name of Gemara, those explanations of the Mishnah that had been handed down in the Babylonian academies since the days of Rab, together with all the discussions connected with them, and all the halachic and haggadic material treated in the schools. Judah haNasi, or more accurately in Hebrew, Yehudah HaNasi, was a key leader of the Jewish community of Judea under the Roman empire, toward the end of the 2nd century CE. He was reputedly from the Davidic line of the royal line from King David, hence his title Prince (Nasi... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The Gemara (Hebrew גמרא) is a component of the Talmud, comprising the rabbinical commentaries and analysis on the Mishnah, undertaken in the Academies of Palestine and Babylon over a 300 year period to about 500. ... Halakha (הלכה in Hebrew or Halakhah, Halacha, Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish law, custom and tradition regulating all aspects of behavior. ... Haggadah for Passover, 14th century Haggadah is also the Hebrew for Aggadah, an Aramaic word refering to the homiletic and non-legal teachings recorded in Rabbinic literature. ...

Conjointly with his disciples and the scholars who gathered in Sura for the "Kallah," or semi-annual college conference, he completed this task. The kindly attitude of King Yezdigerd I, as well as the devoted and respectful recognition of his authority by the academies of Nehardea and Pumbedita, greatly favored the undertaking. A particularly important element in Ashi's success was the length of his tenure of office as head of Sura Academy, which must have lasted fifty-two years, but with tradition, probably for the sake of round numbers, was exaggerated into sixty. According to the same tradition, these sixty years are said to have been so symmetrically apportioned that each treatise required six months for the study of its Mishnah and the redaction of the traditional expositions of the same (Gemara), thus aggregating thirty years for the sixty treatises. The same process was then repeated for thirty years more, at the end of which period the work was considered complete. The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... The Gemara (Hebrew גמרא) is a component of the Talmud, comprising the rabbinical commentaries and analysis on the Mishnah, undertaken in the Academies of Palestine and Babylon over a 300 year period to about 500. ...

The artificiality and unreality of this legendary account are made clear by the facts that the treatises are of different degrees of length and difficulty, and that a large number of them possess no Gemara whatsoever. Probably all that is historical in this statement is that Rav Ashi actually revised the work twice – a fact that is mentioned in the Talmud. Beyond this, the Talmud itself contains not the slightest intimation of the activity which Ashi and his school exercised in this field for more than half a century. Even whether this editorial work was written down, and thus, whether the putting of the Babylonian Talmud into writing took place under Rav Ashi or not, cannot be answered from any statement in the Talmud. It is nevertheless probable that the fixation of the text of so comprehensive a literary work could not have been accomplished without the aid of writing. The work begun by Rav Ashi was continued in the two succeeding generations and completed by Ravina II, another president of the college in Sura, who died in 499. To the work as the last-named left it, only slight additions were made by the Saboraim. To one of these additions – that to an ancient utterance concerning the "Book of Adam, the First Man," – this statement is appended: "Ashi and Ravina are the last representatives of independent decision (hora'ah)", an evident reference to the work of these two in editing the Babylonian Talmud, which as an object of study and a fountainhead of practical "decision" was to have the same importance for the coming generations as the Mishnah had had for the Amoraim. The Gemara (Hebrew גמרא) is a component of the Talmud, comprising the rabbinical commentaries and analysis on the Mishnah, undertaken in the Academies of Palestine and Babylon over a 300 year period to about 500. ... The Talmud (תלמוד) is considered an authoritative record of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, Jewish ethics, customs, legends and stories. ... Ravina II was a rabbi of the Talmud who, in 475 CE, together with his teacher Rav Ashi, collected and commented upon the Gemara of what would henceforth be known as the Babylonian Talmud. ... See also: Sura (disambiguation). ... Events March 1 - Pope Symmachus makes Antipope Laurentius bishop of Nocera in Campania. ... Ravina II was a rabbi of the Talmud who, in 475 CE, together with his teacher Rav Ashi, collected and commented upon the Gemara of what would henceforth be known as the Babylonian Talmud. ... The Mishnah (Hebrew משנה, repetition) is a major source of rabbinic Judaisms religious texts. ... Amora, plural Amoraim, (from the Hebrew root amar to say or tell over), were renowned Jewish scholars who said or told over the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and Palestine. ...

Rav Ashi not only elevated Sura till it became the intellectual center of the Babylonian Jews, but contributed to its material grandeur also. He rebuilt Rav's academy and the synagogue connected with it, sparing no expense and personally superintending their reconstruction. As a direct result of Rav Ashi's renown, the Exilarch came annually to Sura in the month after the New Year to receive the respects of the assembled representatives of the Babylonian academies and congregations. To such a degree of splendor did these festivities and other conventions in Sura attain that Rav Ashi expressed his surprise that some of the Gentile residents of Sura were not tempted to accept Judaism. See also: Sura (disambiguation). ... Abba Arika, the name of the Babylonian amora of the 3rd century, who established at Sura the systematic study of the Rabbinic traditions which, using the Mishnah as text, led to the compilation of the Talmud. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Sura maintained the prominence conferred on it by Rav Ashi for several centuries, and only during the last two centuries of the Gaonic period did Pumbedita again become its rival. Rav Ashi's son Tabyomi, always spoken of as "Mar (Master), the son of Rab Ashi," was a recognized scholar, but it was not until 455, twenty-eight years after his father's death, that he was invested with the position that his father had so successfully filled for more than half a century. ... Events June 2 - Gaiseric leads the Vandals into Rome and plunder the city for two weeks. ...

The original text of this article was modified from the public domain Jewish Encyclopedia (1903).