Responsum: On the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin

You asked about the statement of R. Jeremiah that the verse: He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have been long dead (Lamentations 3:6) is referring to the Talmud of Babylonia [see b. Sanhedrin 24a]. [ . . . ]

My response is that the sages’ interpretation of the following verse is well known: but of Zion it shall be said: this man and that man were born in her (Psalms 87:5). As Abaye said: One of them [an inhabitant of the land of Israel] is superior to two of us [inhabitants of Babylonia], for it is written: This man and that man. R. Jeremiah, when he was here, did not know what the sages were saying, but when he ascended there, he called us foolish Babylonians [b. Ketubbot 75a]. Because they sit in a dark land, they formulate darkened ideas. What is the reason for this? It is because they do not explain the Mishnah in accordance with the halakhah, as its basic reasons are not as clear to them as they are to the rabbis who are there. Consequently, he applied to them the verse: He has made me dwell in dark places. Likewise, R. Zera prayed that he should forget the Babylonian method of study when he realized, after hearing the clear, coherent explanations of the rabbis in Israel, how obscure it was [see b. Bava Meẓi‘a 85a]. For it is human nature that if a person hears two explanations at two different times, he will remember only the one he heard first.

Now, this observation is not true of all generations of Babylonian scholars, but only the days of Rabba, R. Joseph, Abaye, and Rava, due to persecution [ . . . ]. It is for this reason that R. Zera prayed that he should forget the Babylonian method of study, as they were distracted by the persecutions and were thus unable to analyze cases clearly. This is similar to the statement of the sages that halakhah requires clarity like the day of a north wind [which clears the sky], and as stated in chapter twelve [of b. Menaḥot; 103b] that the verse: And your life shall hang in doubt before you (Deuteronomy 28:66) is referring to someone who purchases grain from one year for the next. If this is true of one who purchases grain from one year for the next, all the more so does it apply to someone who has to deal with life-threatening persecutions.

This explains the statements of R. Jeremiah and R. Zera. However, Torah study subsequently improved in Babylonia, and certainly it had advanced by the days of R. Ashi. For it is stated that Rabba son of Rava said in the name of R. Hillel, that from the days of Moses until R. Judah the Prince we do not find Torah and greatness in one place, and then R. Aḥa son of Rava said: We too can say that from the days of R. Judah the Prince until the days of R. Ashi, we do not find Torah and greatness in one place [see, e.g., b. Gittin 59a]. In those years, Torah study greatly advanced, and they formulated its arguments and sealed the Talmud, just as in the days of R. Judah the Prince, when they wrote the Mishnah. Thus, no uncertainties remained, as everything was clear and comprehensible for the Babylonian rabbis of the generation of R. Ashi.