Rav (Abba)

Born in Babylonia, he studied in Palestine and returned around 219 to found the Sura study house, a milestone in the Babylonian rabbinic ascendancy.

The turn shows in the career of Rav Abba, known simply as Rav. According to rabbinic sources he was born in Babylonia, went to study in Palestine like other Babylonian sages, and was reportedly ordained there by Judah ha-Nasi. Around 219 he came back and opened at Sura, a trading town on the banks of the Euphrates, a study house (bet midrash) that would become one of Babylonia's great academies. Later Babylonian sages saw this return as the moment they began to regard themselves as equals of the Land of Israel (Bava Kama 80a).1 As with Yohanan and Judah, Rav's portrayal may not be accurate, but it shows how the Babylonian sages saw themselves: without breaking with Palestine, whose figures they esteemed, they claimed comparable authority and developed a rabbinic culture of their own.2