JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

third century, however, tension developed between the exilarchate
and certain rabbinical circles. The exilarch justified
his rule over Jewry as an heir of the Davidic household, just
as did the Maccabeans, the Herodians, Jesus, and others who
claimed the right to govern “Israel.” That claim did not depend
upon study in the rabbinical academies or conformity
to rabbinical rules. Whether or not the exilarch was a “good
Jew” by rabbinic standards is ultimately irrelevant to the issue.
The rabbis saw themselves as the sole bearers of Mosaic
revelation in its complete, dual form. They alone possessed the
Oral Law, which completed the written one and determined
its interpretation. About 275, Geniva, a disciple of Rav, caused
so much trouble for the exilarch that the latter sought the advice
of the Palestinian *Eleazar b. Pedat. He was counseled to
forebear. Geniva was shortly thereafter executed by the state.
It is not known what Geniva did to irritate the exilarch. The
only clue to his doctrine is his teaching that rabbis should be
called kings, the proof-text for which was Proverbs 8:15, “By
me kings reign.” The eighth chapter of Proverbs was consistently
interpreted by the rabbis as the message of the Torah
personified. If by “me,” meaning “Torah,” kings rule, then
those not qualified by “Torah” should subordinate themselves
to those who are, namely the rabbis. If Geniva made such an
assertion of rabbinical superiority, the exilarch would wisely
have handed him over to the Sassanids, for subversion of the
exilarch was subversion, likewise, of the Sassanid system of
millet-government. At the end of the century, Judah b. Ezekiel
founded the school at Pumbedita and, for the next 50 years,
the heads of the school kept a fund for its support, thus attempting
to remain independent of the exilarchic treasury. At
the same time, leading rabbis asserted that rabbis should not
have to pay the karga, or head tax, imposed by the Sassanid
regime on minority communities. They held that Scriptures,
tradition, and even Artaxerxes of Achemenid times, had all
freed them of that obligation. Since taxes were apportioned
by communities, the exilarch would have had to collect funds
from other Jews in order to exempt the rabbis. This he did
not attempt, and a further irritant in the relations of the two
groups was the consequence. By the middle of the fourth century,
the academy at Pumbedita, now headed by Rava, was
subject to close exilarchic supervision, and moved to the exilarchic
capital at *Maḥoza.
When, under Pērōz (459–84), Jews and Christians were
persecuted, the exilarch Huna V was executed, according to
the letter of R. Sherira, in the year 470. The office of exilarch
remained vacant for some time. The virtual chaos of the reigns
before Khusro I (531–79) combined with the anti-Jewish activities
of the Mazdakites supported by the throne in the time
of Kavadh (488–531), and the economic depression of the period,
produced a lapse in orderly government for Jewry as well.
For a time (c. 510–20) the exilarch Mar *Zutra II threw off fealty
to the throne, probably provoked by Kavadh’s support of
Mazdak. From Khusro onward, the situation was restored to
its former favorable condition.
[Jacob Neusner]
exilarch
During the Arab Period
The first exilarch of the Arab period was *Bustanai, who
founded a new dynasty of exilarchs from the descendants of
his Jewish wife and his other wife, the daughter of the king of
*Persia who was given to him, according to the sources, by
*Omar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb. Some opinions doubt the authenticity
of the latter detail, because Omar did not visit *Iraq, but the
texts possibly refer to one of his generals. This fact expresses
the recognition granted by the Arab rule to the scion of the
House of David who stood at the head of the Jewish community.
The children of his Jewish wife disqualified the children
of the Persian wife from acting as exilarchs with the argument
that since the mother had not been converted, her children
had the status of non-Jews. The polemics and the halakhic
discussion have been preserved in a series of sources.
The ḥakhamim of the academies decided in favor of the Persian
branch. In spite of the protests, which were also voiced
after this decision, the descendants of the Persian wife were
appointed as exilarchs.
Relations with the Rashei Yeshivot
The exilarchs maintained close ties with the heads of the
Sura and Pumbedita academies. They also concerned themselves
with the incomes of these academies which were raised
throughout the Diaspora. One of the exilarchs, *Solomon b.
Ḥisdai, the great-grandson of Bustanai from the Jewish branch
(reigned 733–59), was himself a scholar and distinguished
himself with his concern for the academy of Sura and its aggrandizement.
He took Mar Samuel out of the Pumbedita
academy and appointed him head of the Sura academy (Iggeret
R. Sherira Ga’on, ed. by B.M. Lewin (1921), 106). Twenty-six
years later he appointed Rav *Yehudai, who was also a disciple
of the Pumbedita academy, to the same position. Although
the position of exilarch was hereditary, it was not always the
firstborn who was chosen, but rather the member of the family
who was most suitable and accepted by the academy heads
and the important merchants who wielded influence in the
court of the caliph. The exilarchs and the heads of the Sura and
Pumbedita academies were dependent on each other, because
the election of each of them required the confirmation of the
other party. Against this background, there were examples
of self-assertion. *Anan b. David, the nephew of Solomon b.
Ḥisdai, was worthy of being elected as exilarch because of his
erudition, but the ḥakhamim found a “disqualifying blemish”
in him because of his negation of the Oral Law. His younger
brother Hananiah was elected in his place. The leaders of the
Karaite community, who were known as nesi’im, were descended
from Anan.
The split between the *Rabbanites and the *Karaites appears
to have been the cause of the decline in the status of
the exilarchs and the limitation of their authority. Caliph al-
Maʾmūn (ruled 813–33) granted the request of the Karaites that
their leader be recognized as the nasi of their community. In
825 he issued an order according to which any ten men – Jews,
Christians, or Zoroastrians – were authorized to organize
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 603