SAADIA GAON When We Interrupted This Series of "Jewish Pn>F11es" Last
,,, i ,, ,7? V g Q ‘ ' ’LJ‘ S j I 28/") /rr l ' ~ - SAADIA GAON ' @ LT! -_-----'_--_ 174.7 (KEV ) V When we interrupted this series of "Jewish Pn>f11es" last April we had dealt with some of the outstanding personalities of the Rabbinic .Age,'from Hilfel 1n the first century B.C.E. to Rgv Ashi, who flourished in Babylonia about the year 400 CrE- We are nowXKg going to mAce a Jump of half a millenium to concern ourselves with a very great Jewish leader who flourished in the early part of the 10th century. This is a long Jump; and yofi will want to know, to begin with, A~pA what haypened 1n the intervening 500.years. As you can imagine, many things did happen; but you will also gather, from the fact that we gre making fine Jump, that no really outstanding person appeared in Jewry}:Er 031 during that period. 510mg Throughout this period the centre of gravity of Jewish life remained in Babylonia, to which country it'had shifted from Palestin /‘kawgn ) about 300 C.E. At the beginning of our period there were, perhaps, 303?o two million Jews in Babylonia. I said something in my last talk about the way they lived. Most of them fiere farmers, though some were artisans,_merchants and sailors. They formed a collection of mofe .. \N‘x—V or less concentrated and autonomous communities, mainly in the region of the larger cities such as Bagdad and Mahhza. Politically they were ruled by an Exilérph, or Resh Galuta.
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