Babylonian Schools.
This incident carries us ahead of our narrative. To return:
The Babylonian schools—Metibta, as each was called (Yeshiba, Hebrew), continued to grow until they drew far more students than had been reached in Palestine, many of whom became great Amoraim. Babylon, in fact, was now a very large Jewish colony regulated by the laws of the Bible and Mishna as interpreted in the Academies. Even the Resh Galutha was in later times often a Jewish scholar, as for example, Mar Ukba. In addition to the Resh Metibta—head of the School—there was a Resh Kallah, President of the General Assembly—an institution not found in the Palestinian Academies. These were for the benefit of visiting students and met twice a year in the months of Adar and Elul.
Most renowned of Rab's successors was Rab Huna, who died in 297. Following the recognized precedent, not to use the Law as a spade, he earned his living by farming.
Reverence was shown to Judea now only in so far that the pious desired to be buried there. Later persecutions in Roman provinces, of which Judea was one, brought still more refugees to Babylonia.
The next generation of scholars we must pass over rapidly with just a word. In Pumbeditha we may mention Rabba, who believed in the saving sense of humor, and also set himself the more serious occupation of classifying the Halachoth accumulated since the Mishna had been compiled. He gave to his students this fine principle,—"He who does good for reasons other than the good itself, it were better he had never been born." The method of deduction as taught in the Babylonian Schools was more subtle than that of Judea. Its hair-splitting tendency in the next generation of Amoräim occasionally degenerated into casuistry. But even that was the fault of a virtue.
Notes and References.
Patriotism and Judaism.
Mar Samuel's theory and practice best answered the query of the anti-Semite, Goldwin Smith, "Can Jews be Patriots?" The American Jews had to face this problem in the Civil War of 1861, when they fought in both the Union and the Confederate ranks.