Editing Rav Ashi (section)

=== Compilation of the Gemara===
His commanding personality, his scholarly standing, and wealth are sufficiently indicated by the saying, then current, that since the days of Rabbi [[Judah haNasi]], learning and social distinction were never so united in one person as in Rav Ashi.<ref name=gs/> Indeed, just as Judah haNasi compiled and edited the [[Mishnah]]; Rav Ashi made it the labor of his life to collect and edit under the name of [[Gemara]], the explanations of the Mishnah which had been taught in the Babylonian academies since the days of [[Abba Arika|Rav]], together with all the discussions connected with them, and all the [[halakha|halakhic]] and [[aggadic]] material covered in the schools.<ref name="JE">{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1  |last= Jastrow |first=Marcus |author-link=Marcus Jastrow |last2=Bacher |first2=Wilhelm |author-link2=Wilhelm Bacher |title=Ashi |url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1945&letter=A&search=ashi}}</ref>

Together with his disciples and the scholars who gathered in Sura for the "[[Kallah]]", or semi-annual college conference, he completed this task. The kindly attitude of King [[Yazdegerd I]], as well as the devoted and respectful recognition of his authority by the academies of [[Nehardea]] and [[Pumbedita]], greatly favored the undertaking. A particularly important element in Ashi's success was the length of his tenure of office as head of Sura Academy. According to a tradition brought by [[Hai Gaon]], he held the position for 60 years, though given his approximately 75-year lifespan it is possible this number was rounded upwards. According to the same tradition, these 60 years were so symmetrically apportioned that each tractate required six months (including a single Kallah) for the study of its [[Mishnah]] and the redaction of the traditional expositions of the same ([[Gemara]]), totaling 30 years for the 60 tractates. The same process was repeated in the next 30 years. Indeed, the Talmud itself mentions an earlier and a later version of Rav Ashi's teachings on at least one subject.<ref>[https://www.sefaria.org.il/Bava_Batra.157b.9?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en Bava Batra 157b]</ref>

Beyond this, the Talmud itself contains not the slightest intimation of the activity which Ashi and his school exercised in this field for more than half a century. Even whether this editorial work was written down, and thus, whether the putting of the Babylonian Talmud into writing took place under Rav Ashi or not, cannot be answered from any statement in the Talmud. It is nevertheless probable that the fixation of the text of so comprehensive a literary work could not have been accomplished without the aid of writing.<ref name="JE"/> Rav Ashi often provides comments at the very end of broad Talmudic discussions, occasionally providing conclusions to issues that remain unresolved up to that point.

The work begun by Rav Ashi was continued in the two succeeding generations and completed by [[Ravina II]], another president of the college at Sura, who died in 499. To the work as Ravina left it, only slight additions were made by the [[Saboraim]]. To one of these additions—that to an ancient utterance concerning the "Book of Adam, the First Man,"—this statement is appended: "Rav Ashi and [[Ravina II|Ravina]] are the last representatives of independent decision (''hora'ah'')",<ref name=bm86/> an evident reference to the work of these two in editing the Babylonian Talmud, which as an object of study and a fountainhead of practical "decision" was to have the same importance for the coming generations as the [[Mishnah]] had had for the [[Amoraim]].<ref name="JE"/>