The Great Academy of Paris (''Midrash HaGadol d'Paris'') was a 13th-century Talmudic academy in

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

, established by Rabbi

Jehiel of Paris Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris or Jehiel of Paris, called Sire Vives in French (Judeo-French: ) and Vivus Meldensis ("Vives of Meaux") in Latin, was a major Talmudic scholar and Tosafist from northern France, father-in-law of Isaac ben Joseph of Corb ...

History

In around 1258, Rabbi Jehiel of Paris immigrated to the

Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem ( la, Regnum Hierosolymitanum; fro, Roiaume de Jherusalem), officially known as the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Frankish Kingdom of Palestine,Example (title of works): was a Crusader state that was establishe ...

from Northern France with several hundred students, his son Joseph following soon later. The group settled in the Crusader stronghold of Acre, where Rabbi Jehiel founded a Talmudic academy which he named the Great Academy of Paris, after the original institution he had headed in Paris. The academy intended to continue the learning traditions of the

Tosafist The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot ( he, תוספות) are medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The auth ...

s of Northern France. One report suggests that there were 300 students learning at the academy, although this may have included members of the local community, who devoted time for daily study. The renown of the new academy of the "Sages of Acre" was so great that Rabbi

Shlomo ben Adret Shlomo ben Avraham ibn Aderet ( he, שלמה בן אברהם אבן אדרת or Solomon son of Abraham son of Aderet) (1235 – 1310) was a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. He is widely known as the Rashba (Hebrew: ), the Hebrew acronym ...

wrote in 1280: 'It is a custom among the sages of the Holy Land and of Babylon that if a question should be asked, nobody answers but they say: "Let us be guided by the Sages of Acre."' Acre subsequently became a centre of religious authority for Middle Eastern Jews and the rulings of its rabbinical court were accepted by the communities of Palestine, Syria and Egypt. Its scholars were instrumental in preserving the communication network between the Jewish diaspora and Palestinian Jewry. It is probable that the Jews of Acre could not sustain the institution alone and that emissaries were sent to Europe to solicit funding. One such envoy, "Rabbi Jacob, the Messenger of the Yeshiva of Acre" (; c. 1258–1270), carried an "exhortatory treatise" which included an

itinerary Itinerary or Itineraries or Itinerarium may refer to: Travel * Itinerarium, an Ancient Roman road map in the form of a listing of cities, villages, and other stops, with the intervening distances * ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'', also known as the ...

of the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

listing the tombs and gravesites of

biblical figures Names play a variety of roles in the Bible. They sometimes relate to the nominee's role in a biblical narrative, as in the case of Nabal, a foolish man whose name means "fool". Names in the Bible can represent human hopes, divine revelations, o ...

and talmudic sages – possibly to be used as a fundraising aid.

References

{{Coord missing, Israel 1250s establishments in the Kingdom of Jerusalem 1258 establishments in Asia Acre, Israel Educational institutions established in the 13th century French-Jewish diaspora French Tosafists Jews and Judaism in the Kingdom of Jerusalem Orthodox yeshivas in Israel