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 and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

, established by Rabbi Jehiel of Paris.

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 establish ...

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 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 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