Yarchei Kallah ( 'months of the bride') is the name of a teachers' convention that was held twice a year in Babylonian Academies, by the Jews then in captivity in Babylon, after the beginning of the amoraic period, in the two months

Adar Adar (Hebrew: , ; from Akkadian ''adaru'') is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the religious year on the Hebrew calendar, roughly corresponding to the month of March in the Gregorian calendar. It is a month of 29 days. ...

and

Elul Elul (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Hebrew language#Modern Hebrew, Standard , Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian ) is the twelfth month of the civil year and the sixth month of the Jewish religious year, religious year in the Hebrew calendar. It is a m ...

. The name refers to the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

as bride to be studied in the months of farming inactivity after oil and wine harvest.

Description

For each year's convention of the Kallah, a treatise of the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

was written forming the subject of explanation and discussion at the convention, according to Ta'anit 10b. cites opinions attributing authorship to either Jehudai Gaon (8th century) or to Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (c.100 CE) with later additions and redaction. The regular Kallah conventions concerned issues related to marriage, chastity, and moral purity. The subject matter was largely taken from the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

. The importance of the Kallah Convention (referred to under another name) is extolled in the Midrash Tanḥuma: "God has appointed the two academies (" yeshibot") for the good of Israel. In them day and night are devoted to the study of the

; and to there come the scholars from all places twice a year, in

and

, and associate with one another in discussions on the Torah." The greater the attendance at the convention, the greater was the renown of the academy. Hence Abaye says: "The most important part of the Kallah is a crowd." There was a saying in

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

that whoever dreamed of going into a forest would become president of the Kallah (the Kallah being likened to a forest). In the

land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

there was no Kallah. A. Schwarz claims that this cannot be asserted with certainty, but available historical records show that the Kallah was purely an institution practiced in Babylonia.

Etymology

The Mishnaic Hebrew word Yarchei (sing. Yareiach) means "months." The word literally is translated as "moons." The source for this common Mishnaic term is the fact that Jewish months are based on the lunar cycle. (Note that there is a similar relationship between the English words ''moon'' and ''month''.) The word Kallah is always written with ה as in כלה. It's the Hebrew word for "bride".Levy, ''Neuhebr. Wörterbuch,'' ii. 321

References

* {{JewishEncyclopedia, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=60&letter=K&search=kallah, title=Kallah , author= Richard Gottheil , author2= Wilhelm Bacher Minor tractates Jewish marital law