ethical and poetic elements of the Talmud, the _Hagadah_, as this aspect
of the Rabbinical literature was called in contradistinction to the
_Halachah_, or legal elements. Simlai entered into frequent discussions
with the Christian Fathers on subjects of Biblical exegesis.

The centre of interest now changes to Babylonia. Here, in the year 219,
Abba Areka, or Rab (175-247), founded the Sura academy, which continued
to flourish for nearly eight centuries. He and his great contemporary
Samuel (180-257) enjoy with Jochanan the honor of supplying the leading
materials of which the Talmud consists. Samuel laid down a rule which,
based on an utterance of the prophet Jeremiah, enabled Jews to live and
serve in non-Jewish countries. "The law of the land is law," said
Samuel. But he lived in the realms of the stars as well as in the
streets of his city. Samuel was an astronomer, and he is reported to
have boasted with truth, that "he was as familiar with the paths of the
stars as with the streets of Nehardea." He arranged the Jewish Calendar,
his work in this direction being perfected by Hillel II in the fourth
century. Like Simlai, Rab and Samuel had heathen and Christian friends.
Origen and Jerome read the Scriptures under the guidance of Jews. The
heathen philosopher Porphyry wrote a commentary on the Book of Daniel.
So, too, Abbahu, who lived in Palestine a little later on, frequented
the society of cultivated Romans, and had his family taught Greek.
Abbahu was a manufacturer of veils for women's wear, for, like many
Amoraim, he scorned to make learning a means of living, Abbahu's modesty
with regard to his own merits shows that a Rabbi was not necessarily
arrogant in pride of knowledge! Once Abbahu's lecture was besieged by a
great crowd, but the audience of his colleague Chiya was scanty. "Thy
teaching," said Abbahu to Chiya, "is a rare jewel, of which only an
expert can judge; mine is tinsel, which attracts every ignorant eye."