Nehardea or
Nehardeah ( "river of knowledge") was a
city of
Babylonia, situated at or near the junction of the
Euphrates with the Nahr Malka (also known as Nâr Sharri, Ar-Malcha, Nahr el-Malik, and King's Canal), one of the earliest centers of
Babylonian Judaism. As the seat of the
exilarch it traced its origin back to King
Jehoiachin. According to
Sherira Gaon (Letter of Sherira Gaon, in Neubauer,
M. J. C. i. 26), Jehoiachin and his coexilarchs built a
synagogue at Nehardea, for the foundation of which they used earth and stones which they had brought, in accordance with the words of
Psalms 102:15] from
Jerusalem (comp. a similar statement in regard to the founding of the Jewish neighbourhood in the Persian city of
Ispahan, in
Monatsschrift, 1873, pp. 129, 181). This was the synagogue called "Shaf we-Yatib," to which there are several references dating from the third and fourth centuries (
R. H. 24b;
Avodah Zarah 43b;
Niddah 13a), and which
Abaye asserts (
Meg. 29a) was the seat of the
Shekhinah in Babylonia. The
Aaronic portion of the
Jewish population of Nehardea was said to be descended from the slaves of
Pashur ben Immer, the contemporary of King Jehoiachin (
Kiddushin 70b).