| abstract | - Kallah (Hebrew: מסכת כלה) is the name of a teachers' convention that was held twice a year in Babylonian Academies, by the Jews then in captivity in Bablon, after the beginning of the amoraic period, in the two months Adar and Elul. [1]. For each year's convention of the Kallah, a treatise of the Mishnah was written forming the subject of explanation and discussion at the convention, according to Ta'an. 10b (see R. Hananeel in Kohut, l.c. iv. 227b). Rabbinowitz (1965) 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 In the land of Israel there was no Kallah. A. Schwarz (Jahrbuch für Jüdische Gesch. und Litteratur, 1899, ii. 102) claims that this cannot be asserted with certainty, but available historical records show that the Kallah was purely an institution practiced during the Babylonian captivity.
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