ewish Babylonian Aramaic is a variant of Aramaic — the group of Semitic languages spoken for millennia, principally in what is now the Middle East — that was used approximately from the 4th to 11th century C.E. and is still studied by observant Jews today because it is the language of the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. Knowledge of Aramaic for Talmud studies is common among observant Jews worldwide, and nowhere more so than at renowned institutions of Jewish learning like Midwood's Mirrer Yeshiva or Washington Heights' Yeshiva University.