I started a new chavrusa learning Gemara Brachot from the beginning. It's going great and it's amazing how sometimes a Gemara and a Rashi that you've learned many times before can suddenly start looking a lot more complex and interesting than you remember it...While learning last night, my chavrusa asked an interesting question - why do we spend so much time learning the Talmud BAVLI??? Don't we also have a Talmud Yerushalmi? After all, we are in Israel and it would make sense to learn the local Torah. And don't Chaza"l say - "Ein Torah k'torat Eretz Yisrael"?? Why did the Bavli become the main focus of our Torah Sheba'al Peh?
precedence over the Yerushalmi.
After a bit of research, here are a few reasons suggested throughout the generations:
The Rif, at the end of Eruvin says that halachic preference is given to the Bavli because it came after the Yerushlami, and the Amoraim of the Bavli were fluent in the Yerushlami and nonetheless came to their conclusions which often differ from those Yerushlami.
Rav Yitchak Isaac Halevi Rabinowitz zt"l, in Dorot Rishonim (Chap. 20) offers an historical reason based on the opinions of some of the Geonim, that since there were persecutions on Eretz Yisrael at the time that the Yerushlami was compiled, the relevant halachic discussions were ended abruptly and were not fully developed. We therefore rely upon the Bavli which whose discussions were developed fully.
The Netziv in his commentary to the Torah, Ha'amek Davar (Shemot 34:1) compares the two Talmuds to the first and second luchot. On the one hand, the first set of luchot had a higher level of kedusha since they were formed by Hashem Himself, but the second luchot are still the ones which remained intact forever. Similarly, the Talmud Yerushalmi has a higher level of kedusha since it was written by earlier chachamim and it has the merit of being written in Eretz Yisrael, but the Bavli is the Torah that guided the Jewish people through the exile to Bavel and allowed us to maintain our traditions through a period of darkness.
It should also be noted that the chachamim and poskim throughout the generations still held the Yerushalmi in very high regard. Anyone who has learned the Aruch Hashulchan for example, knows that he makes reference to the Yerushalmi on almost every page. Also take a look at thw Bi'ur HaGr"a (Orach Chaim 235:13) who discusses the Rambam's view.
