In the centuries following the Talmud's completion, the Talmud became the central focus of Torah study. No longer were students listening to the oral recollections of their teachers—rather, they were jointly analyzing the text, the teacher explaining the disagreements therein and the conclusions reached. Babylonia had been a center for Torah learning since the First Temple's demise, but it soon declined in favor of Europe. A similar dramatic shift was not to occur again until the Holocaust, more than 1,000 years later.