In response to your answer - You said the talmud was being collated in Bavli at that time, so they couldn't have memorized it, but I was thinking about the Gaonic period or at least the early Gaonic period where most of it was already compiled - the vast majority, and at that time Pumbeditha was still a Torah center, wasn't it?
In regards to the letter that Rav Eliyashiv signed calling the state of Israel the beginning of the redemption, is there a copy of this letter that I can retrieve, either in print or online? That is a surprising story, but I wonder how many people today even know that that occurred decades ago? I would like to spring that on a rabbi the next time I hear antizionist propaganda.....