  We compare the peculiar velocities of nearby SNe Ia with those predicted by
the gravity fields of full sky galaxy catalogs. The method provides a powerful
test of the gravitational instability paradigm and strong constraints on the
density parameter beta = Omega^0.6/b. For 24 SNe Ia within 10,000 km/s we find
the observed SNe Ia peculiar velocities are well modeled by the predictions
derived from the 1.2 Jy IRAS survey and the Optical Redshift Survey (ORS). Our
best $\beta$ is 0.4 from IRAS, and 0.3 from the ORS, with beta>0.7 and
beta<0.15 ruled out at 95% confidence levels from the IRAS comparison.
Bootstrap resampling tests show these results to be robust in the mean and in
its error. The precision of this technique will improve as additional nearby
SNe Ia are discovered and monitored.
