רב קטינא

Rav Ketina was a Babylonian amora of the second generation. Rabbah bar Rav Huna and Rav Chisda bring teachings in his name.

He is known for his teaching on the span of the world’s existence: the world will stand for six thousand years, and in the seventh millennium it will lie desolate, as is learned from the verse “and Hashem alone shall be exalted on that day” (Yeshayahu 2:11). Abaye disagreed and held that the world will lie desolate for two thousand years, from the verse “He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up and we shall live before Him” (Hoshea 6:2). The Gemara brings a beraita in support of Rav Ketina: just as the shemittah year releases one year in seven, so the world releases one thousand years in seven thousand, as the verses say “and Hashem alone shall be exalted on that day,” “a psalm, a song for the Shabbat day” — a day that is entirely Shabbat — and “for a thousand years in Your eyes are as yesterday when it has passed.”

The Gemara in Menachot tells that Rav Ketina wore a linen sadin, a garment exempt from tzitzit, and an angel said to him, “Ketina, Ketina, what will become of tzitzit?” Though the obligation of tzitzit rests on the garment and not on the man, the angel explained, there is a claim against him in the heavenly court for seeking ways to exempt himself from the mitzvah. Rav Ketina asked whether Heaven punishes for neglect of a positive mitzvah, and the angel answered that in a time when the attribute of judgment is aroused — an idna d’ritcha — it does, even for a mitzvah one is not strictly bound to fulfill.

He was severe about bitul Torah, teaching that the rains are withheld only on account of neglect of Torah, as the verse says “through laziness the ceiling sinks” — through Israel’s laziness in Torah, the One who covers His upper chambers with water is made, as it were, poor. He taught too that one who scoffs finds his livelihood diminished, from the words “he stretched out his hand with scoffers.” And he described the great love of HaKadosh Baruch Hu for Israel as it was shown when the Beit HaMikdash stood: when Israel came up for the festivals, the parochet was rolled back for them and they were shown the keruvim embracing one another, and were told, “See your belovedness before the Makom, like the love of a man and a woman.”