רבי בנימין בר יפת

Rav Binyamin bar Yefet was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the third generation of that period, at the close of the third century. He learned before Rav Yochanan and before Rav Elazar ben Pedat, and it is told that he accompanied Rav Yochanan on a journey to Tzor or to Tzidon. Among the talmidim of Rav Yochanan he was held to be less exact in citing his rebbe’s teachings: when what he brought in Rav Yochanan’s name stood against what Rav Chiya bar Abba brought, Rav Zeira decided for Rav Chiya bar Abba, who was the more careful of the two and who would review his learning before Rav Yochanan again and again. Of his family and his place nothing is known, though the author of Sefer Yuchasin HaShalem lists his father among the amoraim.

He appears some fifteen times in the Bavli and a few times in the Yerushalmi. Every teaching in his name comes from his rebbeim: what he says from Rav Yochanan is mostly halachah, and what he says from Rav Elazar ben Pedat is mostly aggadah. In halachah he teaches that one who has already said havdalah within the Motzaei Shabbat Amidah, in the berachah of Attah Chonantanu, must still make havdalah over a cup of wine (Berachot 33a). In aggadah he brings that Yaakov Avinu bowed before his son Yosef, in keeping with the saying that a fox in his hour of rule is bowed to.