רב בר שבא

Rav bar Shava was a Babylonian amora of the fifth generation. He carried on give-and-take in halachah with Rav Kahana of Pum Nahara, the rebbe of Rav Ashi, and with Rav Papa. In his youth he merited to see Rav Nachman and was a guest in his home, where boiled liver was set before him; he would not agree to eat it for reasons of halachah, and Rav Nachman, who held that he was mistaken, pressed the food upon him and made him eat.

In Berachot it is told that he passed before Ravina while Ravina was reciting Hallel, and Ravina did not break off to greet him even though it was a day on which Hallel is not said in full; some hold that this episode was with Rava bar Shava, a talmid of Ravina.

He taught that the beraita which says that human dignity is great enough to push aside a lo taaseh of the Torah means only that it pushes aside rabbinic prohibitions, which are called lo taaseh because their source is the pasuk “lo tasur min hadavar asher yagidu lecha yamin usmol.” The talmidim in the yeshiva laughed at his words, but Rav Kahana rebuked them and called him a gavra rabbah, a great man.