רב שיזבי

Rav Sheizvi was an amora of the fourth generation of the Amoraim of Bavel and a talmid of Rav Chisda. He was held to be a gadol in Torah; when a statement of his was hard to follow, Rava warned that one should study the words closely and not dismiss them, because they had come from the mouth of a great man.

The Talmud Bavli tells how his greatness was predicted. Rav Chisda used to pass the house of Rav Sheizvi’s father — by another explanation, his father-in-law — and saw that the household was accustomed to light many lamps. “From here,” he said, “a great man will go out,” in keeping with the teaching that one who is scrupulous with the lamp of a mitzvah merits sons who are talmidei chachamim; and the great man who came from that house was Rav Sheizvi. He went on to learn under Rav Chisda, and he also brought halachic questions before Rabbah. Rav Aharon Hyman, in Toldot Tannaim VaAmoraim, suggests that he went up to Eretz Yisrael for a short time and received Torah from Rabbi Yochanan.