הרב זעירי

Ze’iri was an amora of the second generation, born in Bavel, who came up to Eretz Yisrael and became one of the foremost talmidim of Rabbi Chanina and of Rabbi Yochanan; his sayings and rulings appear dozens of times in the Gemara. Nowhere in the Talmud is he given the title Rabbi — his own name served as his title, in the way of the teaching that a man’s name is greater than Rabban. Rava said of him that a baraita Ze’iri did not explain has no explanation, and when Ze’iri stated that a clause was missing from a mishnah, the chachamim of his day entered his words into the text of the mishnah itself. In the name of Rabbi Chanina he taught that one who rules on a question of halachah in his rebbi’s presence is an intruder, and that Mashiach will not come until the arrogant have vanished from the world.

He was exacting in matters of yichus. Rabbi Yochanan, the greatest of the chachamim of Eretz Yisrael, wanted him for a son-in-law, and Ze’iri kept slipping away from him, holding that as a Bavli his lineage stood above that of the Land. Once the two came to a pool of water and Ze’iri carried his rebbi across on his shoulder; Rabbi Yochanan said to him at that moment, my Torah is fit for you and my daughter is not? Even so he did not take her. In psak too he ruled stringently in these laws: he read the mishnah about a woman seen secluded with a man according to its plain sense, and taught in the name of Rabbi Chanina that a woman is fit for kehunah only where two majorities can be counted, since the chachamim raised the standard where yichus is concerned.

He was a merchant and traveled from country to country for his trade. Passing through Egypt, a land full of kishuf, he bought a donkey; when he brought it to drink the enchantment dissolved in the water and the animal proved to be a camel, worth less than what he had paid. The seller gave back his money and told him that by right nothing was owed, since every buyer knows to water an animal before purchasing it, and that only because Ze’iri’s name was known through the whole world did they return the payment. Among those who learned from him and brought his teachings were Abba bar Chanan, Rav Dimi, Rav Nachman, Rav Chiya bar Ashi and the amora Sorchav bar Papa; the Gemara in Masechet Yoma preserves an opinion that Ze’iri crossed a river on Yom Kippur in order to greet that talmid.