הרב אמימר

Ameimar, an amora of Bavel of the fifth and sixth generations, was among the chief chachamim of his day and the head of the chachmei Nehardea. Born in Nehardea, a grandson — his mother’s father — of Rami bar Chama, he raised the yeshiva of Nehardea up from a ruin of more than a century and headed it for over thirty years (390–422), serving there also as av beit din; later he moved to Mechoza and sat as dayan in that city as well. In his youth he learned before the chachamim of the generation above him, and in the Talmud he brings statements in the name of Rava, of Rav Yosef, and of Rav Nachman; afterward he learned from the talmidim of Abaye and Rava — above all Rav Zevid of Nehardea, among his foremost teachers, as well as Rav Dimi of Nehardea, Rav Papa, and Rav Chama.

His talmidim were the great ones of the sixth generation: Rav Ashi, rosh yeshivat Sura, who grew from talmid into talmid-chaver; Rav Huna bar Natan, the reish galuta; Rav Acha brei d’Rava, rosh yeshivat Pumbedita; and his own son, Mar bar Ameimar. With his chaverim Mar Zutra and Rav Ashi he appears again and again across the Bavli — in learning, at the table, and at the court of King Yazdegerd, where the three stood for the Jews at the royal festivals. When the king with his own hands straightened the belt of Rav Huna bar Natan, saying that a kingdom of kohanim must gird itself as kohanim do, Ameimar told him that in this was fulfilled the promise that kings would be his attendants. Of his yashrut as a dayan the gemara tells that when a feather floated onto his head in the middle of a din and one of the litigants lifted it off, Ameimar said: I am pasul to judge you — even so small a favor being in the category of shochad.

Many of his halachot, and his give-and-take with Rav Ashi, fill the Bavli. Among his sayings: a chacham is greater than a navi; a neder made in public can be released, but a neder made on daat rabbim cannot; and, in the pride of his city — I am of Nehardea, and I hold that an appraised field returns to its owner forever. His descendants served as geonim in the yeshivot of Sura and Pumbedita.