הרב גניבא

Geniva was a Babylonian amora of the first generation of the amoraim, a talmid and colleague of Rav. He challenged the leadership of the Reish Galuta (political head of the Jewish community in Bavel), Mar Ukva, and pressed him over a long period. Mar Ukva turned to Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat and asked whether he might hand him over to the Sasanian authorities, who supported the office of the Reish Galuta and were ready to clear such obstacles. Rabbi Elazar directed him not to do so. When the pressure grew and he asked a second time, Rabbi Elazar again told him to bear it, to learn in the beit midrash, and that Hashem would take up his cause. The Gemara closes the account by saying that the matter had barely left Rabbi Elazar’s mouth when Geniva was placed in the kolar, the collar put on those condemned to death.

Rav Aharon Hyman, in his Toldot Tanaim v’Amoraim, holds that he escaped the sentence of the government on that occasion, and explains on that basis a separate account in which amoraim weighed whether to rise before him as a bar oryan, a man of Torah, or whether it was not fitting since he was a man of contention. In the end he was seized again by the government and executed. Both the Bavli and the Yerushalmi relate that at the hour of his execution he directed that four hundred zuz of his estate be given to Rabbi Avina, who was apparently his talmid.

Several halachot are brought in his name in both Talmuds, generally in the name of Rav. In Berachot he brings a stringent ruling on distancing oneself from water of the feet at the time of tefillah: even once it has dried, so long as its mark is discernible one may not daven before it — a ruling on which Rav Yosef exclaimed that his Master should forgive Geniva. In Gittin he brings in the name of Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav that a man may not taste anything before he has given food to his animal, learned from the pasuk that places grass in the field for the animal before eating and being satisfied. Further rulings in his name appear in avodah zarah, shechitah and treifot.

Aggadic teachings are brought in his name as well. In Gittin he brings in the name of Rav that four winds blow each day, the north wind blowing with all of them, for without it the world could not stand even one hour. There too he teaches Rav Huna and Rav Chisda that the chachamim are called kings. In Kohelet Rabbah he gives the mashal of the fox and the vineyard: a fox who wanted the grapes of a fenced vineyard fasted three days until he was thin enough to squeeze through a hole in the fence, ate his fill, and then had to fast again to slip back out — only to find that all his labor had left him where he began.