הרב מרימר

Mareimar was a Bavli amora of the sixth generation, in the late fourth and early fifth centuries; according to the Sefer HaKabbalah he stood at the head of the yeshiva of Sura. Many of his statements in the Talmud open with “darash” — these are the derashot he delivered in the yeshiva.

His closest companion was Mar Zutra. Together they engaged in the building of batei knesset, and the Gemara brings their shared practices: both would daven Shacharit before the derashah the two of them delivered in their city on Shabbat, and both would say kiddush levanah while others supported them in their weakness, so that they could say it standing. When a non-Jew came to them on Yom Tov they would tell him that they may not cook for his sake on Yom Tov and that he must be content with whatever was brought him — removing in advance any pressure to add food to the pot for him, which is forbidden. Mareimar was also a friend of Ravina, to whom he brought teachings he had heard from Ravina’s father, and the two appear together many times in the halachic give-and-take of the Bavli.

The chachamim learned halachot from watching his conduct. The two sons of Rav Chisda told Rav Ashi: Mareimar came to their town, and on Motzaei Shabbat there was no wine; though they brought him beer he would not make havdalah on it, and he slept without havdalah and waited for wine the next day. A year later the same happened — but when they told him that in that place there was never wine, only beer, he said: if so, beer is the principal drink of the region, and he made havdalah on it. Rav Ashi derived three halachot from the story: that one repeats havdalah over a cup even after saying “atah chonantanu” in davening; that one may not eat before havdalah; and that one who did not make havdalah may still make it during the week. Among his piskei halachah: a shtar of the non-Jewish courts that Jewish witnesses signed, drawn up according to all the laws of shtarot, is collected upon like an ordinary shtar. And when Rav Acha bar Rava once questioned a ruling that had gone out of Mareimar’s house and sent the questioner back inside, Mareimar gave the same answer again and added its reasoning for the benefit of whoever had questioned it.

He taught that HaKadosh Baruch Hu did a tzedakah with Yisrael in that the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed only eleven years after the exile of Yehoyachin, so that those who went to Bavel found there the chachamim of the earlier exile and learned Torah from their mouths. His son, Mar Yehudah bar Mareimar, was likewise an amora, whose piskei halachah appear in the Talmud.