רבה בר נחמני

Rabbah bar Nachmani was an amora whose teachings and life are recorded in the Talmud and reflected upon by later sages. He is remembered above all for his mastery of the laws of tzaraat (nega’im) and of ritual purity in the laws of tents (oholot), declaring of himself, “I am unique in nega’im, I am unique in oholot.” This expertise is at the center of the celebrated account in Bava Metzia (86a), where a dispute in the Heavenly academy over a case of a doubtful nega — whether the bright spot or the white hair came first — could be resolved only by his decision.

The same passage describes the circumstances of his passing: pursued amid persecution because his learning drew thousands away from the king’s labor, he sat studying by a palm tree when he heard the dispute of the academy on high, and as his soul departed he declared, “Pure, pure,” whereupon a heavenly voice praised him that his body was pure and his soul left in purity. A note then fell in Pumbedita that Rabbah bar Nachmani had been summoned to the academy above, and Abaye and Rava together with the other Sages went out to attend to him.

This dramatic narrative became a focus of later study. Rabbeinu Nissim (Derashot HaRan, derashot 5 and 7) treats the aggadah at length, asking how souls separated from their bodies could occupy themselves with the laws of nega’im, and how the Heavenly academy could declare impure what Hashem had declared pure, such that Rabbah bar Nachmani’s ruling was needed to decide — using the episode to expound on the relationship between human reasoning and the rulings of the Torah.