רבי אבין

Rabbi Avin was an amora of Eretz Yisrael of the third generation, among the great talmidim of Rabbi Yochanan. It is possible that in his youth he still merited to learn before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, in whose name he brings teachings — but the essence of his Torah he received from his rebbe muvhak, Rabbi Yochanan, in whose beit medrash he stood among the elder talmidim.

His voice in the Gemara is the voice of the question: his statements appear many times in the Bavli, most often as a ba’ei — a halachic inquiry that opens the sugya’s depths — and as a chacham of Eretz Yisrael he is cited constantly in the Yerushalmi as well. His standing among his peers is preserved in the words of his colleague Rabbi Yirmiyah, who held that the judgment of the elder talmidim of Rabbi Yochanan — himself, Rabbi Avin and Rabbi Measha — should be preferred even over that of Rabbi Abahu, Rabbi Yitzchak Nappacha and Rabbi Chanina bar Papi. His son, Rabbi Yosi bar Avin, became one of the great amoraim of the following generation.