רבי פדת

Rabbi Pedat was an amora whose teachings appear across the Talmud, where he is brought chiefly as a sharp analyst of earlier tannaitic disputes. In Avodah Zarah he resolves a difficulty by aligning two views — that of Rabbi Eliezer and that of the Sages — over whether a purification heifer may be acquired from a non-Jew, explaining their disagreement in terms of whether we are concerned about a forbidden coupling. In Yoma he states that Beit Shammai and Rabbi Elazar held a single position regarding the purification of a metzora who lacks a thumb or big toe, an example of his method of identifying when seemingly separate authorities share one underlying ruling.

His rulings reach into civil and ritual law alike. In Bava Batra he addresses the dating of legal documents, teaching that when a document’s date is shown to fall on Shabbat or the tenth of Tishrei, it is treated as post-dated and remains valid. In Eruvin a beam in his house is mentioned in connection with the laws of vessels and carrying, where he treats it as bearing the status of a utensil. Through these passages he emerges as a careful voice in the give-and-take of halachah.