רבי תנחומא

Rabbi Tanchuma bar Abba, an amora of Eretz Yisrael in one of the last generations of Amoraim, was among the greatest baalei aggadah and darshanim of his time. He lived in the second half of the fourth century in the town of Naveh, in the region of the Golan, and was a talmid of Rav Huna; he also learned from Rabbi Yehudah ben Shalom and from Rabbi Pinchas. The Talmud Yerushalmi calls him iskolistika — Greek for a man of learning — and he held disputations with non-Jewish scholars, among them in Antioch, where he was asked about a wording in Bereishit that seemed to hint at plurality, and answered from the language of the pasuk itself. From his dealings with non-Jews he drew a rule he taught: one who is greeted by a non-Jew with a blessing should answer "Amen."

The Gemara tells that in his days the rains were held back. Rabbi Tanchuma decreed two public fasts and no rain fell; at the third he stood and darshened that each person should go and do tzedakah according to his ability, so that Yisrael would be worthy of rain. One of his listeners took money from his house and met his divorced wife, who was in great need, and out of rachamim gave her from what he had. When the matter was brought before Rabbi Tanchuma, he lifted his face to Heaven and davened: if this man, who owed her nothing, was filled with mercy for her, how much more should the Gracious and Merciful One be filled with mercy for the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov in their need — and the rain came.

His name stands upon the Midrash Tanchuma, which gathers his creation in aggadah and midrash, and the Pesikta Rabbati holds some eighty petichtot that open with "Thus said Rabbi Tanchuma." In his derashot he would uncover the Scriptural basis for the teachings of earlier chachamim, explain and adjust older sayings, and teach through mashal — as in his saying that just as the spice-box holds every kind of fragrant spice, so must the wise talmid be filled with mikra, mishnah, halachah, and aggadah. Among his words: "If you have acquired knowledge, what do you lack? And if you lack knowledge, what have you acquired?"