רבי יוסי ברבי בון

Rabbi Yosi beRabbi Bun — called Rabbi Yosi bar Avin in the Talmud Bavli — was an amora of Eretz Yisrael who lived in the Galil in the second half of the fourth century, the son of the amora Rabbi Avin. He is among the most-cited chachamim in the Talmud Yerushalmi, and the most important of the last baalei halacha among the Amoraim of Eretz Yisrael. In his youth he learned under Rabbi Yosi of Yodkart, and afterward followed Rav Assi. Beside his mastery of the halachot and customs of Eretz Yisrael he was thoroughly at home in the Torah of Bavel — a breadth he apparently drew from his father, who had traveled there.

His life’s work was the explanation of the Mishnah and of the halachot of the earlier Amoraim. He reviewed and clarified teachings of Rabbi Yochanan, and in aggadah he brings and elucidates the words of Rabbi Chiya, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, Rabbi Yochanan, and Reish Lakish. Through the Yerushalmi he carries the halachic give-and-take with Rabbi Mana and his talmidim, and his words generally close the sugya. It is customary to credit him with the arranging of the Talmud Yerushalmi, as Rav Ashi arranged the Bavli — and indeed, Amoraim of Eretz Yisrael later than he are not named in the Yerushalmi at all. His son, Rabbi Shmuel ben Rabbi Yosi beRabbi Bun, was an amora of the generation that followed.