רב אחאי

Rav Achai (sometimes recorded as Rav Acha) was a chacham of the first generations of the savoraim — the sages who received the Talmud from Ravina and Rav Ashi and gave it its final polish — and he is the most frequently named of them all in the Bavli. His questions enter the Gemara with a phrase reserved for him alone: parich Rav Achai — Rav Achai objected — probing the reasoning of earlier generations; once the Gemara records his resolution with “pashit Rav Achai.” Like his fellow savoraim he took part in the editing of the Talmud — the explanations, notes and language-precisions of that era, mostly anonymous — but his name survived where nearly all of theirs did not.

He is also known for the famous case of the eiza karkuz — the horned beast slaughtered in the house of the Reish Galuta, whose chelev Rav Achai forbade and his colleague Rav Shmuel breih d’Rav Abahu permitted. The ruling from Eretz Yisrael followed Rav Shmuel — but with a warning attached for all generations: “Give heed to Rabbeinu Achai, for he enlightens the eyes of the golah.”