רב ברונא

Rav Bruna — his name also written Beruna and Baruna, and appearing in English sources as Berona — was a Babylonian amora of the second generation of amoraim, in the third century, and the foremost talmid of Rav. He also brings teachings in the name of Shmuel, and he had give-and-take in halacha with Rav Yehuda.

His brother was Rabbi Ilai, who held him very dear. Rabbi Ilai asked Ulla that when he reached Bavel he should give Rav Bruna his greeting before the whole company, for he is a great man and one who rejoices in mitzvot: one day he managed to join geulah to tefillah — setting the berachah of ga’al Yisrael that follows Kriat Shema directly against Shemoneh Esrei — and a smile did not leave his lips the entire day.

He sat many years in Rav’s beit midrash in Bavel and learned much Torah there. From those years it is told that he and his fellow Rav Chananel ate a seudat mitzvah together, served by Rav Yeiva Saba. When they had resolved to bench and so close the meal, they asked Rav Yeiva to bring them something to drink; he reminded them of Rav’s ruling that once a man decides to bench he has turned his mind away from the food and drink of the meal, so that anything he now wants requires its own berachah, no longer being covered by hamotzi.

His fellows in the beit midrash at times rebuked him. He once brought in Rav’s name that one who has washed for the meal should not make kiddush himself, since that would be a hefsek between the washing and the eating, but should hear kiddush from another, which is not a hefsek. Rav Yitzchak bar Shmuel bar Marta answered him: so little time has passed since we learned Rav’s Torah together — and he is still alive among us — and already we begin to forget it? I remember that when I served Rav, he would at times make kiddush over the bread after washing, and did not hold it a hefsek. In the Talmud almost no amora speaks in Rav Bruna’s name apart from Rabbi Tavla, who appears to have been his talmid.