רב מרי בר רחל

Rav Mari bar Rachel was an amora whose dealings appear across several tractates, often arising from real-life situations he brought before the sages of his day. In Bava Metzia (73b) he is recorded handling a case where a gentile pledged him a house that was later sold to Rava, and the question of the rental income from the mortgaged property was worked out. In Chullin (112b) he came before Rava when meat of a properly slaughtered animal had been salted together with meat of a tereifah, and in Shabbat (124b) he again turned to Rava about moving cushions left out in the sun, in a give-and-take over whether such handling is permitted.

Bechorot (3b) preserves his practice with his own animals: he would assign ownership of their ears to a gentile so as to exempt them from the laws of the firstborn, forbidding them in shearing and labor and giving them to the kohanim — a practice the Gemara discusses and questions on grounds of possible mishap. In Yevamot (92b) he engages Rav Ashi, reporting in the name of Amemar that the halachah follows Shmuel, prompting Rav Ashi to draw out the practical ruling regarding a yevamah married to a kohen. Through these passages he emerges as a figure closely tied to the beit midrash of Rava and in conversation with Rav Ashi.