רב שמואל בר שילת

Rav Shmuel bar Shilat was an amora, remembered above all as a teacher of young children. In Bava Batra (8b) the verse “and they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars” is applied to teachers of children, and when the Gemara asks for an example, Rav points to Rav Shmuel bar Shilat. The same passage relates that Rav once found him standing in a garden and challenged him about having left his charges, an exchange that highlights how seriously his role as an educator was taken.

He also appears in Ketubot (62a) as an illustration of a man content with his own portion: Rav describes him as one who eats from what is his, drinks from what is his, and sleeps in the shade of his own dwelling, untroubled by the king’s officers passing his door — a model of modest, settled living.