רב סימונא

Rav Simuna (niftar 4300/540) was among the heads of the second generation of the Savoraim — the chachamim of Bavel who followed the Amoraim — and stood at the head of the yeshiva of Pumbedita while his colleague Rav Ena headed Sura. Like the rest of that generation he is known to us only in outline: the Savoraim wrote no sefarim of their own, and their additions to the Gemara are anonymous. Nearly all we know rests on the Iggeret of Rav Sherira Gaon and on early works of seder hadorot such as Seder Tannaim VaAmoraim and the Raavad’s Sefer HaKabbalah.

From the Iggeret it emerges that Rav Simuna took up the leadership of Pumbedita after the petirah of Rabbah Yosi, head of the first generation of Savoraim, in 4274/514. In those days Pumbedita carried the burden nearly alone: the gezeirot and persecutions that struck the Jews of Bavel made learning at Sura very hard, while the kehillah of Pumbedita was large and strong enough to stand firm. After Rav Simuna, Rav Rabbai of Rov headed the yeshiva; under the weight of the gezeirot the shiurim ceased for a time, and the chachamim moved the yeshiva to Firuz Shabur, near Nehardea.

The work of his generation was bound up with the sealing of the Talmud Bavli — explanations, notes, precise turns of language, and decisions in machlokot of Amoraim, set into the Gemara without the name of the Savora who placed them there. Rav Sherira Gaon writes to the chachamim of Kairouan that several sevarot fixed in the Gemara are from the last of the chachamim, “such as Rav Ena and Rav Simuna”; and Seder Tannaim VaAmoraim counts “Rav Giza and Rav Simuna” as the end of the Savoraim, who added nothing of their own but set the perakim of every masechta in order.