רבא בר מחסיא

Rava bar Machsiya was an amora who appears in the Talmud mainly as one who brings the teachings of Rav, which he received by way of Rav Chama bar Gurya. This chain — “Rava bar Machsiya said in the name of Rav Chama bar Gurya in the name of Rav” — recurs in several passages, particularly in Shabbat and Megillah.

The teachings he brings touch on a range of practical and ethical matters. In Berachot he relates that fasting is effective against a troubling dream, even on Shabbat. In Shabbat he brings Rav’s teaching that one who gives a gift to his fellow must inform him, learned from the verse “to know that I am Hashem who sanctifies you” (Shemot); a story follows in which Rav Chisda, holding two portions of ox-meat to reward a new teaching of Rav, gives one to Rava bar Machsiya for citing this very statement. Other teachings in his name address living under various rulers, the ranking of afflictions (no illness like a sickness of the stomach, no pain like a pain of the heart), and the warning that a city whose rooftops rise above the synagogue is destined for ruin, drawn from a verse in Ezra. He also clarifies that the word for “faithfulness” may be uttered in an unclean place. In Megillah he brings Rav’s teaching about the two sela’im of fine wool that Yaakov added to Yosef beyond his brothers, which set in motion the descent to Egypt.