רבא בריה דרבה

Rava bereh deRabbah was an amora whose teachings appear across a wide range of the Talmud’s tractates. He engaged in the give-and-take of halachic debate, raising challenges (matkif) and offering distinctions on points of law. In Horayot he challenges a ruling by drawing a comparison from the verse in Vayikra concerning one who sins against the holy things, set against the language used regarding Yeravam ben Nevat in Melachim, and the discussion turns on a shift in the wording of the verse. In Shevuot he raises an objection from the case of one who eats a single mouthful yet incurs four sin-offerings and one guilt-offering.

His rulings touch on practical matters as well. In Ketubot he addresses a woman who claims a document was merely an arrangement of trust between her and her husband, and elsewhere in Ketubot he speaks of a silver plow in a dispute over household items. In Zevachim he weighs in on libations brought on a private altar. In Chullin he is cited—at times identified as Rava bereh deRabbah bar Rav Huna—on the law of the tzomet hagidin, the convergence of the sinews, quoting Rav Asi. In Eruvin he discusses the distance between the bowstring and the bow.

He also turned to his teacher Rav Yosef with questions, sending word to ask “let our master teach us”: in Yevamot regarding a particular procedure, and in Shabbat concerning a needle whose eye or point has been removed.