רבא

Rava (c. 4038/278–4112/352), Abba bar Yosef bar Chama, was among the heads of the fourth generation of the Amoraim of Bavel and one of the most-cited chachamim in the entire Talmud. His debates with his friend Abaye — the “Havayot d’Abaye v’Rava” — are a summit of Talmudic reasoning, and the halacha follows Rava in every one of their many disputes but six, remembered by the siman “ya’al kagam.” He was born in Mechoza on the Tigris to Rav Yosef bar Chama, a talmid chacham of means who freed his son of every worldly care; Rava later said that had even a louse bitten him, he could not have learned with such diligence. In his youth he learned in Sura before Rav Chisda beside Rami bar Chama; years afterward, when Rami bar Chama was niftar, Rava married his widow, the daughter of Rav Chisda. His rebbi muvhak was Rav Nachman in Mechoza, and he learned as well under Rabbah and Rav Yosef in Pumbedita — taking leave of Rav Yosef walking backward in such awe that his feet bled, and Rav Yosef blessed him that he would be raised over the whole city.

When Rav Yosef was niftar, Abaye was chosen to head the yeshiva of Pumbedita, and Rava returned to Mechoza and taught there, many talmidim following him. After Abaye’s petirah the chachamim of Pumbedita moved to Mechoza — then the one seat of Torah in Bavel — and Rava stood at its head for fourteen years, until his own petirah. A man of fields and business, he directed his talmidim to earn their bread in Nisan and Tishrei so that the rest of the year would be free for Torah. Ifra Hormiz, mother of King Shapur of Persia, held him in esteem and shielded him, and through this standing he eased the burdens on the Jews of Bavel; tzedakah money she sent, he shared out. He himself gathered tzedakah, once obliging the wealthy Rav Natan bar Ami to give four hundred zuz, and he urged the people of Mechoza to do chessed with one another. When he retracted a ruling he announced it openly: “Words I said before you were a mistake in my hand!”

His talmidim were Rav Papa, Rav Huna brei d’Rav Yehoshua, and Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, and in their youth Ravina, Ameimar, and Mar Zutra learned before him as well. He was at home in the hidden Torah too: the Gemara tells that he formed a man by means of Sefer Yetzirah and sent him to Rabbi Zeira. He taught that the Torah is a life-giving remedy for one who learns it rightly, and that a person will one day have to answer whether he fixed times for Torah. Tradition places his kever beside Abaye’s, in a cave on Har Yavnit in the Galil.