רבינא

Ravina (niftar c. 4180/420) was a Bavli amora of the fifth and sixth generations, in his youth a talmid of Rava and in his later years a talmid-chaver of Rav Ashi. Unlike many amoraim who were born into houses of chachamim, his father was not a Torah scholar — he was apparently niftar early, and it was Ravina’s mother who told him of his father’s practices — and he attained his Torah through his own toil, supporting himself as a landowner and merchant. He left Rava’s beit midrash in Mechoza while his rebbi still lived, and wherever he settled he was recognized as a moreh and dayan rendering independent decisions. He was close with Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, and his bar-plugta through the Shas was Rav Acha bar Rava — Ravina inclining to leniency and Rav Acha to stringency, with the halachah following Ravina in all but three places where, against his custom, he was the stringent one.

When Rav Ashi came to head the academy at Mata Mechasya, Ravina — though as old as Rav Ashi or a few years older — sat in his beit midrash as a talmid-chaver, and with him began the arrangement of the Talmud Bavli; after Rav Ashi himself, Ravina’s share in that labor was the greatest. Because he never stood at the head of a yeshiva he is not listed in the Igeret of Rav Sherira Gaon, and the exact date of his petirah is not known; he was niftar some seven years before Rav Ashi. His father-in-law was Avimi bar Nazi, and his nephew and talmid was Ravina the last, Ravina II.