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Rava (amora)

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Rabbinical eras

Abba ben Joseph bar Ḥama(c. 280– 352 CE), who is exclusively referred to in theTalmudby the nameRava(רבא‎), was a Babylonianrabbiwho belonged to the fourth generation ofamoraim.He is known for his debates withAbaye,and is one of the most often cited rabbis in theTalmud.

Biography[edit]

He was born about 280 CE inMahoza(a suburb ofCtesiphon,the capital ofPersia), where his father was a wealthy and distinguished scholar. In his youth Rava went toSura,where he attended the lectures ofRav Chisdaand associated withRami bar Hama.About ten years after Rami's death Rava married his widow, the daughter of Rav Chisda.[1]It is said that earlier Rav Chisda's daughter sat in her father's classroom, while his students, Rava and Rami bar Hama, stand before them. When Rav Chisda asked her which of the two she wants to marry, she replied "both of them," and Rava added, "I'll be the last one" (commentators let us know that she indeed married Rami first and Rava second).[2]They had five sons, the eldest of whom, Yoseph, died during his parents' lifetime.

Rava studied at theTalmudic AcademyofPumbedita,nowFalluja,Iraq. Rava's teachers wereRav Yosef bar Hiyya,Rabbah, and, chiefly,Rav Nachman,who lived in Mahoza. His chiefstudy companionwasAbaye,who was about the same age, and both of them developed the dialectic method whichJudah bar Ezekieland their teacher Rabbah had established in their discussions of tradition; their debates became known as theHavayot de-Abaye ve-Rava.[3]

Rava enjoyed the special protection of the mother ofShapur II,the tenthSasanian emperoraccording toTa'anit24b, who calls her "Ifra Hormiz" (אִיפְרָא הוֹרְמִיז). For this reason, and in consideration of the large sums which he secretly contributed to the court noted inHagiga5b, he succeeded in making less severe Shapur's oppressions of the Jews in Babylonia.

When, after the death of Rav Yosef, Abaye was chosen head of the Academy of Pumbedita (Horayot 14a), Rava founded a school of his own in Mahoza. Many pupils, preferring Rava's lectures to Abaye's lectures, followed Rava to Mahoza.[4]After Abaye's death Rava was elected head of the school, and the academy was transferred from Pumbedita to Mahoza, which, during the lifetime of Rava, was the only seat of Jewish learning in Babylonia.

According toSherira Gaon,Rava died in 352 CE.[5]Some texts of the Talmud say that he died at age 40, being one of the descendants ofEliwho were cursed with early death;[6]but in all likelihood the correct version of the text refers toRabbahnot Rava.[7]

Teachings[edit]

Halacha[edit]

The debates between Rava andAbayeare considered classic examples of Talmudic dialectical logic. Of their hundreds of recorded disputes, the law is decided according to the opinion of Rava in all but six cases. His methodology greatly influenced not only his students, but thestammaim,as well.[8]Rava was regarded as a greater authority than Abaye, and in cases where there was a difference of opinion between them Rava was generally followed; there are only six instances in which Abaye's decision was preferred.[9]Rava "would join the practical awareness of daily existence" to his teachings, while Abaye's teachings relied only on "the consistent and systematic logic of halakhic interpretation"; thus halakha was decided like Rava in nearly all cases.[10]

Rava occupied a prominent position among the transmitters of halakhah, and established many new decisions and rulings, especially in ceremonial law.[11]He strove to spread the knowledge of halakhah by discoursing upon it in lectures, to which the public were admitted, and many of his halakhic decisions expressly state that they were taken from such discourses.[12]He was a master of halakhic exegesis, not infrequently resorting to it to demonstrate the Biblical authority underlying legal regulations. He adopted certain hermeneutic principles which were partly modifications of older rules and partly his own.[13]

Rava apparently had to reply to a deep-seated skepticism toward rabbinic authority and to defend the authenticity of the rabbinic oral tradition. The skepticism of Mahozan Jewry was fueled in part by the acceptance of theManichaeanpolemic againstZoroastrianismand its insistence on oral transmission, and by a strong concern with the problem oftheodicy,encouraged by a familiarity with Zoroastrian theology. Rava's creativity was fueled by his cosmopolitan urban environment. For instance, he ruled that one who habitually ate certain non-kosher foods because he liked the taste was nevertheless trustworthy as a witness in cases involving civil matters. So too did he suggest that a lost object belongs to the person who discovers it even before the loser is aware of his loss, because it prevented the loser from resorting to urban courts to try to get his property back and eliminated the period of uncertainty of possession. It also led to the legal concept that 'future [psychological] abandonment [of possession] when unaware [of the loss] is [nevertheless retrospectively accounted] as abandonment'. Ultimately, Rava's views were decisive in shaping theBavli's approach to the problem of theodicy, legal midrash, and conceptualization, all of which stand in stark contrast to theYerushalmi."[14]

Aggadah[edit]

Rava was as preeminent in aggadah as in halakhah. In addition to the lectures to his pupils, he used to hold public discourses, most of them aggadic in character, and many of his aggadic interpretations are expressly said to have been delivered in public.[15]Even more numerous are the interpretations which, although not expressly stated to have been delivered in public, seem to have been presented before a general audience, since they do not differ from the others in form. The majority of these expositions, which frequently contain popular maxims and proverbs,[16]refer to the first books of theKetuvim— Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.

Bacher justly infers from this that the aggadic lectures of Rava were delivered in connection with the Sabbath afternoon service - at which, according to a custom observed inNehardea,and later probably in Mahoza also, parashiyyot were read from the Ketuvim.[17]Rava therefore appended his aggadic discourse to the Biblical section which had been read.

Torah study is a frequent topic of Rava's aggadah. In the judgment after death, each man will be obliged to state whether he devoted certain times to study, and whether he diligently pursued the knowledge of the Law, striving to deduce the meaning of one passage from another.[18]The Torah, in his view, is a medicine, life-giving to those who devote themselves to it with right intent, but a deadly poison for those who do not properly avail themselves of it.[19]"A true disciple of wisdom must be upright; and his interior must harmonize with his exterior".[19]Rava frequently emphasizes the respect due to teachers of the Law,[20]the proper methods of study,[21]and the rules applicable to the instruction of the young.[22]In addition, Rava's aggadah frequently discusses the characters of Biblical history.[23]

Mysticism[edit]

Rava was secretly initiated, probably by his teacher Rav Yosef, into aggadic esoterism;[24]a number of his teachings are tinged with mysticism.[25]It is said that he once created agolemand sent it toRav Zeira.[26]Once, he wished to lecture in the academy upon theTetragrammaton,but an old man prevented him, reminding him that such knowledge must be kept secret.[27]

Quotes[edit]

  • The reward for [learning] tradition is its logic [not the practical conclusions].[28]
  • Either companionship or death. (popular saying)[29]
  • When as yet I had not been made, I was not worthy. But now that I have been made, it is as though I had not been made. Dust am I during my lifetime, how more than in my death![30]
  • A candle for one is a candle for a hundred.[31]


See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Yevamos 34b
  2. ^Bava Basra 12b
  3. ^Sukkah 28a
  4. ^Bava Batra 22a
  5. ^Sherira Gaon(1988).The Iggeres of Rav Sherira Gaon.Translated by Nosson Dovid Rabinowich. Jerusalem: Rabbi Jacob Joseph School Press - Ahavath Torah Institute Moznaim. p. 105.OCLC923562173.
  6. ^Avodah Zarah 19b; Rosh Hashana 18a (according to the wording preserved byRashi)
  7. ^Rashi (on Rosh Hashana 18a) andTosafot(on Yevamot 105a) write that Rava was not akohen,and thus not descended from Eli. Other arguments suggest that Rava was not a kohen. When he said that he would marry the daughter of Rami bar Hama after Rami did (Bava Batra 12b), he presumably did not mean to curse Rami to die, in which case he had in mind to marry her as a divorcee, which would be forbidden to a kohen. In addition, he instructed his sons not to marry converts (Brachot 8b), an instruction which would be superfluous for a kohen, as all kohanim are forbidden to marry converts. In addition, he once visitedRav Huna's deathbed (Moed Kattan 28a), which a kohen would not do to avoid being under one roof with a corpse.
  8. ^"An Intro to the Stam(maim)".Drew Kaplan's Blog.Blogspot. 6 May 2008.Retrieved31 January2010.
  9. ^Kiddushin 52a
  10. ^Michael Avi Yonah,Atlas Karta leTekufat Bayit Sheni, haMishna, vehaTalmud,p.100
  11. ^e.g.,Hullin42b, 43b, 46b, 47a,b; Pesachim 30a
  12. ^Eruvin 104a; Shabbat 143a; Pesachim 42a; Bava Batra 127a
  13. ^Compare Bacher, "Ag. Bab. Amor." pp. 131-132
  14. ^Yaakov Elman, "The Babylonian Talmud in Its Historical Context," in Printing the Talmud: From Bomberg To Schottenstein, ed. Sharon Liberman Mintz & Gabriel M. Goldstein (New York City: Yeshiva University Museum, 2006), 26-27.
  15. ^e.g., Sanhedrin 107a, 108b, 109a; Hagigah 3a, 15b; Eruvin 21b; et al.
  16. ^compare Bacher, l.c. pp. 124 et seq.
  17. ^Shabbat 116b; Rapoport, "Erekh Millin," pp. 170 et seq.
  18. ^Shabbat 31a
  19. ^abYoma 72b
  20. ^e.g., Sanhedrin 99b; Shabbat 23b
  21. ^Avodah Zarah 19a
  22. ^Bava Batra 21a
  23. ^Sanhedrin 108b; Bava Batra 123a; Sotah 34b; etc.
  24. ^Bacher, l.c. p. 130
  25. ^See especially Sanhedrin 65b
  26. ^Sanhedrin 65b
  27. ^Pesachim 50a
  28. ^Berakhot 6b
  29. ^Ta'anit 23a
  30. ^Berakhot 17a
  31. ^Shabbat 122a

This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Singer, Isidore;et al., eds. (1901–1906)."RABA (B. JOSEPH B. ḤAMA)".The Jewish Encyclopedia.New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

External links[edit]

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