"Moshe received the Torah from Sinai"
Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a tractate of the Mishnah) opens not with a law but with a chain. The Torah we learn was handed from teacher to student. The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Spain and Egypt, 1100s) traces that chain, name by name, in the introduction to his law code, the Mishneh Torah. From Rav Ashi, who finished the Gemara, back to Moshe, he counts forty links. Walk up the chain.
The Rambam adds that these forty are only the great names. With each of them, in every generation, there were thousands who heard the Torah from them and learned with them.
From the Pairs to today
Tap an era to see what the name means, what they wrote, and how to recognize them. Dates are approximate: books draw the lines in different places.
A timeline of the eras from about 200 BCE to today, with world events marked above it.
Where do the eras end? The Gemara itself marks two endpoints: Rebbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi) and Rabbi Natan are "the end of the Mishnah," and Rav Ashi and Ravina are "the end of hora'ah," the end of the Talmud's teaching.
And the word Gaon is wider than you might think. The Rambam uses it for every great sage after the Talmud, in Eretz Yisrael, Bavel, Spain and France alike.
Want the Tannaim and Amoraim generation by generation, with who led each one? See the generations timeline on the Sages page.
Rabbi, Rav, Rabban, Mar, or no title at all
A sage's title tells you where he learned. Semichah, rabbinic ordination in the chain going back to Moshe, could only be given in Eretz Yisrael.
So the ordained sages of Eretz Yisrael are called Rabbi, and the great sages of Bavel, who were not ordained, are Rav or Mar. The Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, Prague and Tzfat, 1600s) collects the rules, starting from an old teaching of the Sages (it is in the Tosefta, Eduyot 3:4): there is a ladder of titles, and the top rung is no title at all.
Try it
Why a later sage does not argue with an earlier one
Open any page of Gemara and you will see it. An Amora says something. The Gemara objects: "But a Mishnah says otherwise!" And the Amora either finds a Tanna who agrees with him, or his view falls. Why should an earlier source win just because it is earlier?
Reason one: the generations. The Sages felt that each earlier generation was greater than the one after it.
Reason two: an agreement. But the Rambam himself rules that a later great court may overturn an earlier court's reading of the verses if it sees a different reason (Laws of Rebels 2:1). So why don't the Amoraim argue with the Tannaim? The Kesef Mishneh (Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the Shulchan Aruch) asks exactly this, and suggests an answer: when the Mishnah was sealed, the Sages accepted on themselves not to argue with it, and the same happened when the Gemara was sealed.
The Rambam gives the same kind of reason for why the Talmud binds every Jew: the whole Jewish people accepted it.
The exception. One Amora is treated differently. Rav lived at the very border between the eras, and when a beraita contradicts him, the Gemara sometimes answers simply:
Now try it. Pick a later sage and an earlier one.
How a page of Gemara holds the whole chain
The printed Talmud page puts the eras side by side: the Tannaim in the middle, the Amoraim around them, the Rishonim on both sides, and the Acharonim in the margins. Tap each part.
A simplified drawing of a page of Gemara: the heading at the top, the Mishnah and Gemara in the center, Rashi on the inner side, Tosafot on the outer side, and notes around the edges.
Where you are in the chain
The Rambam counted forty links from Moshe to Rav Ashi, about 1,700 years. Rav Ashi died about 1,600 years ago. If a generation of teacher and student is about 40 years, that is roughly another forty links from Rav Ashi to whoever taught your teacher. (That count is ours, not the Rambam's: a rough sense of the distance, not a list.)
Every time you learn a Mishnah from your rebbe, you are holding the same chain that Pirkei Avot begins with. And when you teach it to someone else, you become the next link.
Common questions
Short answers, with sources.
What is the difference between a Tanna and an Amora?
Tannaim are the sages of the Mishnah and the beraitot, until about 220 CE. Amoraim are the sages of the Gemara, who explained the Mishnah, from about 220 to 500. Generally an Amora does not argue with a Tanna; Rav is the famous exception: he may disagree with a beraita (Eruvin 50b).
Who was the last Tanna, and the last Amora?
The Gemara (Bava Metzia 86a) calls Rebbi and Rabbi Natan "the end of the Mishnah," and Rav Ashi and Ravina "the end of hora'ah," the end of the Talmud's teaching.
What is a beraita?
A teaching of the Tannaim that was left out of the Mishnah. The word means "outside." The Gemara quotes them with phrases like תָּנוּ רַבָּנַן, "the Rabbis taught."
Why are some sages called Rabbi and others Rav?
Ordination (semichah) was given only in Eretz Yisrael (Sanhedrin 14a), so ordained sages there are "Rabbi" and the sages of Bavel are "Rav" or "Mar." The Shelah lists the ladder: Rav, then Rabbi, then Rabban, and above them the name alone.
Who are the Rishonim and the Acharonim?
Rishonim ("the first ones") are the commentators and codifiers from about 1040 to 1500, like Rashi, Tosafot, the Rambam and the Ramban. Acharonim ("the later ones") are those from about 1500 on, most often dated from the Shulchan Aruch, through today.
Can a rabbi today disagree with the Gemara?
No. The Rambam writes in the introduction to the Mishneh Torah that everything in the Talmud Bavli binds every Jew, because all of Israel accepted it. Rulings made after the Talmud are different: there, he writes, we follow the better reasoning, earlier or later.
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