The first generation of Amoraim (the sages of the Gemara). He sat before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the editor of the Mishnah, and went down to Bavel
רַב
Rav
Rav is the name the Gemara uses for a sage who is also called Abba Aricha. He was the nephew of Rabbi Chiya, he sat before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and he went down to Bavel (Babylonia). Rashi, the main commentary on the Gemara, says he set up a yeshiva in Sura. His colleague was Shmuel, and the Gemara has a rule for the cases where the two disagree: the law follows Rav in ritual law and Shmuel in money law. The Gemara also says of him: Rav is a Tanna, and he may disagree with a baraita, a teaching of the Tannaim (the sages of the time of the Mishnah).
EraAmora
LandBavel and Eretz Yisrael
PlaceSura
Who he was
Who was Rav?
He goes down to Bavel
When Rav was going down to Bavel (Babylonia), Rabbi Chiya said to Rabbi: my sister's son is going down to Bavel. (This page reads "Rabbi" with no other name as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the editor of the Mishnah. See the note on this under what we do not know.) Three short questions and answers follow. May he give rulings? He may. May he judge cases? He may. May he permit firstborn animals? He may not. Just before this the Gemara tells the same thing about Rabbah bar Chana, whom Rabbi Chiya calls "my brother's son". For him the third answer was: he may.
"When Rav was going down to Bavel, Rabbi Chiya said to Rabbi: my sister's son is going down to Bavel. "May he rule?" "He may rule." "May he judge?" "He may judge." "May he permit firstborns?" "He may not permit.""
Speaking: The Gemara, quoting Rabbi Chiya speaking to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi
When Isi bar Hini came up to Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Yochanan, an Amora of Eretz Yisrael, met him and asked: who is the head of the sidra in Bavel? (Rashi explains sidra in the next item.) Isi answered: Abba Aricha. Rabbi Yochanan said: you call him Abba Aricha? I remember when I sat seventeen rows behind Rav, in front of Rabbi. Sparks of fire went out from Rav's mouth to Rabbi's mouth and from Rabbi's mouth to Rav's mouth, and I did not know what they were saying. And you call him Abba Aricha?
Rashi explains the words of that passage. "Head of the sidra" means head of the yeshiva. Rav was called Aricha, which means long or tall, because he was tall for his generation, and Rashi points to tractate Niddah for this. Rabbi Yochanan's complaint was that Isi did not say "our master", in the language of honor. Rashi says the memory is from the time when Rav was still in Eretz Yisrael, before he went down to Bavel. And the sparks of fire mean that the two of them were going back and forth in the law.
אבא אריכא - רב קרי אריכא שארוך בדורו היה
"Abba Aricha: he calls Rav "Aricha" because he was tall in his generation."
Rabbi Abba said in the name of Rav Huna: we have made ourselves in Bavel like Eretz Yisrael for the laws of a get (a bill of divorce), from the time Rav came to Bavel.
Rashi explains what changed when Rav came: he set up a yeshiva in Sura, and Shmuel's yeshiva was in Nehardea. Rashi adds that Torah had never stopped in Bavel, from the time King Yechonya was exiled there.
מכי אתא רב לבבל - וקבע ישיבה בסורא ודשמואל הואי בנהרדעא
""From when Rav came to Bavel": and set up a yeshiva in Sura, and Shmuel's was in Nehardea."
A teaching of Rav is passed on in Pesachim with the words "Rav Yehuda said that Rav said": a person should always busy himself with Torah and mitzvot even if it is not for their own sake, because from doing them not for their own sake he comes to do them for their own sake.
"For Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: a person should always occupy himself with Torah and mitzvot even not for their own sake, because from not for their own sake he comes to for their own sake."
Speaking: The Gemara, quoting Rav Yehuda in Rav's name
The Gemara in Berakhot says Rav used to say this often: the World to Come is not like this world. In the World to Come there is no eating and no drinking, no having children, no business, no jealousy, no hatred and no rivalry. The righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and enjoy the glow of the Shekhinah, the presence of Hashem.
When Rav came to the court to judge, he would say: by his own will he goes out to death, he does not do what his household needs, and he comes back to his house empty. If only the coming in would be like the going out. The Gemara does not explain these words here.
"Rav, when he came to the court, would say this: by his own will he goes out to death, the wishes of his house he does not do, and empty he enters his house. If only the coming in would be like the going out."
Rashi explains each part. Rav was speaking about himself. "To death" means that a judge may come to carry a sin. He is not looking after the needs of his own house while he sits in court, and he earns nothing there. The last words mean: may I come back to my house the way I left it, without sin, and not make a mistake and be punished.
לקטלא - לישא עליו חטא ועל עצמו היה אומר
""To death": to carry a sin on himself. And he was saying it about himself."
his colleague in Bavel; the Gemara gives a rule for the cases where they disagree
Family
Rabbi Chiya
his uncle, who spoke to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi for him when he went down to Bavel
Family
Aivu
his father, according to Rashi
Family
Chiya
his son (not Rabbi Chiya, his uncle)
Teacher
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi
Rav sat before him. The passages opened here do not use the word teacher
Student
Rav Huna
Rashi calls Rav his teacher
His uncle, Rabbi Chiya
The Gemara asks why Rabbi Chiya called Rabbah bar Chana "my brother's son" and Rav "my sister's son". It quotes a teaching that Aivu, Chana, Sheila, Marta and Rabbi Chiya were all children of one father, Abba bar Acha Karsela of Kafri. It answers that Rav was the son of Rabbi Chiya's brother and also the son of his sister, and Rabbah bar Chana was the son of his brother but not of his sister. The Gemara does not explain here how that came to be. It then gives a second answer: Rabbi Chiya said "my sister's son" because of Rav's wisdom, as the verse says, "Say to wisdom: you are my sister."
Rashi, the main commentary on the Gemara, says that Aivu, the first name on that list of brothers and sisters, was Rav's father. Rashi points to a passage in tractate Pesachim for this.
Rav was reading out a section (the Gemara's word is sidra) in front of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Rabbi Chiya came in, and Rav went back to the beginning. Bar Kappara came in, and he went back to the beginning. Rabbi Shimon the son of Rabbi came in, and he went back to the beginning. Then Rabbi Chanina bar Chama came in. Rav said: should I go back so many times? He did not go back. Rabbi Chanina was offended. Rav went to him on thirteen eves of Yom Kippur, and Rabbi Chanina was not appeased.
In the story of the butcher, Rav Huna says "Abba is going". Rashi explains that word in one word: his teacher. So according to Rashi, Rav was the teacher of Rav Huna. Rashi also says there that it was the butcher who had wronged Rav, that the head was the head of an animal, and that the bone struck the butcher in the throat.
Rav's wife used to cause him distress. When he asked her to make him lentils she made him peas, and when he asked for peas she made him lentils. When his son Chiya grew up, he reversed his father's words when he passed them on to her. Rav said to him: your mother has become better. Chiya said: it is I who reverse it for her. Rav said: this is what people say, "the one who comes from you teaches you sense". But you should not do this, as the verse says, "They have taught their tongue to speak falsehood."
Rav ruled that pots used for chametz (leavened food) must be broken at Pesach. Shmuel ruled that they need not be broken. Shmuel told the pot sellers to make their prices even, or he would teach in public that the law follows Rabbi Shimon. (Rabbi Shimon is a Tanna. Rashi explains that Shmuel meant: do not raise the price above what the pots are worth. And according to Rabbi Shimon the old pots are permitted after Pesach.) The Gemara asks why he only warned them, since that was his own view, and answers in three words: it was Rav's place. The Gemara does not say more than that here.
When Rav died, his students went after him. On the way back they said: let us go and eat bread by the Danak river. After they ate, they sat and asked a question about a Mishnah on the blessings of a shared meal, and they did not know the answer. Rav Ada bar Ahava stood up, turned the tear in his garment to the back, and tore a new one. He said: Rav has died, and we have not learned the blessing after meals. In the end an old man came and answered their question.
Each story is told from one book, named under the quote.
Eighteen months with a shepherd
The Gemara asks why Rav was not allowed to permit firstborn animals. (A firstborn animal may be eaten only after an expert rules that it has a permanent blemish. That background is ours; the passage takes it for granted.) It was not for lack of wisdom, because the Gemara has just said he was very wise. Was it because he was not expert in blemishes? But Rav himself said that he spent eighteen months with a shepherd to learn which blemish is permanent and which blemish passes. The Gemara gives two answers. One: it was to give honor to Rabbah bar Chana. The other: Rav was too expert. He would permit blemishes that people do not know, people would say "Rav permitted one like this", and they would come to permit a blemish that passes.
The Gemara asks two questions. How could Rav ask forgiveness thirteen times, when Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina said one should not ask more than three times? It answers: Rav is different. And how could Rabbi Chanina refuse, when Rava said that whoever lets his own hurt pass is forgiven all his sins? It answers that Rabbi Chanina saw a dream in which Rav was stood up on a palm tree, and there is a tradition that whoever is stood up on a palm tree in a dream becomes a head. He understood that Rav was going to hold authority. So he was not appeased, in order that Rav would go and learn Torah in Bavel. (The Aramaic word can also be read as "teach".)
Rav had a quarrel with a certain butcher, and the butcher did not come to him. On the eve of Yom Kippur Rav said: I will go to make peace with him. Rav Huna met him and asked: where is the master going? Rav said: to make peace with so-and-so. Rav Huna said: Abba is going to kill a person. Rav went and stood over the butcher, who was sitting and splitting a head. The butcher lifted his eyes, saw him and said: are you Abba? Go, I have nothing to do with you. As he was splitting the head, a bone flew out, struck him and killed him.
Every item says who is making the claim: the Gemara itself, a classical commentator, or a modern writer.
The Gemara says
Rav is a Tanna and may disagree
A Tanna is a sage of the time of the Mishnah. An Amora is a sage of the Gemara, the time after it. A baraita is a teaching of the Tannaim that was not put into the Mishnah. In Ketubot, Rav Nachman reports that Rav said: grooms count toward the number of men needed (the Gemara's word is minyan), and mourners do not. A baraita is brought against this which says that grooms and mourners both count. The Gemara answers: are you raising a baraita against Rav? Rav is a Tanna, and he disagrees. The same baraita is then raised against Rabbi Yochanan, who said the same thing as Rav, and for him the Gemara gives a different answer. The Gemara does not explain here what it means to call Rav a Tanna.
The Gemara gives the same answer for Rav in Eruvin, in a case about how far a person may walk on Shabbat. A baraita seems to go against Rav. The Gemara asks: shall we say this refutes Rav? It answers: Rav is a Tanna, and he disagrees.
Rabbi Elazar came up to Eretz Yisrael, found Ze'iri, and asked him for the man who had taught Rav the law of udder. (The udder is meat that has milk inside it. That note is ours.) Ze'iri showed him Rav Yitzchak bar Avudimi, who said: I did not teach him udder at all, and Rav found an open valley and put a fence around it. The Gemara tells what happened. Rav came to a place called Tatlafush and heard one woman ask another how much milk is needed to cook a quarter measure of meat. He said: they have not learned that meat in milk is forbidden. He stayed there and forbade udders to them. The Gemara then says that this is how Rav Kahana taught it, and it brings a different version from Rabbi Yosei bar Abba.
וְרַב – בִּקְעָה מָצָא וְגָדַר בָּהּ גָּדֵר
"And Rav found an open valley and fenced it with a fence."
Speaking: Rav Yitzchak bar Avudimi, and then the Gemara telling the story
The same words are used again in Eruvin, in the laws of carrying on Shabbat. Rav Huna tells Rav Chanan bar Rava: do not disagree with me, because Rav came to a place called Damcharya and acted there the way I rule. Rav Chanan bar Rava answers: Rav found an open valley and put a fence around it. These two passages each use the phrase for one case. The Gemara does not state it as a general rule about Rav.
Rashi explains the phrase in Eruvin. The people of that place were unlearned and treated the mitzvot lightly. Rav was strict with them to make a safeguard that would keep them far from sin, like a person who fences a valley that is open, to guard it.
עמי הארצים היו ומזלזלי במצות והחמיר עליהן לעשות סייג להרחיקן מן העבירה כאדם הגודר בקעה פרוצה לשומרה
"They were unlearned and treated the mitzvot lightly, and he was strict with them to make a safeguard to keep them far from sin, like a person who fences a breached valley to guard it."
That rule has a limit. A man had eggs laid on Shabbat, with Yom Tov the next day, and asked Rav Papa whether he could eat them the next day. Rav Papa told him to come back tomorrow. The next day he said: if I had answered you yesterday, I might have made a mistake and told you "Rav and Rabbi Yochanan: the law follows Rabbi Yochanan". But Rava, a later Amora, said that the law follows Rav in these three cases, whether that makes the law easier or stricter.
These are general rules. The Gemara itself lists exceptions.
The Gemara says
Whose view is the law: Rav and Shmuel
The Gemara in Bekhorot states the rule: wherever Rav and Shmuel disagree, the law follows Rav in ritual law (what is forbidden and permitted) and follows Shmuel in money law. The same line gives an exception. In the case discussed there, about redeeming a firstborn son, the rule would give the law to Rav, and the Gemara says that here the law follows Shmuel.
"And even though we hold that wherever Rav and Shmuel disagree, the law is like Rav in ritual law and like Shmuel in money law, here the law is like Shmuel."
Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba wanted to act in a case according to Shmuel, thinking that this was the strict side. Rav Huna told him that this strictness would lead to a leniency, and said: act at least like Rav, because we hold that the law follows Rav in ritual law, whether that makes the law easier or stricter.
Rav said that an egg laid on Shabbat is forbidden on a Yom Tov (festival day) that comes right next to it, and the same the other way around. Rabbi Yochanan said it is permitted. Rav Ada bar Ahava's host had eggs that were laid on Yom Tov, with Shabbat the next day. He asked: may I roast them today and eat them tomorrow? Rav Ada bar Ahava said: what are you thinking? That when Rav and Rabbi Yochanan disagree, the law follows Rabbi Yochanan. Even Rabbi Yochanan permits the egg only on the next day, and not on the day it was laid. So Rav Ada bar Ahava speaks of this as a known rule. The Gemara here does not say where the rule comes from.
Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi). the editor of the Mishnah, in Eretz Yisrael. By the accepted convention, "Rabbi" with no other name is Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Rav sat before him. In Hebrew the two names are one letter apart: רבי and רב
"Rav" as a title. Rav Huna, Rav Yehuda, Rav Nachman, Rav Papa and many others are different people. "Rav" before another name is a title. In the passages quoted in this record, "Rav" standing alone as a name is this sage
Rava. a later Amora of Bavel. His name looks almost the same in Hebrew (רבא). In this record he is quoted twice: in Yoma, for the saying about letting one's hurt pass, and in Beitzah, where he says that in three cases the law follows Rav. In Berakhot the saying just before Rav's saying about the World to Come is Rava's
Rabbi Chiya and Chiya. Rabbi Chiya is Rav's uncle. Chiya, with no title in the story in Yevamot, is Rav's son
Rabbah bar Chana. the other nephew of Rabbi Chiya who went down to Bavel. The Gemara calls both of them sons of a brother of Rabbi Chiya. According to Rashi their fathers were two different brothers, Aivu and Chana, which makes them cousins
Honest limits
What the sources do not tell us
The passages opened for this page do not give the years of his birth or death.
The passages quoted here say only "Rabbi". That "Rabbi" with no other name is Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the editor of the Mishnah, is the accepted convention. No source for it was opened for this page.
The Gemara passages opened here do not name Sura. That he set up his yeshiva in Sura is from Rashi.
The Gemara in Sanhedrin says he was the son of Rabbi Chiya's brother and also of Rabbi Chiya's sister, but it does not explain how, and it does not name his mother.
The Gemara in Yoma does not say what the quarrel with the butcher was about. Rashi says the butcher had wronged Rav. The Gemara also does not say which section Rav was reading before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Rashi says a sidra is a passage from the Prophets or the Writings.
The passages opened here do not use the word "student" for Rav Huna or Rav Yehuda, and do not use the word "teacher" for Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. Rashi calls Rav the teacher of Rav Huna. For Rav Yehuda the record shows only that he reports a teaching of Rav. The Gemara does speak of "his students" in general, in the story after his death.
The Gemara in Beitzah does not list the three cases where the law follows Rav against Rabbi Yochanan in the line quoted. Rashi lists them.
The Gemara does not explain what it means that Rav "is a Tanna", and no commentator on those words was opened for this page.
No passage opened here says in so many words that he belongs to the first generation of Amoraim. The record places him there because he sat before Rabbi and was the colleague of Shmuel.
Last checked 2026-10-12. Found a mistake? Tell us.
Every Hebrew and Aramaic quote on this page was checked by script against the passage it cites.
The texts come from Sefaria: the Talmud Bavli is
the William Davidson Edition (Koren Publishers, vowels by Dicta, CC BY-NC), and the Mishnah is the
Torat Emet edition. English translations and explanations are Torah Tech originals, and any
mistakes are ours.
This page is for learning. It is not a halachic ruling.
The Opportunity Year · Tel Aviv, Israel
Learn like this for a year
Torah Tech is a yeshiva and tech program in Tel Aviv. Mornings in the beit midrash,
afternoons interning at Israeli startups, and a year that changes what a young man
thinks he is capable of.