Shmuel was a sage of the first generation of the Gemara in Bavel (Babylonia), and his city was Nehardea. His colleague was Rav, 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. He is the one quoted for the rule that the law of the kingdom is law. He was also a doctor, and he said that he knew the paths of the sky and could work out the calendar.
Shmuel's city was Nehardea, a Jewish city in Bavel (Babylonia). In Berakhot, a tractate of the Gemara, he says that the paths of the sky are as clear to him as the paths of Nehardea. He adds one exception: he does not know what a comet is.
The Gemara in Bava Metzia calls him Shmuel Yarchina'ah. Rashi, the main commentary on the Gemara, explains the name: this is Shmuel bar Abba, the colleague of Rav, and he was called Yarchina'ah because he was an expert in the secret rules of the calendar. Rashi points to Shmuel's own words in Rosh Hashanah, that he could set things right for the whole exile. (Yarcha is the Aramaic word for month. That note is ours, not Rashi's.)
Shmuel's father sold his produce at the time of the early price, at the early price. Shmuel kept his produce and sold it at the time of the late price, but still at the early price. (The early price is the lower one. That note is ours; the Gemara does not spell it out.) The Gemara in Bava Batra adds that they sent word from there, meaning Eretz Yisrael, that the father's way was better than the son's, because once a price has eased it stays eased.
An ox gored a cow, her calf was found beside her, and it is not known whether she gave birth before the goring or after it. The Mishnah has the owner of the ox pay half the damage for the cow and a quarter for the calf. Rav Yehuda said in Shmuel's name that this Mishnah is only the view of Sumchus, who says doubtful money is split. But the Sages say: this is a great rule in law, the one who wants to take money from another person has to bring the proof. In the next claim the Gemara uses this same rule to explain a ruling of Shmuel himself.
Rabbi Chiya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that all the prophets prophesied only about the days of the Messiah. The Gemara in Berakhot says this disagrees with Shmuel. Shmuel said there is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah except subjugation to the kingdoms. His proof is the verse "the poor will never cease from the land".
Shmuel said that anyone who sits and fasts is called a sinner. The Gemara in Taanit says he holds like the Tanna (a sage of the Mishnah period) Rabbi Elazar HaKappar, who learns this from the nazir: the Torah calls the nazir a sinner only for holding back from wine, so someone who holds back from everything all the more so. The Gemara there also brings a different sage, Rabbi Elazar, who says the opposite: such a person is called holy.
Each link below has a passage behind it.
His father is called Avuha diShmuel, "the father of Shmuel", in the Gemara. This story in Berakhot gives his name as Abba bar Abba. People used to leave orphans' money with him for safekeeping. He died when Shmuel was not with him, and people began to call Shmuel the son of a man who ate orphans' money. The Gemara tells that Shmuel went to the cemetery and asked for his father, and his father told him the money was in the base of the millstone: the top and bottom layers were the family's own and the orphans' money was in the middle, so that if thieves stole or the earth ruined some of it, the loss would be the family's. The Gemara brings the story as a proof that the dead know what happens in this world, and then says that Shmuel may be a special case.
Women who had been taken captive were brought to Nehardea, and Shmuel's father set guards to protect them. Shmuel asked: and who guarded them until now? His father answered: if they were your daughters, would you speak of them so lightly? The Gemara in Ketubot says these words came true. Shmuel's own daughters were taken captive and brought to Eretz Yisrael. They came to the study hall of Rabbi Chanina, each one said that she had been captured and was pure, and he permitted them.
Rav was Shmuel's colleague (see Rashi in the claim on the name Yarchina'ah), and the Gemara records many disputes between them (see the rule about their disputes below). When Shmuel was told that Rav had died, he tore twelve garments over him and said: the man I stood in awe of is gone.
Rav Yehuda (Rav Yehuda bar Yechezkel) passes on many of Shmuel's teachings with the words "Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said" (two examples are quoted in this record, about the myrtle sellers and about the Sages' rule of proof). Shmuel calls him Shinena, a nickname this passage does not explain. Here Shmuel tells him: open your mouth and read the verses, open your mouth and learn, so that your learning stays with you and you live long.
When Shmuel and Mar Ukva sat and learned, Mar Ukva sat before Shmuel, four cubits away. When they sat in court, it was the other way around: Shmuel sat before Mar Ukva, four cubits away. The Gemara does not say why.
Rashi explains the seating. In learning, Mar Ukva sat like a student before Shmuel, because Shmuel was greater in Torah than Mar Ukva. In court Shmuel sat before Mar Ukva because Mar Ukva was the nasi. (Nasi is a title of office. Rashi does not explain it further here.)
Each story is told from one book, named under the quote.
Shmuel was the doctor of Rabbi, which is how the Gemara refers to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the editor of the Mishnah. Rabbi had an eye illness. Shmuel offered to put medicine into the eye, and Rabbi said he could not bear it. He offered to spread a salve on it, and Rabbi said he could not bear that either. So Shmuel put the medicine in a tube under Rabbi's pillow, and he was healed.
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi was troubled that he wanted to ordain Shmuel (give him semikhah, the formal title of Rabbi) and it never worked out. Shmuel told him not to be troubled. In the passages quoted in this record he is in fact called Shmuel or Mar Shmuel, and not Rabbi.
Shmuel went on to tell Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi that he had seen the book of Adam, the first man, and that this was written in it about himself: Shmuel Yarchina'ah will be called a wise man and will not be called Rabbi, and Rabbi's healing will come through him.
The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah is discussing how the new month is fixed. Shmuel said: I am able to set things right for the whole exile. The Gemara here does not say what he would set right. Rashi, in his comment on the name Yarchina'ah (see that claim), brings these words as proof that Shmuel was expert in the secret rules of the calendar. (That he means working out the months for Jews who lived far from the court in Eretz Yisrael is our explanation, not Rashi's words there.)
Right after that, Abba the father of Rabbi Simlai asked Shmuel whether he knew a certain teaching from the secret rules of the calendar, about a new moon that is born before midday or after midday. Shmuel said: no. Abba answered: since you do not know this, there are other things you do not know.
Every item says who is making the claim: the Gemara itself, a classical commentator, or a modern writer.
Rav ruled that pots used for chametz (leavened food) must be broken at Pesach. Shmuel ruled that they need not be broken: keep them until after Pesach and then use them again. The Gemara says Shmuel "follows his own reasoning", and links this to what he told the pot sellers: keep your prices fair, or I will teach in public that the law follows Rabbi Shimon.
Rashi fills in what the Gemara leaves unsaid. The pots were being sold after Pesach. Shmuel was telling the sellers not to raise the price above what the pots were worth. And teaching like Rabbi Shimon would mean that the old pots are permitted after Pesach.
The Gemara asks: Shmuel does agree with Rabbi Shimon, so why did he only warn the sellers and not simply teach it in public? It answers in three words: it was Rav's place. The Gemara does not say more than that here.
Rav Yehuda said in Shmuel's name that the law follows Rabbi Tarfon, who allows myrtle branches for the lulav even if their tops are cut off. Here too the Gemara says Shmuel "follows his own reasoning": he told the myrtle sellers to sell at a fair price, or he would teach in public that the law follows Rabbi Tarfon. Each of these two passages makes its own link. The Gemara does not connect the pots to the myrtles; putting the two side by side is our observation.
The same passage gives an exception. A father gave the kohen the money to redeem his firstborn son before the baby was 30 days old, to take effect after 30 days, and by then the money had been used up. Rav says the son is redeemed and Shmuel says he is not. The Gemara says that even though the rule would give this case to Rav, here the law follows Shmuel.
The Mishnah in Bava Kamma says one may not take change from the tax collectors' box or accept charity from them. The Gemara objects with a rule of Shmuel that it quotes in several tractates: dina d'malkhuta dina, the law of the kingdom is law. If so, a tax the government sets is lawful, and the money in the box is not stolen.
Rashi explains why that Mishnah forbids taking change from the tax collectors' box or from the collectors' purse: because the money in them is stolen money. The Gemara's question from Shmuel's rule is asked against that.
The answer is given in Shmuel's own name by Rabbi Chanina bar Kahana: the Mishnah is talking about a tax collector who has no fixed rate. So the rule covers a set, lawful tax. It does not cover a collector who takes whatever he wants.
A man sold an ox and it turned out to be an ox that gores. Rav says it is a sale made in error, because most people buy an ox for plowing. Shmuel says the seller can answer: I sold it to you for slaughter. The Gemara states his reason: we follow the majority in ritual law, but in money law we do not follow the majority, and the one who wants to take money must bring the proof.
These are general rules. The Gemara itself lists exceptions.
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.
Rabbi Yehuda forbids a mourner to cut his nails and Rabbi Yose permits it. Shmuel ruled like Rabbi Yose, and the Gemara in Moed Katan gives his reason: Shmuel said that in the laws of mourning, the law follows whoever is lenient.
Last checked 2026-10-11. 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.
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