Rabbah bar Nahmani

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RABBAH BAR NAHMANI

RABBAH BAR NAHMANI (d. around 330 ce), a third-generation Babylonian amora, rabbinical colleague of Yosef bar Ḥiyyaʾ and Ḥisdaʾ. Rabbah studied with Hunaʾ and several other Babylonians, including Yehudah bar Yeḥezqeʾl and, some modern scholars argue, with Yoḥanan bar Nappaḥaʾ in Palestine. After Yehudah's death, Rabbah began a twenty-two-year career as the head of a circle of students and a court in the city of Pumbedita. Serving as a judge, he had authority to impose rabbinic law in the marketplace and in various civil, property, and communal matters (B.T., Ḥul. 43b; Neusner, 1969).

Rabbah taught his disciples Torah, including everyday practical advice, lectured to them in the kallah gatherings (B.T., B.M. 86a), and, in his court, trained them as apprentice judges. His support for rabbinical privileges such as a tax exemption apparently brought him into conflict with the exilarch (lay leader considered to be of Davidic descent) (Neusner, 1969). His devotion to Torah study (see, e.g., B.T., ʿEruv. 22a) and his sinless character reportedly gave him special access to the divine—the ability to call upon God to revive the dead (B.T., Meg. 7b), to receive teachings from Elijah, and to be protected from demons (B.T., Ḥul. 105b). Perceived as a strict follower of the law who reproved the community, he was reportedly disliked in certain circles (B.T., Shab. 153a).

Some stories regarding Rabbah's life apparently served to counter less flattering accounts. For example, one text describing Rabbah's death after government agents had pursued him for inciting mass tax evasion justifies his early death: Miraculously protected from malicious humans, Rabbah died early in life only because he was needed in the heavenly study session to resolve a dispute (B.T., B.M. 86a).

Rabbah was noted for the dialectical sharpness with which he analyzed and supplemented received teachings (B.T., Ber. 64a). To render the Mishnah smoothly, he emended it or read in elliptical language (Epstein, 1964). Similarly, on the basis of his own views, he revised baraitot (texts purporting to represent extra-Mishnaic tannaitic teachings) and other earlier traditions that students cited before him. Although he treated numerous halakhic (legal) topics from ritual, civil, and even purity laws no longer in effect, few of his preserved dicta deal with aggadic (non-halakhic) matters.

Bibliography

A comprehensive treatment and bibliography of Rabbah and his teachings can be found in Jacob Neusner's A House of the Jews in Babylinia, 5 vols. (Leiden, 1966–1970), esp. vol. 4. Noteworthy, too, are Jacob N. Epstein's Mavoʾ le-nusaḥ ha-Mishnah, 2 vols. (1948; reprint, Jerusalem, 1964), pp. 363–368, and David M. Goodblatt's Rabbinic Instruction in Sasanian Babylonia (Leiden, 1975).