Judah b. Meremar

Who is Judah b. Meremar?

Judah b. Meremar was a seventh generetion Amora sage of Babylon, son of Maremar, dean of the Sura Yeshiva Academy. His rulings are mentioned in the Talmud, and so are his Halakhic habits, one of them concerning the law of "At his day thou shalt give him his hire", in which he tells his assistant to hire a laborer to work for him, and to commit that the landlord - he himself, Judah b. Meremar - would pay him. Since he feared he might violate the law of "At his day thou shalt give him his hire", it was a way for him not to hire the laborer, so he would not be bound to the this commandment.

He was considered a most honorable man. In that conjunction, it is storied that when Rav Papa was to marry off his son, to the daughter of his father in-law - Abba of Sura, and wanted to come to his in-laws house in order to discuss an agreed upon amount of Dowry that Abba of Sura would give his daughter, he met Judah b. Meremar. Rav Papa invited him to come in, but Judah b. Meremar refused, explaining that he did not want Abba of Sura to be ashamed because of him, and therefore would give his daughter more than he truly wishes. Rav Papa had pressed him further to enetr the hosuse, and then he accompanied him to the house of Abba of Sura. When Abba of Sura stated the Dowry's amount, and saw that Judah b. Meremar says nothing, he thought the reason for his silence is because Judah b. Meremar believes that the money he offered for the dowry of his daughter is too little, and he is angry, so he added more and more until he was practiclly handing most of his assets to his daughter. When he saw that he was still silent, he said to Judah b. Meremar: I left myself nothing, and you still want me to give more? and Judah b. Meremar replied: What you gave is already against my opinion, in my opinion you did not have so much to give, but since you already gave - you need not to retract.