Rami bar Hama

Who is Rami bar Hama?

Rami bar Hama was a Babylonian amora of the third generation, a pupil of R. Ḥisda, and a fellow student of Rava, who was somewhat his junior.

He frequently addressed questions to R. Ḥisda. R. Ḥisda once asked him a question to which Rami found an answer in a mishnah; R. Ḥisda thereupon rewarded him by rendering him a personal service. He was also associated with R. Naḥman, whom he often endeavored to refute. Rami married the daughter of his teacher Ḥisda; when he died, at an early age, his colleague Rava married his widow. Rava declared that his premature death was a punishment for having affronted Manasseh b. Taḥlifa, a student of the Law, by treating him as an ignoramus.

Rami b. Ḥama was possessed of rare mental acuteness, but Rava asserted that his unusual acumen led him to reach his conclusions too hastily. He attempted to decide questions independently, and would not always search for a mishnah or baraita to support an opinion. His pupil Isaac b. Judah left him, therefore, to study under R.