Amoraim אמוראים
The sages of the Talmud—eight generations in Babylonia and the Land of Israel who expounded the Mishna for three centuries.
Amora means "speaker" or "expounder": originally the man who declaimed a sage's lesson to the assembly. The era begins immediately after the Mishna, around 3980, and lasts until the Talmud is sealed around 4260.
Amoraim do not dispute the tannaim; their authority is different. They explain the Mishna, find its sources, reconcile contradictions and derive new cases. The work went on in two centres at once. In the Land of Israel, Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish in Tiberias, from whom the Jerusalem Talmud came. In Babylonia, Rav and Shmuel at Sura and Nehardea, then Abaye and Rava at Pumbedita, and finally Rav Ashi and Ravina.
Travelling scholars carried traditions between the centres. The difference in method is visible: the Babylonian school sharper and more abstract, the Palestinian closer to practice.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Metzia 84a — Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish — how the Amoraim learned
- Chullin 110a — the sages’ journeys between Babylonia and the Land of Israel
- Sanhedrin 24a — “He has set me in dark places” — on the Babylonian Talmud
Rishonim
- the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — the chronicle of the generations of the Amoraim
Basis: Talmud and midrash.