Rabbah bar Nachmani רַבָּה בַּר נַחְמָנִי

First the confusion, because it is universal. Four different sages are constantly merged into one:

· Rabbah bar Nachmani—this man. Pumbedita, third generation, d. c. 4082 AM. In the Babylonian Talmud he is almost always simply "Rabbah." · Rava (Rava bar Yosef bar Chama)—his student, head of Machoza, fourth generation, link 39, that is, one step later in the chain. Rav Hai Gaon explains the difference phonetically: "Rabbah" from abba, "Rava" from Aramaic ava; the manuscripts interchange them constantly, and Rashi and the Tosafists give rules for telling them apart. · Rabbah bar bar Chana—third generation, a student of Rabbi Yochanan who brought the traditions of the Land of Israel to Babylonia, famous for the tales at Bava Batra 73a–74a. Maimonides names him in the Introduction separately from our Rabbah. · Rabbah bar Rav Huna—son of Rav Huna, a contemporary, a different man.

Add Rabbah Tosfa'ah, an amora of far later date, and the confusion is complete.

"Sinai" and "uprooter of mountains"—and who actually took the chair. Berakhot 64a. The sugya opens with Rabbi Avin ha-Levi: "whoever forces the moment, the moment forces him; and whoever yields to the moment, the moment yields to him." Then: "Rav Yosef is Sinai and Rabbah is the uprooter of mountains. They had need of the hour; they sent there: Sinai or the uprooter of mountains—which of them takes precedence? … Sinai takes precedence," for "all need the owner of the wheat." But Rav Yosef refused the office, because the astrologers had told him he would reign only two years. "Rabbah reigned twenty-two years; Rav Yosef reigned two years and a half." That is: the ruling went to Rav Yosef and the office went to Rabbah—and that is exactly what the retellings lose. And all Rabbah's years, Rav Yosef would not summon even a bloodletter to his house, out of deference. The same at Horayot 14a.

The arithmetic is strained, and it is worth saying so: twenty-two years at the head, on a lifespan of forty, means he was appointed at eighteen. There is another reckoning—appointed at thirty-eight, died at sixty—but it requires discarding the direct testimony of the forty years.

The twelve thousand—whose figure it is. Bava Metzia 86a: the denunciation to the Persian court—"there is one man among the Jews who keeps twelve thousand men of Israel from the king's poll-tax, one month in summer and one month in winter." This is the kallah, the month-long assembly held twice a year—and the figure belongs to the informers, not to the redactor. The resident academy was smaller: Ketubot 106a lists how many sages stayed behind after the assembly dispersed—in Rav's day twelve hundred, in Rav Huna's eight hundred, in Rabbah's and Rav Yosef's four hundred, and they called themselves orphans; in Abaye's, Rav Pappa's and Rav Ashi's two hundred, "orphans of orphans." Twelve thousand and four hundred are different things and should not be conflated.

His death—Bava Metzia 86a, and it is the strongest passage about him. It opens: "Rabbah bar Nachmani died on account of a persecution." A royal bailiff is sent and cannot find him. Then the flight is named stage by stage: from Pumbedita to Akra, from Akra to Agma, from Agma to Shichin, from Shichin to Tzerifa, from Tzerifa to Eina de-Maya, and from Eina de-Maya back to Pumbedita, where he is found. When the table was removed from before the bailiff his face was twisted backwards; Rabbah had them serve him one cup and remove the table, and he was healed—from which he understood: "I know that the man I am looking for is here." Rabbah is locked in a chamber; "he prayed for mercy, the wall split, and he fled to the marsh."

There he sits on the stump of a palm-trunk and studies. "And in the academy of heaven they were disputing: if the bright spot preceded the white hair—impure; and if the white hair preceded the bright spot—pure. In case of doubt, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: pure, and the whole academy of heaven says: impure. And they said: who shall decide? Rabbah bar Nachmani shall decide, for Rabbah bar Nachmani said: I am unique in the laws of leprous marks, I am unique in the laws of tents." Note what the dispute is about: not the clear cases—those are stated as settled law—but the doubt.

The Angel of Death could not approach him, because his mouth never ceased from his study. And then a wind blew and rustled among the reeds; he thought it a troop of horsemen, and said: "let that man's soul rest, and let it not be delivered into the hands of the kingdom." He chose death over capture—and the rustle of reeds killed him.

"As his soul departed he said: pure, pure. A heavenly voice went out and said: happy are you, Rabbah bar Nachmani, that your body is pure and your soul went out with tahor." He decided the dispute against the whole academy of heaven, with the Holy One, blessed be He. And a note fell from heaven in Pumbedita: "Rabbah bar Nachmani has been summoned to the academy on high"—the line from which the ordinary Hebrew idiom for a scholar's death descends.

"Abaye and Rava and all the rabbis went out to attend to him. They did not know his place. They went to the marsh and saw birds standing and casting shade." They eulogised him three days and three nights; a note fell: "whoever departs shall be under ban." They eulogised seven days; a note fell: "go to your homes in peace." The three days are the first stage, the seven the whole; "three days of mourning" retells half the story.

Forty years, and poverty. Rosh Hashanah 18a: "Rabbah and Abaye were descended from the house of Eli. Rabbah, who occupied himself with Torah, lived forty years; Abaye, who occupied himself with Torah and with acts of kindness, lived sixty years." The house of Eli lay under the sentence of dying young (1 Sam 2:31–33); Torah bought Rabbah forty years, Torah with kindness bought Abaye sixty. Moed Katan 28a: "Rav Chisda lived ninety-two years, Rabbah lived forty. In Rav Chisda's house, sixty weddings; in Rabbah's house, sixty bereavements. In Rav Chisda's house, fine flour for the dogs and not wanted; in Rabbah's house, barley bread for people and not to be had." And Shabbat 30b: before opening his lecture he would say something humorous to the rabbis, and the rabbis were gladdened. A man who lived forty poor years and opened with a joke.

Abaye and Rava. Both were his students: Bava Metzia 86a ("Abaye and Rava went out"), Berakhot 48a ("Abaye and Rava were sitting before Rabbah"), and Maimonides says it plainly: "among the sages who received from Rabbah and Rav Yosef were Abaye and Rava." Abaye was an orphan: Kiddushin 31b says that Rabbi Yochanan saw neither father nor mother—"when his mother conceived him his father died, and when she bore him his mother died; and the same is true of Abaye"—and resolves Abaye's standing formula "my mother told me": that was his foster-mother. That the foster-household was Rabbah's, and that Abaye was his nephew, son of Rabbah's brother Kaylil, is Rashi's identification and not the gemara's, and it should be cited as Rashi.

No source gives his birth or death year. The Jewish Encyclopedia puts his birth about 270 and his death about 330; English Wikipedia about 320; from the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon 321/322 is usually derived. The database carries about 4082 AM (322 CE) rather than an exact figure, and the range in the literature is 320–330. His age, by contrast, is stated outright: forty years.

And one thing about his learning. He knew all six orders, but the first authority he is on leprous marks and purity—by his own word. There is little aggadah from him, some ten statements: he is a halakhist almost entirely. And he is not the author of Bereshit Rabbah or of any midrash—a real error of the older popular literature.