Rabbi Ami רבי אמי
head of the Tiberias academy after Rabbi Yochanan
Rabbi Ami bar Natan came from Babylonia, studied under Rabbi Yochanan in Tiberias, and after his death stood at the head of the academy. The Talmud, sorting out the generation, names the pair: "the judges of the Land of Israel—Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi" (Sanhedrin 17b); both were priests, and the Talmud calls them "the weightiest of the priests of the Land of Israel".
His name carries the care for children: he and Rabbi Asi went round the towns checking whether there was a teacher of Scripture and a teacher of Mishnah—a town without teachers they ruled to be destroyed from within (Yerushalmi Chagigah 1:7).
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sanhedrin 17b — «the judges of the Land — Ami and Asi»
- Yerushalmi Chagigah 1:7 — inspecting towns for teachers
Basis: Talmud and midrash.