Rabbi Yitzchak Nappacha רבי יצחק נפחא
the smith of the word: halakhah and aggadah at once
Rabbi Yitzchak Nappacha ("the smith") was an Amora of Rabbi Yochanan's circle, equally strong in law and in exposition. The classic scene: Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi sit before him, one asking halakhah, the other aggadah, each interrupting the other's share; he answers with the parable of the two wives—the young one plucked her husband's grey hairs, the old one the black, and he was left bald—and then finds a verse yielding law and consolation at once (Bava Kamma 60b).
His expositions of fire—"the fire of My bones" and the fire of another—entered the analysis of liability for blazes; the scene with the two petitioners stands there.
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
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Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Kamma 60b — the two-wives parable: halakhah and aggadah
Rishonim
- Seder Tannaim ve-Amoraim — the list of the sages by generation, put together about 884
Basis: Talmud and midrash.