Rav Acha bar Yaakov רב אחא בר יעקב
he who overcame the seven-headed demon of the study house
Rav Acha bar Yaakov was a Babylonian Amora, a disciple of Rav Huna, known for the sharpness of his analysis: the Talmud more than once lets his objection stand as decisive.
The best-known account of him concerns Abaye's study house, where a demon dwelt that harmed even those who entered in pairs in broad daylight. When Rav Acha came to the town, Abaye ordered that he be given no lodging—so that he would go to sleep in the study house: "perhaps a miracle will occur". The demon appeared to him as a seven-headed serpent; Rav Acha prayed, and with every bow a head fell away. In the morning he told the students: "Had a miracle not occurred, you would have put me in danger" (Kiddushin 29b). The Talmud leaves both truths standing side by side—the miracle and the reproach.
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
- Kiddushin 29b — the demon in Abaye's study house
Rishonim
- Seder Tannaim ve-Amoraim — the list of the sages by generation, put together about 884
Basis: Talmud and midrash.