Rav Dimi רב דימי
the nachota: carrier of Torah from Tiberias to Pumbedita
"Nechutei", "those who go down", was the name for the Amoraim who travelled between the Land of Israel and Babylonia with a cargo of oral teachings; Rav Dimi is the first of them by count of mentions. The formula "ki ata Rav Dimi"—"when Rav Dimi came"—occurs hundreds of times in the Talmud (e.g. Berakhot 44a): it opens a fresh version of the words of Rabbi Yochanan, Rabbi Elazar or Reish Lakish, often overturning what Pumbedita had taught before his arrival.
Sometimes there follows "Ravin came and said otherwise"—and the study house chose between the two carriers. On these corrections rests much of the comparison of the Babylonian Talmud with the Yerushalmi: one can see what changed en route.
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
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Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Berakhot 44a and many others — «when Rav Dimi came»
Rishonim
- Seder Tannaim ve-Amoraim — the list of the sages by generation, put together about 884
Basis: Talmud and midrash.