Rav Sheshet רב ששת

Rav Sheshet studied under Rav Huna and lived at Nehardea and Shilhi. He was blind—the Talmud says so plainly and more than once—and this made his strength: unable to consult a written note, he held whole baraitot in memory.

Hence his manner in argument. Against those who reasoned he set a source, and his sharpness is remembered: of a man relying on acuteness without knowledge of the traditions he said that he "builds on nothing". And of himself, when his teaching was challenged: "I am neither a man nor an expounder, but a gatherer: recite me a baraita".

The Talmud also records the human side: how he sat in the sun after recovering and, asked what he was doing, said he rejoiced as though he had come out of darkness anew. And how during a royal procession, when all were looking, he alone was listening—and announced the king's approach before the sighted (Berakhot 58a).

The sources give no years; the generation is the third Babylonian, a contemporary of Rav Nachman and Rav Chisda.