Rav Zevid רב זביד

Rav Zevid of Nehardea took the headship of Pumbedita after Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak and held it until his death. The Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon—the very letter from which we know the order of the heads of the Babylonian academies—sets his headship between the years 4137 and 4145—eight years.

In the Talmud his word often comes marked "and Rav Zevid taught thus": he is one of those in whom one sees how Rava's disciples dispersed among the academies and carried the teaching on. His too is one of the explanations of the order of the Torah reading and an analysis of the laws of festival rejoicing.

His generation is no longer dispute for its own sake but compilation: after him will come Rav Ashi and Ravina, and what in Rav Zevid's day still sounded as voices will become a page.

The years are taken from the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon—the letter of 4747 (987), the only source in which the age of the Savoraim is set out by name and year. There is no other testimony, and that should be kept in mind.