Person
Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani רבי שמואל בר נחמני
an aggadist who travelled to Babylonia to declare the leap year
A student of Rabbi Jonathan ben Elazar. He was born at the beginning of the third century and died at the beginning of the fourth. He is connected with Tiberias and with Paneas.
In his old age he went to the court of Queen Zenobia to beg pardon for an orphaned youth who had committed a grave political offence. About 286, by order of Diocletian, he accompanied the patriarch to Tiberias. Aramaic laments for the ruined Temple are his. His sons were Nahman and Hillel.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Jerusalem Talmud and the Midrashim, passim — the aggadah of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani
Scholarship
- The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) — the years, the journeys to Babylonia and the plea before Zenobia
Basis: Talmud and midrash.