Early Amoraim
Join Rabbi David Sedley as he explores the lives and teachings of the two pairs of rabbis who began transforming the Mishna into Talmud, Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish in Eretz Yisrael, and Rav and Shmuel in Babylon.
Early Amoraim: Rabbi Yochanan
In this class I speak about Rabbi Yochanan’s difficult life filled with suffering, his great love for Torah, and his efforts to establish the correct form of the mishna and the halacha.
We also touch on stories of Rabbi Yochanan, and the infamous incident with Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Kahana.
Early Amoraim: Reish Lakish
Reish Lakish, or Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, became the companion and lifelong study partner of Rabbi Yochanan. For a time he was a gladiator. He was strong and powerful and unafraid. In this class we learn about his life, some of his teachings, and his tragic end.
Early Amoraim: Rav (Rav Abba bar Aibo or Abba Arikha)
Early Amoraim: Shmuel
Shmuel was a colleague of Rav, and was the Rosh Yeshiva of Neharde’a in Bavel.
He was a doctor and astronomer and was able to set the fixed calendar based on rules which we still use today.
He was also very close to King Shapur I, the second Sasanian King of the Persian Empire.
Rabbi David Sedley lives in Jerusalem with his wife and six children. He was born and raised in New Zealand before making Aliya in 1992. He left Israel temporarily (for eight years) to serve as a communal Rabbi in Scotland and England and returned to Israel in 2004. His latest book is "The Elephant of Deliberate Forgetfulness: and other unexpected interpretations of the weekly Torah reading". He has also translated Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary on Pirkei Avos and is the co-author of Sefiros: Spiritual Refinement Through Counting the Omer (both Judaica Press). Over the years Rabbi Sedley has worked as a journalist, a translator, a video director and in online reputation management. He also writes a weekly Torah blog on the Times of Israel.