Rav Ashi

Lore & Background

According to a tradition preserved in the academies, Rav Ashi was born in the same year that Rava died, and he was the first important teacher in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia after Rava's death. Simai, Ashi's father, was a rich and learned man, a student of the college of Naresh near Sura, which was directed by Rav Pappa, Rava's disciple. Ashi's teacher was Rav Kahana, a member of the same college, who later became president of the academy at Pumbedita. Ashi married the daughter of Rami bar Hama, or Rami b. Abba according to other texts. Ashi was rich and influential, owning many properties and forests. The Talmud gives him as an example of 'Torah and greatness combined in one place', and he had authority even over the exilarch Huna bar Nathan. While still young, Rav Ashi became the head of the Sura Academy, his great learning being acknowledged by the older teachers. It had been closed since Rav Chisda's death (309), but under Rav Ashi it once again became the intellectual center of the Babylonian Jews. Ashi contributed to its material grandeur also, rebuilding the academy and the synagogue connected with it in Mata Mehasya, sparing no expense and personally superintending their reconstruction. As a direct result of Rav Ashi's renown, the Exilarch came annually to Sura in the month after Rosh Hashana to receive the respects of the assembled representatives of the Babylonian academies and congregations. These festivities and other conventions in Sura were so splendid that Rav Ashi expressed his surprise that some of the Gentile residents of Sura were not tempted to accept Judaism. Sura maintained the prominence conferred on it by Rav Ashi for several centuries, and only during the last two centuries of the Gaonic period did Pumbedita again become its rival. Rav Ashi's son Tabyomi (known as Mar bar Rav Ashi) was a recognized scholar, but only in 455, 28 years after his father's death, did he receive the position that his father had so successfully filled for more than half a century. His commanding personality, his scholarly standing, and wealth are sufficiently indicated by the saying, then current, that since the days of Rabbi Judah haNasi, learning and social distinction were never so united in one person as in Rav Ashi. Indeed, just as Judah haNasi compiled and edited the Mishnah; Rav Ashi made it the labor of his life to collect and edit under the

Reader's Guide

Some ultra-Orthodox Jews from the Breslov Hasidic sect believe Rav Ashi is buried at a site on the Lebanese Mount Shanan on the border with Israel overlooking Kibbutz Manara. Local Lebanese people dispute this, believing that a 16th century Shia Muslim cleric named Sheikh Abbad is buried there. In May 2000, when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon, the main obstacle holding up the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers along the border was the allocation of this disputed site. It was among the last to be settled between the State of Israel and Lebanon. One option was to erect a barricade around the tomb to prevent Muslims and Jews from visiting the site. Subsequent to the Blue Line drawn by the United Nations, the border fence cuts through the middle of the disputed tomb. In February 2025, during the fragile Israel–Lebanon ceasefire after Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it became public that a group of Haredi Israelis entered Lebanese territory to reach the believed tomb, undertook work on the grave and fenced it off. They tried to turn it into a place for prayer and worship. It was not specified when they entered nor the amount of time they spent inside Lebanon.

Did You Know?

• The original pronunciation of his name may have been Asheh, as suggested by the rhyming of his name with 'Mosheh' in Maimonides' writings.
• A talmid chacham who is not as strong as iron is not a talmid chacham.
• Whoever is arrogant is blemished.