Rava

Fourth Generation Amora. The Rava mentioned simply in the Gemara is Rava bar Yosef bar Hama. He was Abaye's disputant. His teachers were Rabba and R' Hisda. His primary teacher was R' Yosef, and he lived for another 28 years after R' Yosef passed away. In total, he lived for nearly 74 years. Rabbeinu Nissim wrote: Rava is called the master of the Gemara more than anyone else. He was born on the day R' Yehudah bar Yehezkel passed away [קידושין ע"ב:]. His place was in Mehoza in Babylonia. He married the daughter of R' Hisda and was the head of the yeshiva for 14 years.

His Praises and Sayings

R' Yitzhak said: The Son of David will not come until the entire kingdom turns to heresy! Rava said: From where do we learn this? It is written: "It has all turned white, he is clean" [ויקרא יג, יג]. Meaning: When the plague of tzara'at spread over all the skin, "it has all turned white," then "he is clean"! So too, when heresy spreads throughout the government in the last generation and they turn into heretics, then "he is clean"! Meaning: the Redemption will come. [סנהדרין צ"ז.] Rava said: And so it was taught in the Beit Midrash of R' Yishmael: Until the age of twenty, the Holy One, blessed be He, waits for a man, when will he marry a woman! Once he reaches the age of twenty and has not married, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "May his bones be swollen." Rava asked his brother R' Sa'oram to appease the Angel of Death, so that he would not trouble him on the day of his death. Similarly, R' Nahman asked Rava to ask the angel not to trouble him. [פסחים ע"א]. When Rava would take leave of his teacher R' Yosef, he would walk backward until his feet were wounded by the threshold of R' Yosef's door, and the entire threshold was washed with blood! Since R' Yosef was "blind" and did not see this, the students told him about it, and R' Yosef blessed Rava thus: "May it be His will that your head be raised above all others!" And Rava was appointed head of the yeshiva [יומא נ"ג.]

Devotion to Torah

One Sadducee saw Rava during his study, and his fingers were placed under his feet and pressed until blood came out of them! Rava, due to the intensity of his immersion in Torah, felt nothing! The Sadducee said to Rava: You are a hasty nation! For you preceded "we will do" to "we will hear" and accepted the Torah! You should have first checked if you could withstand it and only then accepted the Torah! And you are still in your hastiness, just as you do not notice what is happening to you, and blood drips from your fingers! Rava replied to him: We, the people of Israel, went with the Holy One, blessed be He, with a pure heart and relied on Him that He would not give us something we could not withstand, and it is said about us: "The integrity of the upright guides them" [משלי יא, ג]. And concerning you who walk with pretense against us, it is said: "but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them." [שבת פח.]

A Miraculous Incident

A certain man was sentenced to lashes in Rava's court and died as a result of the lashes. The matter reached the ears of the King of Persia, called "Shapur," and the king wished to punish and vex Rava! His mother, "Ifra Hormiz," told him: It is not worthwhile for you to engage with the Jews! And why? Because whatever they ask from their Master, He does for them! "Shapur" said to his mother: What is it that they ask? She said to him: They ask for rain, and He brings it down for them. He said to his mother: In winter, this is not proof! Because it might be that at the time they asked, rain was due to fall anyway! Let's see them ask in summer and rain falls, and then we will know that the Holy One, blessed be He, answers their prayer. "Ifra Hormiz" sent to Rava: Concentrate your mind and ask for rain to fall now! Rava prayed for mercy, but no rain fell! Rava said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, our fathers told us of the miracles and wonders You performed in their days, but we have not seen miracles with our own eyes! The moment Rava said this, rain fell until the water poured through the gutters in Tzipori and flooded the streets until it reached the Tigris River in Babylonia. Rava's father came to him in a dream and said to him: Is there anyone who troubles the Holy One, blessed be He, to bring rain out of its season! His father commanded him and said: This night, do not sleep on your bed, but sleep in another bed! Rava did as his father told him, and the next day he saw marks of knives on his bed! For the demons wanted to kill him and cut his bed. [תענית כד:]