Study Bava Metzia folio 86A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
חכים יתקרי, ורבי לא יתקרי. ואסו דרבי על ידו תהא. רבי ורבי נתן – סוף משנה. רב אשי ורבינא – סוף הוראה.
should be called a wise [ḥakim] physician, but he should not be called rabbi, and R' Yehuda HaNasi’s convalescence should be through him. I also saw written there: R' Yehuda HaNasi and R' Natan are the end of the Mishnah, i.e., the last of the tanna’im, the redactors of the Mishnah. Rav Ashi and Ravina are the end of instruction, i.e., the end of the period of the amora’im, the redacting of the Talmud, which occurred after the period of the tanna’im.
וסימנך: ״עד אבוא אל מקדשי אל אבינה לאחריתם״.
And your mnemonic to remember that Rav Ashi and Ravina redacted the Talmud is the verse: “Until I entered into the sanctuary [mikdashei] of God, and considered [avina] their end” (Psalms 73:17). The sanctuary, mikdashei, alludes to Rav Ashi, while the term avina alludes to Ravina, which is a contraction of Rav Avina. The phrase: Their end, is interpreted as a reference to the redacting of the Talmud.
אמר רב כהנא, אישתעי לי רב חמא בר ברתיה דחסא: רבה בר נחמני אגב שמדא נח נפשיה. אכלו ביה קורצא בי מלכא, אמרו: איכא חד גברא ביהודאי דקא מבטל תריסר אלפי גברי מישראל ירחא בקייטא וירחא בסתוא מכרגא דמלכא.
§ The Talmud relates another story discussing the greatness of the rabbis. Rav Kahana said: Rav Ḥama, son of the daughter of Ḥasa, told me that Rabba bar Naḥmani died due to the fear of a decree of religious persecution. The Talmud explains: His enemies accused him [akhalu beih kurtza] of disloyalty in the king’s palace, as they said: There is one man from among the Jews who exempts 12,000 Jewish men from the king’s head tax two months a year, one month in the summer and one month in the winter. Since many people would study in Rabba’s study hall during the months of Adar and Elul, he was being blamed for preventing those people from working during those months.