Samuel (Amorae)

Samuel (from Nehardea ) / Samuel bar Abba / Mar Samuel [Mar = Lord ] / also called Ariokh the Great (BM 85b) [not identical with Mar Samuel Mar (i)] (* towards the end of the 2nd century in Nehardea, Babylonia , died around the middle of the 3rd century there, according to Iggeret Rab Scherira Gaon in 254) was a Babylonian Amora ( Talmudic scholar).

Samuel studied with his father, Abba bar Abba (Abba ben Abba ha-Kohen), and with Levi ben Sisi, who emigrated from Roman-occupied Palestine to Babylonia, which was under the rule of the Persians . It is not certain whether Samuel also studied with Jehuda ha-Nasi in Palestine.

By the middle of the 3rd century, Samuel was the head of an important Bet Midrash and Beth Din in Nehardea. He was the leading authority on civil law matters in his day . In this area, later generations accepted his decisions as binding. He was a personal acquaintance of the Persian king Shapur I and made an agreement with him, which is laid down in the Talmud tract Baba qama (113a) and has prevailed in the entire Jewish diaspora : The law of the (even non-Jewish) government is (for the Jews) Law (in the Aramaic original: דינא דמלכותא דינא - dina de-malchuta dina ). Further principles of his are: The responsibility to provide the evidence rests with the plaintiff and in financial proceedings we do not follow the majority . Out of concern for orphans, he stipulated that their money can be lent at interest - in contrast to the Talmudic rule that money to Jews must not be lent to Jews at interest.

In addition to the Persian king, the exilarch Mar Ukba was also one of Samuel's personal acquaintances, at whose court sessions Samuel was present. The Talmudic scholar had a thorough knowledge of astronomy and said: I know the streets of heaven as well as the streets of Nehardea (in the Berachot treatise ). His knowledge in this area earned him the nickname Jarchinai (variant: Jarchinaa = "astronomer"). In addition, he also worked as a doctor and developed an ointment for the treatment of eye disorders , which is also mentioned in the Talmud. In his view, the Messiah will only come after the Jewish people have suffered cruel persecution, and he believed that the only difference between his and the Messianic times was freedom from oppression by foreign powers. He was not a follower of exaggerated asceticism and allowed worldly pleasures, provided that they were initiated by the appropriate blessing .

literature

• Encyclopedia Judaica . Vol. 14, pp. 786-788.
• David Hoffmann : Mar Samuel. Leipzig 1873.
• S. Shilo: Dina de-malkhuta dina. Jerusalem 1974.
• Israel Konovitz: Ma'arekhot ha-Amoraim III: Rab - Samuel. Jerusalem 1974.
• BM Bokser: Samuel's Commentary on the Mishnah I. Leiden 1975.
• F. Rosner: Medicine in the Bible and the Talmud. New York 1977, pp. 156-170.
• BM Bokser: Post Mishnaic Judaism on Transition. Samuel on Berakhot and the Beginning of Gemara. Chico 1980.