In the traditional literature he is referred to almost exclusively as Rav, " the Master ", ( both his contemporaries and posterity recognizing in him a master ), just as his teacher, Judah I, was known simply as Rabbi.

While Judah I was still living, Rav, having been duly ordained as teacher — though not without certain restrictions ( Sanhedrin 5a )— returned to Babylonia, where he at once began a career that was destined to mark an epoch in the development of Babylonian Judaism.

Samuel, another disciple of Judah I, at the same time brought to the academy at Nehardea a high degree of prosperity ; in fact, it was at the school of Rav that Jewish learning in Babylonia found its permanent home and center.

The method of treatment of the traditional material to which the Talmud owes its origin was established in Babylonia by Rav.

In the Babylonian schools, Rav was rightly referred to as " our great master.

On one occasion, when his senior colleagues, Ḥiyya b. Abba, Rav Ammi, and Assi, had punished a certain woman, and feared the wrath of the proconsul, Abbahu was deputed to intercede for them.

Rav Nissim Gaon postulates in his Hakdamah Le ' mafteach Hatalmud that information on the holiday was so commonplace that the Mishna felt no need to explain it.

The Babylonian Talmud was compiled from discussions in the houses of study by the scholars Ravina I, Ravina II, and Rav Ashi by 500 CE, although it continued to be edited later.

It was co-authored by Rav Hershel Schachter, Rav Mordechai Willig, Rav Michael Rosensweig, and Rav Mayer Twersky.

The Talmud records a tradition that unattributed statements of the law represent the views of Rabbi Meir ( Sanhedrin 86a ), which supports the theory ( recorded by Rav Sherira Gaon in his famous Iggeret ) that he was the author of an earlier collection.

In later years it was Rav Ettlinger's students Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer of Berlin who deepened the awareness and strength of Orthodox Jewry.

The earliest existing codification of the prayerbook was drawn up by Rav Amram Gaon of Sura, Babylon, about 850 CE.

Traditionally, this Talmud was thought to have been redacted in about the year 350 CE by Rav Muna and Rav Yossi in the Land of Israel.

Rav Ashi was president of the Sura Academy from 375 to 427 CE.

The work begun by Rav Ashi was completed by Ravina, who is traditionally regarded as the final Amoraic expounder.

Rav Ashi () (" Rabbi Ashi ") ( 352 – 427 ) was a Babylonian Amoraic Talmid Chacham, who reestablished the Academy at Sura and was first editor of the Babylonian Talmud.

According to a tradition preserved in the academies, Rav Ashi was born in the same year that Rava, the great teacher of Mahuza, died, and he was the first teacher of any importance in the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia after Raba's death.

She was also a descendant of the Divrei Chaim: her grandfather, Rabbi Sholom Eliezer Halberstam, was one of the seven sons of the Sanzer Rav.

Rav had many sons, several of whom are mentioned in the Talmud, the most distinguished being the eldest, Chiyya.

Bernard Rosensweig ( former President of the RCA ) writes " The RCA remained loyal to the guidelines which the Rav had set down interfaith dialogue and distinguished between theological discussions and ethical-secular concerns, which have universal validity.

A distinguished Rav is honored with the recital of the last topic on the last page of Talmud and the saying of the hadran prayer.

As a haggadist, Rav is surpassed by none of the Babylonian Amoraim.

Rav died at an advanced age, deeply mourned by numerous disciples and the entire Babylonian Jewry, which he had raised from comparative insignificance to the leading position in Judaism ( Shabbat 110a, Mo ' ed Katan 24a ).

Tradition ascribes the compilation of the Babylonian Talmud in its present form to two Babylonian sages, Rav Ashi and Ravina.

The latter compiled and edited the Mishnah ; Rav Ashi made it the labor of his life to collect after critical scrutiny, under the name of Gemara, those explanations of the Mishnah that had been handed down in the Babylonian academies since the days of Rab, together with all the discussions connected with them, and all the halakhic and haggadic material treated in the schools.

Even whether this editorial work was written down, and thus, whether the putting of the Babylonian Talmud into writing took place under Rav Ashi or not, cannot be answered from any statement in the Talmud.

Rav Ashi not only elevated Sura until it became the intellectual center of the Babylonian Jews, but contributed to its material grandeur also.

As a direct result of Rav Ashi's renown, the Exilarch came annually to Sura in the month after the New Year to receive the respects of the assembled representatives of the Babylonian academies and congregations.

The first Babylonian Amoraim were Abba Arika, respectfully referred to as Rav, and his contemporary and frequent debate partner, Shmuel.

The last Amoraim are generally considered to be Ravina I and Rav Ashi, and Ravina II, nephew of Ravina I, who codified the Babylonian Talmud around 500 CE.

Colleague of Rav Ashi in the Yeshiva at Mata Mehasia, where he assisted in the redaction of the Babylonian Talmud.

* Rav Papa (?- 375 ), a Babylonian Amora from the Talmud

* Rav Shela, Babylonian Amora.

He was considered, however, the greatest rabbi in the Land of Israel, and was even esteemed in the other center of Torah Jewry, Babylonia — so much so that after the deaths of Rav and Shmuel in Babylonia, Rabbi Yochanan was considered by Babylonian Jews as the greatest rabbi of the generation.

The later Sephardic rite has been revised to bring it into closer conformity with the rulings of the halachic codes, which themselves often reflect the opinions of the Geonim, and is therefore of a more purely Babylonian character: thus, paradoxically, it has moved away from the current wording of the Seder Rav Amram and towards what was presumably its original wording.

For this reason, to a modern reader the wording of the Seder Rav Amram appears far closer to an Ashkenazic than a Sephardic text, a fact which misled Moses Gaster into believing that the Ashkenazic rite was based on the Babylonian while the Sephardic rite was essentially Palestinian.

In a sense, Alfasi brought the geonic period to a close — the last of the Babylonian geonim, Rav Hai Gaon, died when Alfasi was 25 years old ; Alfasi himself was called Gaon by several early halachic authorities.

The Babylonian Talmud mentions an incident where Rav Sheishet, a famous dayan ( rabbinic judge ) from Nehardea, uses Pumbedita as part of a jest in an argument with Rav Amram after Rav Amram made a forced argument regarding whether children can assume ownership of a father's property in a case of doubtful transference of real property rights.

Rav became closely related, through the marriage of one of his daughters, to the family of the exilarch.

Hillel was born in Babylon and, according to the Iggeret of Rav Sherira Gaon ( a comprehensive history of the composition of the Talmud from the 10th century CE ), Hillel descended from the Tribe of Benjamin on his father's side, and from the family of David on his mother's side.

Conversely, the Seder Rav Amram, so edited, was a major source used in the standardization of the Ashkenazic rite, which was already akin to the old European family.