Amram, Rab:

By: S. Mendelsohn

A Babylonian amora of the third generation (fourth century); contemporary of Ḥisda, NaḦman, and Abba bar Memel (B. B. 70 a , Ket. 91 a , Yer. B. M. i. 7 d ). Amram is better known in the domain of the Halakah than in the field of the Haggadah, though even in the former he is but rarely original ('Er. 102 a ; Pes. 105 a ; Yoma, 78 a ; Giṭ. 26 b ; Shebu. 11 b ; Ḥul. 52 b ; Bek. 27 a ; Yer. Mak. i. 31 a ; Yer. Sheb. x. 39 c ). It is related that in the course of a controversy between Rab Amram and Rabbah, the latter had advanced a legal opinion, when the former deftly interposed a number of objections. Rabbah, in his impatience, called his adversary a fool; whereupon a cedar pillar in the college building cracked, and each party to the controversy construed the occurrence as a heavenly sign of his having been wronged by the other (B. M. 20 b ).