רבא

Rava is the Amora in most of whose disputes the law was decided like him, and the head of the Mechoza academy who raised the great generation of Amoraim. If Abaye is the depth of dialectic, Rava is the depth of ruling: the ability to descend to the root of the reasoning and decide. 'The deliberations of Abaye and Rava' are the heart of learning, and in them Rava is the hand that fixes the law.

Rava taught the secret of inner service of God. He said the maxim by which every person is judged: 'when a person is brought to judgment they ask him, did you deal faithfully in business, did you set fixed times for Torah' (Shabbat 31a), teaching that faith is measured first of all in honesty in commerce, not only in the study house. He joined halachic sharpness to deep reverence.

And here is great humility: Rava taught that 'the reward is according to the difficulty,' and that every person must say 'for my sake the world was created' and in the same breath 'and I am dust and ashes.' This balance, between a person's greatness and his humility, is the heart of his teaching.

What do we learn from him? That decision, not only dialectic, is a wisdom in itself, and that the root of serving God is in everyday honesty. Rava teaches that the first question on the day of judgment is not how much you learned but whether you dealt faithfully in business, and that a person must carry in one pocket 'for my sake the world was created' and in the other 'dust and ashes.'