Abaye אביי
head of the Pumbedita academy, one half of «Abaye and Rava»
Abaye was born on the day his father died, and his mother died in childbirth. He was raised by his uncle Rabbah bar Nachmani and by a foster nurse whose household lore he later quoted in the Talmud as genuine knowledge, from remedies to charms against fear.
He became head of the academy of Pumbedita around the year 4090. His name is bound forever to Rava's: «the questions of Abaye and Rava» are called by the Talmud the most demanding and the most necessary part of learning. Of their hundreds of disputes the law follows Abaye in only six, yet his questions set the movement of the argument on nearly every page.
He was gentle by nature. The Talmud says that Abaye greeted every person first, even a stranger in the market. His maxim — that one should always be «cunning in the fear of Heaven» — became proverbial.
He lived poorly, worked his fields and watered them by night, and died around the year 4098.