Mar Zutra מר זוטרא
one of the last names in the Babylonian Talmud
Several men bore the name Mar Zutra, and the Talmud does not always distinguish them; the best known is a head of his generation working at the end of the fifth century.
In the Gemara his remarks are of the kind that reveals a late editor: he advances less that is new than he refines what has been said — where to tell two cases apart, where to limit a rule, where to note that a dispute was not about what it appears to be about.
One of his best-known sayings concerns reconciliation: whoever goes to sleep having forgiven those who wronged him lengthens his days; and the words he used to say before sleep entered the evening prayers.
In his generation and the next, work on the Talmud passes from arguing to shaping. Bava Metzia 86a draws the line: "Rav Ashi and Ravina are the end of instruction." After them comes the time of the Savoraim.
On the timeline
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Megillah 28a — forgiveness before sleep; the words that entered the evening prayer
- Bava Metzia 86a — “Rav Ashi and Ravina are the end of instruction”
Basis: Talmud and midrash.