Rava רבא
head of the Mechoza academy, the decisive legal authority of his generation
Rava, son of Rav Yosef bar Chama, studied under Rav Nachman and Rav Chisda, whose daughter he married. He led the academy at Mechoza, a wealthy trading city on the Tigris, and after Abaye's death the students of Pumbedita came to him as well.
In the pair «Abaye and Rava» he is the one whose view becomes law. But the point is not the tally: with Rava, Talmudic analysis reaches maturity. He distinguishes intention from act, form from substance, and asks not only what the law says but why it is built as it is.
To him belong the Talmud's most quoted lines. The first question a person is asked in the heavenly court: «did you conduct your business honestly?» — and then, did you set times for Torah, did you raise a family, did you hope for redemption. His too is the ruling about Purim and the teaching that each person must say «the world was created for my sake».