person · P0291 · savoraim
Rabana Sama bar Yehudah רבנא סמא בריה דרבנא יהודה
One of the rabbanan savorai named in the Iggeret's death-roll of the generation after hora'ah ended — remembered as a dayana debava (judge of the gate). Sherira records for the first savoraim little beyond their deaths — most of them 'within a few years' — and this entry preserves exactly that.
Who
- Hebrew
- רבנא סמא בריה דרבנא יהודה
- Era
- savoraim
When
- Traditional
- d. 4264 AM (Seleucid 815, per the Iggeret)
- Civil (computed)
- 4204–4264 AM · 444–504 CE
- Academic
- d. 504 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈60 years
- Precision
- approximate
How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Iggeret's savoraic death-roll records that he died in Sivan of the year 815 of the Seleucid era (504 CE). | tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| Not to be conflated with Rav Sama bar Rava (Rav Sama bar Rava), the head of Pumbedita who died in 476 CE and who appears in some savoraic lists: the Iggeret's death-roll gives this Sama the patronymic "bar Yehudah" and the office of dayana debava — a different man by both name and description, thirty years later in the same pages.
Disambiguation entry: later rosters sometimes merge the two Samas; the patronymics keep them apart.
|
tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ |