(pl. amoraim; lit. "speaker" or "expounder"). Term designating the sages, both Palestinian and Babylonian, whose period of activity extended from the redaction of the Mishnah (c. 200 CE) to the final redaction of the Babylonian Talmud (i.e., until about 500 CE). The discussions of these scholars, who comprised eight generations in Babylonia and five in Erets Israel, occupy most of both Talmuds as well as the Midrash Aggadah. The amora's authority was limited in that he could not contradict a statement of his predecessors, the tannaim, unless he found another one that supported his opinion. The amoraim could---and in fact often did---disagree with one another. The basic focus of their debates was the interpretation of the Mishnah. With few exceptions, the views of the tannaim presented in the Mishnah nowhere indicate the Scriptural basis of their opinions or the reasoning by which they arrived at them. This task was assumed by the amoraim.
After citing a Mishnah, an amoraic discussion often begins with the question: "From where do we know this?"---i.e., on which verse is the halakhic opinion based? (or, alternatively, what is the legal principle underlying the Halakhah of the Mishnah?). The latter is couched in terms of specific situations (case law) and does not cite abstract, general principles. The amoraim, particularly in the Babylonian Talmud, explain a Mishnaic controversy on the basis of a difference of opinion regarding a general principle, one tanna accepting it and another rejecting it. This reading of general principles into the Mishnah led to an enormous expansion of the halakhah in amoraic times.
By carefully analyzing the Mishnah, the amoraim were able to point out what seemed to be contradictions between two halakhot stated there. These contradictions are frequently resolved either by concluding that the halakhot represent the opinions of two different tannaim or by asserting that they refer to two different sets of circumstances, even though no hint of this appears in the Mishnah itself. A not inconsiderable portion of amoraic analysis is taken up with the effort to identify the author of some anonymous halakhah in a Mishnah. The purpose of such identification is to examine cognate statements by the tanna so identified, in order to determine whether these opinions are consistent with the one expressed by him in the Mishnah. Frequently, the amoraim examine the halakhah of the Mishnah in the light of parallel statements in other tannaitic sources. The examination, as often as not, reveals a contradiction between the two. The amoraim then proceed to interpret either the Mishnah or the tannaitic sources adduced in order to make them consistent with each other.
While the amoraim cultivated both halakhah and aggadah, some were particularly noted as aggadists and, as a result, were known as "rabbis of the aggadah." Other amoraim concentrated on halakhic matters. Whereas the Palestinian amoraim (like their tannaitic predecessors) bore the title Rabbi, most Babylonian amoraim were titled Rav. This difference arose because full Ordination (semikhah) was conferred only in Erets Israel. The Babylonian amoraim thus deferred to their Palestinian colleagues, whom they regarded as legitimate successors of the tannaim. Palestinian scholars had, in fact, brought Mishnaic texts and early amoraic discussions to Babylonia (see Neḥuté). Accordingly, when there was some difference of opinion among the Babylonian amoraim, questions were often sent to the Academies of Erets Israel for a final decision. Between the two countries, upwards of 2,000 amoraim have been identified and approximately dated. Others remain unidentified owing to the sparse information about them in the sources. Toward the end of the tannaitic period and throughout that of the amoraim, scholars were exempt from both government taxes and the municipal duties incumbent upon citizens. Otherwise, for the most part, the amoraim (like the tannaim before them) earned their livelihood from a variety of occupations.
The term amora has a secondary meaning quite distinct from that described above. Originally, in the academies, a presiding scholar who, for example, wished to explain a Mishnah to his students, first recited the lesson sotto voce to an "amora" (interpreter), who would then repeat it aloud for all the students to hear. At times, in the process, the "amora" translated it into Aramaic, or (if the scholar had used Aramaic) into Hebrew. Rav Huna is said to have needed 13 such "amoraim," so great was the number of students who came to hear him lecture.
