(Aram. "ponderer, explainer"; pl. savoraim). Term designating the Babylonian scholars who, in succession to the amoraim (see Amora), were responsible for various final emendations to the Talmud. Jewish historians long maintained that the savoraim were active for no more than 50 years (c. 500-550 CE). Recent investigation has shown, however, that they flourished well into the period of the ge'onim (see Gaon), i.e., until around 690 CE. Moreover, it now appears that the savoraim, not Ashi and Ravina, were the Talmud's final redactors. About a dozen of these "ponderers"---e.g., Simuna and Rabbai of Rov---are named in geonic sources. The change in designation (from amora to savora) has an historical explanation. Under the Sassanid rulers of Persia, Zoroastrian fanaticism led to the closure of talmudic Academies, the execution of two exilarchs (leaders of the Jewish community), the temporary abolition of the exilarchate (reestablished only after the Arab conquest in 641), and the collapse of Jewish legal autonomy. Deprived of their earlier judicial function, scholars of the time went over from amoraic lawmaking to savoraic clarification of the existing law. They soon discovered that their predecessors, while compiling and organizing the legal material accumulated in the Babylonian academies, had failed to elucidate numerous obscure points in the text.
At first, this work of reasoned explanation preoccupied the savoraim, who supplied brief connecting phrases to eliminate disparities. Another of their tasks resulted from the many talmudic controversies that provide no clearcut decision as to which opinion is viewed as the definitive Halakhah. On the basis of contemporary practice, the savoraim presumably added clarifications of their own. Later generations of savoraim went far beyond mere explanatory phrases and editorial notes. They now inserted rather lengthy passages into the talmudic discussion, usually at the beginning of a tractate or chapter. Thus, early geonic authorities indicate that the first few pages of tractate Kiddushin were written by the savoraim, and this may be true also of other extended passages where the discussants are not identified by name.
