Judah bar Ezekiel

Biography

He was the most prominent disciple of Rav, in whose house he often stayed, and whose son Hiyya b. Rav was his pupil. After Rav's death Judah went to Samuel of Nehardea, who esteemed him highly and called him "Shinena" (= "sharpwitted", or "he with the long teeth"). He remained with Samuel until he founded a school of his ccooper@example.org. He died there in 299 CE.
Judah was celebrated for his piety, and it is related that whenever he ordained a fast in time of drought rain fell.
His sons Isaac and Judah also became known as rabbis.

Teachings

Judah possessed such great zeal for learning and such tireless energy that he even omitted daily prayer in order to secure more time for study, and prayed but once in thirty days. This diligence, together with a remarkably retentive memory, made it possible for him to collect and transmit the greater part of Rav's, as well as many of Samuel's, sayings; the Talmud contains about 400 aggadic and halakhic sayings by Rav, and many by Samuel, all recorded by Judah b. Ezekiel, while a number of other sayings of Rav's that occur in the Talmud without the name of the transmitter likewise were handed down by Judah.
In recording the words of his teachers, Judah used extreme care, and frequently stated explicitly that his authority for a given saying was uncertain, and that his informant did not know positively whether it was Rav's or Samuel's. His own memory, however, never failed him, and the traditions recorded by him are reliable. When his brother Rami says, in one place, that a certain sentence of Rav's, quoted by Judah, should be disregarded, he does not question the accuracy of Judah's citation, but implies that Rav had afterward abandoned the opinion quoted by Judah, and had, in a statement which the latter had not heard, adopted an opposite view.