MEREMAR

MEREMAR (d. 432), Babylonian amora of the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth centuries. According to the Sefer Kabbalah of abraham ibn daud , Meremar succeeded Ashi as head of the academy of Sura (427–32). He was a pupil of the elder Ravina (Yev. 75b) and transmitted to the younger Ravina in the name of the latter's father the teachings of Joseph (Ned. 60b) and of Papi (Ned. 90a). He transmitted a statement once in the name of R. Dimi (Git. 19b), but he could hardly have known him personally, since Dimi lived in the first half of the fourth century. Among his colleagues were Mar Zutra (Suk. 45a) and Ashi (Ber. 30a). His pupil the younger Ravina, who visited him later in Sura (Pes. 117b), is mentioned frequently (Shab. 81b; Git. 19b; BM 72b, 104a; et al.), and Aḥa of Difti (Ber. 45b; Ḥul. 47a) is also apparently a pupil of Meremar. He was succeeded as head of the academy by Idi b. Avin. Meremar had a son Judah who was a colleague of Mar b. Rav Ashi and the above-mentioned Aḥa (Ber. 45b). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hyman, Toledot, 908–10; Ḥ. Albeck, Mavo la-Talmudim (1969), 438f. (David Joseph Bornstein)