"Discoursers"; but their expositions were often original contributions
to literature. Their work extends over the long interval between 200 and
500 C.E. The Amoraim naturally were men of various character and
condition. Some were possessed of much material wealth, others were
excessively poor. But few of them were professional men of letters. Like
the Tannaim, the Amoraim were often artisans, field-laborers, or
physicians, whose heart was certainly in literature, but whose hand was
turned to the practical affairs of life. The men who stood highest
socially, the Princes of the Captivity in Babylonia and the Patriarchs
in Palestine, were not always those vested with the highest authority.
Some of the Amoraim, again, were merely receptive, the medium through
which tradition was handed on; others were creative as well. To put the
same fact in Rabbinical metaphor, some were Sinais of learning, others
tore up mountains, and ground them together in keen and critical
dialectics.

The oldest of the Amoraim, Chanina, the son of Chama, of Sepphoris
(180-260), was such a firm mountain of ancient learning. On the other
hand, Jochanan, the son of Napacha (199-279), of dazzling physical
beauty, had a more original mind. His personal charms conveyed to him
perhaps a sense of the artistic; to him the Greek language was a
delight, "an ornament of women." Simon, the son of Lakish (200-275),
hardy of muscle and of intellect, started life as a professional
athlete. A later Rabbi, Zeira, was equally noted for his feeble,
unprepossessing figure and his nimble, ingenious mind. Another
contemporary of Jochanan, Joshua, the son of Levi, is the hero of many
legends. He was so tender to the poor that he declared his conviction
that the Messiah would arise among the beggars and cripples of Rome.
Simlai, who was born in Palestine, and migrated to Nehardea in
Babylonia, was more of a poet than a lawyer. His love was for the