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Alexandri (amora)
Rabbi Alexandri (Talmudic Aramaic: רבי אלכסנדרי) is the name of one or more amoraim.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, there were probably two amoraim of this name, living in the first and third generations of amoraim. Since their names are unaccompanied either by patronymic or cognomen;and both cultivated the field of aggadah, it is impossible to distinguish their respective teachings except in a few instances.
However, according to Aharon Heimann there was only one Alexandri, who lived in the second to third generation of amoraim. The passages in which Joshua ben Levi (first generation of amoraim) quotes Alexandri (which should indicate that Alexandri lived earlier than or contemporaneous with Joshua), Heimann argues have a corrupt text, which should be fixed to say that Alexandri quoted Joshua instead.
The following midrashim suggest that they were taught by an Alexandria who lived in the first generation of amoraim.
Two Midrashim preserve the following anecdote: Rabbi Yannai was expounding the Law, when a trader was heard inviting the people to buy an elixir of life. The people crowded about the trader. When asked, however, to exhibit the elixir, the supposed trader produced the Book of Psalms, and pointing to a passage in it, he read aloud: "Whichever man desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it". Elsewhere the same anecdote is related, but instead of Yannai's name, that of the trader is given as R. Alexandri. Putting the several versions of the anecdote side by side suggests that Alexandri lived contemporaneously with Yannai (i.e. in the first amoraic generation).
In the name of this R. Alexandri, R. Joshua ben Levi reports an interpretation harmonizing certain seemingly contradictory passages in the Pentateuch. In one place God commands Israel, "You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek"; elsewhere God says: "I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. ... Yea, a hand on the throne of Yah: the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation." By the first, says Alexandri, we are to understand that, as long as Amalek lays no hand on God's throne, you must strive against him; by the second, when he lays hands on God's throne, God Himself will blot out Amalek's remembrance, waging war against him from generation to generation.
Another of R. Alexandri's interpretations reported by Joshua ben Levi suggests a Biblical support for the rabbinic law of blowing the shofar during Mussaf of Rosh Hashana, and not during the shacharit, by pointing out that the Psalmist said, "Let my sentence come forth from Your presence," only after using several terms expressive of prayer and meditation. These terms he construes as follows: "Hear the right, O Lord," represents the recital of shema (the declaration of God's unity); "Attend to my cry" - the Torah reading; "Give ear to my prayer" - that part of the service generally called Tefillah (prayer); "which I offer with unfeigned lips" - the Mussaf prayer.
The same R. Alexandri in whose name R. Huna b. Aḥa (Roba) reports this observation: Come and see how great is the influence of those who perform pious deeds: generally where the Bible uses the term hishkif a curse is implied, while when used in connection with the discharge of duty, it means blessing, as in the prayer recited after the offering of tithes, which concludes with the expression: "Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless".
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Alexandri (amora)
Rabbi Alexandri (Talmudic Aramaic: רבי אלכסנדרי) is the name of one or more amoraim.
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, there were probably two amoraim of this name, living in the first and third generations of amoraim. Since their names are unaccompanied either by patronymic or cognomen;and both cultivated the field of aggadah, it is impossible to distinguish their respective teachings except in a few instances.
However, according to Aharon Heimann there was only one Alexandri, who lived in the second to third generation of amoraim. The passages in which Joshua ben Levi (first generation of amoraim) quotes Alexandri (which should indicate that Alexandri lived earlier than or contemporaneous with Joshua), Heimann argues have a corrupt text, which should be fixed to say that Alexandri quoted Joshua instead.
The following midrashim suggest that they were taught by an Alexandria who lived in the first generation of amoraim.
Two Midrashim preserve the following anecdote: Rabbi Yannai was expounding the Law, when a trader was heard inviting the people to buy an elixir of life. The people crowded about the trader. When asked, however, to exhibit the elixir, the supposed trader produced the Book of Psalms, and pointing to a passage in it, he read aloud: "Whichever man desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace and pursue it". Elsewhere the same anecdote is related, but instead of Yannai's name, that of the trader is given as R. Alexandri. Putting the several versions of the anecdote side by side suggests that Alexandri lived contemporaneously with Yannai (i.e. in the first amoraic generation).
In the name of this R. Alexandri, R. Joshua ben Levi reports an interpretation harmonizing certain seemingly contradictory passages in the Pentateuch. In one place God commands Israel, "You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek"; elsewhere God says: "I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. ... Yea, a hand on the throne of Yah: the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation." By the first, says Alexandri, we are to understand that, as long as Amalek lays no hand on God's throne, you must strive against him; by the second, when he lays hands on God's throne, God Himself will blot out Amalek's remembrance, waging war against him from generation to generation.
Another of R. Alexandri's interpretations reported by Joshua ben Levi suggests a Biblical support for the rabbinic law of blowing the shofar during Mussaf of Rosh Hashana, and not during the shacharit, by pointing out that the Psalmist said, "Let my sentence come forth from Your presence," only after using several terms expressive of prayer and meditation. These terms he construes as follows: "Hear the right, O Lord," represents the recital of shema (the declaration of God's unity); "Attend to my cry" - the Torah reading; "Give ear to my prayer" - that part of the service generally called Tefillah (prayer); "which I offer with unfeigned lips" - the Mussaf prayer.
The same R. Alexandri in whose name R. Huna b. Aḥa (Roba) reports this observation: Come and see how great is the influence of those who perform pious deeds: generally where the Bible uses the term hishkif a curse is implied, while when used in connection with the discharge of duty, it means blessing, as in the prayer recited after the offering of tithes, which concludes with the expression: "Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless".