Today’s daf opens with the following teaching:
The sharp ones of Pumbedita say: Burning renders burning piggul.
This cryptically short ruling means: If a priest burns the handful of grain and oil removed from a meal offering with the intent to burn the accompanying frankincense the next day, the offering is rendered piggul. As a result, the priests are forbidden from eating the sacrifice.
In the talmudic period, Pumbedita was home to one of the major Jewish academies in Babylonia, and this is one of two teachings attributed to its “sharp ones.” The other appears on Kiddushin 39a:
The prohibition of orla does not apply at all outside the land of Israel.
During the first three years after a tree is planted, eating its fruit is biblically prohibited. In year four, the produce is brought as an offering to God. After that, the tree’s produce can be eaten. Contra some of their colleagues, the sharp ones of Pumbedita hold that this rule applies only in the land of Israel.
So who are these sharp ones? Clearly, the word sharp (harif) is a compliment. In modern Hebrew, the word means spicy. It had a similar meaning in antiquity. Marcus Jastrow, author of one of the most important talmudic dictionaries, gives pungent as one of its meanings. But it was frequently used beyond food contexts in a metaphorical sense to mean quick-witted. See, for example, this exchange from Horayot 14a in which the adjective is applied to Rabbi Zeira:
A dilemma was raised: Between Rabbi Zeira and Rabba bar Rav Mattana, which of them is preferable? Rabbi Zeira is sharp and raises pertinent difficulties, and Rabba bar Rav Mattana is deliberate, and ultimately he draws the appropriate conclusions. Which is preferable? The dilemma shall stand unresolved.
So now we know something about these sharp ones and their specific flavor of intelligence. But can we know their identities? While sharp ones is possibly a generic term for elite scholars from Pumbedita, rabbinic tradition usually prefers to identify specific people to whom teachings can be attributed. On Sanhedrin 17b, the Gemara offers the following identifications:
The judges of Pumbedita refers to Rav Pappa bar Shmuel … the elders of Pumbedita refers to Rav Yehuda and Rav Eina and the sharp ones of Pumbedita refers to Eifa and Avimi, the sons of Rahava … and the amoraim of Pumbedita refers to Rabba and Rav Yosef.
Eifa and Avimi are brothers and second-generation amoraim. They are both quoted in the Talmud a handful of times, far less than most of their fellow Pumbeditians on this list. (There are well over a thousand references to the teachings of Rav Yosef in the Talmud, for example.) But we’ve met them before. We’ve dug into a story about the brothers on Shevuot 28, in which Eifa is quizzed on material (and found a bit lacking) by his brother Avimi. And, on Menachot 7, we read how Avimi forgot what he knew about our current tractate. These tales suggest, perhaps, that even the sharpest of brothers have moments in which their memories are challenged.
Read all of Menachot 17 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 28, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
