amora means any of the Jewish scholars of about 200 to 500 CE who orally transmitted the teachings of the Mishna. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
AMORA — [Noun] Any of the Jewish scholars (c. 200–500 CE) whose dialectical discussions comprise the Gemara, the vast commentary on the foundational Mishna. From Hebrew אָמוֹרָא (āmōrā), from Aramaic, meaning "speaker" or "interpreter." Unlike the definitive Tanna (an architect of the Mishnaic code) or the timeless Rabbi (a general title of reverence), an Amora is a voice in the margin, a respondent for whom a settled text is only the beginning of argument. He is the rustle of parchment in the academies of Sura, the patient unknotting of a legal paradox in the twilight of Pumbedita, the murmured question that turns a single law into a branching tree of possibility—the guardian of a dialogue meant to outlast empires, a testament that truth resides not in a fixed point, but in the act of perpetual, devoted conversation.
noun
- Any of the Jewish scholars of about 200 to 500 CE who orally transmitted the teachings of the Mishna.