Ame
Ame
rabbi, a Jewish teacher, lived at Tiberias in the 4th century. Together with his colleague rabbi Assd (q.v.), he performed judicial functions among his coreligionists. Both were, highly honored, and were styled "judges of Palestine," "the noble pair of priests of Palestine." Both regarded the Samaritans as heathen, because they sold Gentile wine to the Jews (Cholin, fol. 6 b). Ame would also not allow that a Samaritan should be instructed in the law. Against the verbal interpretation of the Scriptures he propounded the thesis, "The law, the prophets, and the word of the wise contain hyperbolical expressions: the law, the cities are great and walled up to heaven' (De 1:28); the prophets, 'so that the earth rent with the sound of them' (1Ki 1:40); the word of the wise, 'the daily morning and evening sacrifice. was watered with a golden cup': (Tamid, fol. 29 a)." Another maxim of his was, "No death without sin, no pains without trespasses" (Sabbath, fol. 55 a). See Hamburger, Real-.Encyklop. 2, 56 sq.; Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 4, 298, 301, 304, 307; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sekten, 2, 160, 162, 165, 195. (B. P.)
