Ravina II

Ravina II, son of Rav Huna (often called Ravina bar Rav Huna), headed the academy at Sura in the late 400s. According to the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon, written in 987, his death in 499 marked the end of hora'ah, the period of authoritative Talmudic teaching. The Talmud's own statement "Rav Ashi and Ravina are the end of hora'ah" (Bava Metzia 86a) is traditionally read as referring to Rav Ashi, who began editing the Talmud at Sura, and to this later Ravina, who completed it, though some scholars think it means an earlier Ravina, Rav Ashi's colleague.

He worked in a hard time for Babylonian Jewry: under the Persian king Peroz in the 470s Jews were persecuted, and Sherira reports that the exilarch Huna Mari was executed. After Ravina came the Savoraim, who added explanatory passages and gave the Talmud its final shape, and then, from about 589, the Geonim.