'(Hebrew for "speaker" or "discourser"), a title applied to the rabbis of the 2nd to 5th centuries, i.e. to the compilers of the Talmud. Each tana - or rabbi of the earlier period - had a spokesman, who repeated to large audiences the discourses of the tana. But the 'amora soon ceased to be a mere repeater, and developed into an original expounder of scripture and tradition.