ABBA OF ACRE (Acco) – A Palestinian amora who flourished at the end of the third century. He was greatly respected by Abbahu and praised as an example of modesty (Soṭah, 40a).Bibliography: Bacher, Ag. Pal. Amor. iii. 526.W. B.
ABBA ARIKA – Celebrated Babylonian amora and founder of the Academy of Sura; flourished in third century; died at Sura in 247. His surname, "Arika" (Aramaic, ; Hebrew, ; English, "Long"—that is, "Tall"; it occurs only once—Ḥul. 137b), he...
ABBA BAR BENJAMIN BAR ḤIYYA – A Palestinian scholar of the third and fourth centuries, contemporary of R. Abbahu. While the country of his birth can not be named with certainty, he was probably born in Babylonia; for he is found there (Ḥul. 80a) seeking...
ABBA B. BIZNA – A Palestinian amora of the fourth century, who is occasionally mentioned as a haggadist, and as having handed down certain halakic opinions (Yer. B. Ḳ. v. 5a).Bibliography: Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot, ii. 17; Bacher, Ag. Pal....
ABBA BUMSLA (BEN SOLOMON) – See Bumsla, Abba (Bunzlau, Bohemia).
ABBA OF CARTHAGE – A Palestinian amora, who flourished at the end of the third century. His birthplace was Carthage, and it is incorrect to refer his surname to Cartagena in Spain or to a town of Armenia. He is frequently mentioned in the...
ABBA COHEN OF BARDELA – A scholar of the last tannaitic generation (about the beginning of the third century). The few Halakot emanating from him refer to the rabbinical civil law. In Biblical homiletics several of his expositions have been preserved...
ABBA DORESH – A tanna, whose period can not be determined. Two of his interpretations have been preserved in Sifre, Deut. 308 and 352, and refer to Deut. xxxii. 5 and xxxiii. 11, respectively (see also Ex. R. 42).Bibliography: Bacher, Ag....
ABBA (RABBA) BAR DUDAI – Head of the Academy of Pumbedita from 772 till about 780. Sherira Gaon adds to Abba's name the words "our grandfather," which, however, are not meant to indicate that Dudai was an immediate ancestor of Sherira. A copyist's...
ABBA GLUSK LECZEKA – A poem by Adalbert von Chamisso, published in 1832. It relates the story of one Abba, who, at the age of sixty, attracted by the fame of Moses Mendelssohn, went to Berlin to acquire secular knowledge. In his native town, Glusk,...
ABBA GORION OF SIDON – A tanna, who flourished in the second century. He handed down to posterity a saying of Abba Saul (Mishnah, Ḳid. iv. 14, Yerushalmi version) and one of Rabban Gamaliel II. That of Gamaliel, quoted in the introduction to Esther...
ABBA ḤANIN – and his son, ABBA JOSE. See Ḥanin, Abba, and Jose, Abba.
ABBA BAR ḤIYYA B. ABBA – A Palestinian amora, who flourished at the beginning of the fourth century. He was the son of Ḥiyya bar Abba, the well-known pupil of Johanan, and transmitted to his generation the sayings of Johanan, which in their turn had...
ABBA HOSHAYA OF TURYA – A Palestinian wool-washer of the third century, of whose scholarly attainments, if he had any, nothing is recorded, but whose piety and honesty afforded the haggadists opportunities for legends and religious speculations. He is...
ABBA HUNA HA-KOHEN – See Huna, Abba, ha-Kohen.
ABBA – A Babylonian amora of the third century, the son of Jeremiah b. Abba and a pupil of Rab. He lived at Sura and transmitted to his generation the sayings of Rab and Samuel. One of his sayings, several of which are preserved in...
ABBA JOSE BEN DOSITAI – See Jose, Abba, ben Dositai.
ABBA JOSE BEN ḤANIN – See Jose, Abba, ben Ḥanin.
ABBA JOSE OF MAḤUZA – See Jose, Abba, of Maḥuza.
ABBA JUDAH – See Abba Judan.
ABBA JUDAN – A philanthropist who lived in Antioch in the early part of the second century. As an example of his generosity, it is recorded that once he sold half of his property, already considerably reduced by the demands of charity, to...
ABBA ḲOLON – A mythical Roman mentioned in a Talmudic legend concerning the foundation of Rome, which, according to the Haggadah, was a result of the impious conduct of the Jewish kings. According to the legend, the first settlers of Rome...
ABBA BEN MARI – See Rabba ben Mari.
ABBA MARI BEN ELIGDOR – A distinguished Talmudist, an eminent philosopher, and an able physicist and astronomer; flourished in the fourteenth century in Salonica. In 1335 he was already very old (Samuel of Marseilles, in "Écrivains Juifs," p. 562,...
ABBA MARI BEN ISAAC OF ST. GILLES – Flourished about the middle of the twelfth century, and lived at St. Gilles, near Lunel, in Languedoc. According to Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the Jewish community of that place, Abba Mari held the office of bailli...