Abba
ABBA
ABBA (Rava, Rabbah ; eighth century), rabbinical scholar; disciple of *Yehudai Gaon and possibly also of *A?a of Shab?a, the author of She'iltot. Abba is the author of Halakhot Pesukot, a juridical tract in the vein of She'iltot from which it apparently quotes. It was published in segments twice – first by S. Schechter and then by J.N. Epstein. A small monograph on the laws of phylacteries (probably part of a larger work), which has been attributed to Abba, was appended by *Asher b. Jehiel – who calls it the work of a gaon – to his own laws on the subject, under the title Shimmusha Rabbah ("Rabbah's Legal Practice"); it was printed in the Vilna edition of the Talmud in Asher's Halakhot Ketannot at the end of tractate Mena?ot. *Judah b. Barzillai pointed out that many of its utterances run counter to talmudic regulations, a phenomenon which he attributed to errors by pupils and copyists. Among Abba's best-known pupils was *Pirkoi b. Baboi.
bibliography:
S. Schechter, in: Festschrift … David Hoffmann (1914), 261–6 (Heb. sect.); Baron, Social2, 6 (1958), 339–40, n. 43, 356, n. 72; J.N. Epstein, in: Madda'ei ha-Yahadut, 2 (1927), 147–63.
[Meir Havazelet]