Rabbah bar bar Hana

Who is Rabbah bar bar Hana?

Rabbah bar bar Hana was a Jewish Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an Amora of the second generation. He was the grandson of Hana and the brother of Hiyya. He went to Palestine and became a pupil of Rav Yochanan, whose sayings he transmitted. Rabbah Bar Bar Hana is especially well known for a collection of aggadic stories about him recorded in the Babylonian Talmud in the fifth chapter of Bava Batra.

Rabbah bar bar Hana does not seem to have enjoyed high regard in his adopted country, for it was taken as a matter of course that Rav Shimon ben Lakish should not do him the honor of addressing him in public. After a somewhat prolonged sojourn in Palestine he returned to Babylonia, residing both at Pumbedita and at Sura. In the former city he at first refused to attend the lectures of Rav Judah ben Ezekiel, but he soon became his friend, and was consulted by him in difficult cases. Judah and his pupil Rabbah b. Naḥmani once visited Rabbah, who was ill, and submitted a halakhic question to him. While they were there a Zoroastrian priest suddenly appeared and extinguished the lamp, the day being a festival of Ormuzd, on which Jews were forbidden to have fire in their houses. Rabbah thereupon sorrowfully exclaimed: "O God, let us live either under Thy protection, or at least under the protection of the children of Esau [the Romans]".