רבי אבדימי דמן חיפה

Rabbi Avdimi of Haifa — Avdimi d’min Chaifa, called in some places Rav Dimi d’min Chaifa and Rabbi Avdia of Chaifa — was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the second and third generations, and among the great chachamim of the Land. Nothing of his life has come down to us beyond his dwelling in Haifa, where he ruled for the city in hilchot eruvin. He brings halachot in the name of Levi bar Sisi and of Reish Lakish, and Rabbi Abbahu, Rabbi Zeira and Rabbi Chelbo bring teachings in his name; Rabbi Yitzchak bar Nachman was of his generation. His word was taken as authority in halacha, and he was no less at home in aggadah.

Two of his sayings in Bava Batra are learned to this day: that from the day the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed nevuah was taken from the nevi’im and given over to the chachamim, and that before a man has eaten and drunk he has two hearts, while once he has eaten and drunk only one remains. He also fixed the measure of honor owed to a talmid chacham — one rises for a chacham within four amot and remains standing until he has passed four amot, for the av beit din from the moment he comes into view, and for the nasi until he has reached his place and sat down, as it says of Moshe Rabbeinu that the people stood and looked after him until he entered the ohel.

On the pasuk in Kohelet that the spirit returns to Hashem who gave it, Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman brings his mashal of a kohen who handed a loaf of terumah into another man’s keeping: I am tahor, my house is tahor, my vessels are tahor and this loaf is tahor — return it to me as I gave it to you and all is well, and if not, I shall burn it before your eyes. So, he taught, does HaKadosh Baruch Hu say to a man about the neshamah placed in his hands. His kever is not named in the words of Chazal, but tradition places it in the old Jewish cemetery of Haifa, one of the remnants of the city’s ancient Jewish past; travelers and pilgrims who passed through Haifa noted it, and beside it the ohel raised by Rav Moshe of Radovitz over the grave of his father serves the people of the city as a place of tefillah.