Biography
Abba Shaul ben Batnit was a tanna. In a well-known passage in Pesachim, he brings, in the name of Abba Yosef ben Chanin, a stinging lament over the powerful high-priestly families of his day — the houses of Baitos, Chanin, Katros, and Yishmael ben Pi’achi — crying “woe is me” from their fists, their pens, their whispered conspiracies, and their abuse of the priesthood and treasury offices.
He also appears in Shabbat, where the Mishnah records an episode in his days, together with the days of the father of Rabbi Tzadok, concerning the practical halachot of Shabbat: stopping up a skylight with an earthenware pitcher and tying a vessel with a reed to determine whether an opening of a handbreadth existed in a barrel. Through these passages he is remembered as a figure tied to questions of priestly conduct and to careful, real-world rulings on Shabbat observance.
אַבָּא שָׁאוּל בֶּן בָּטְנִית היה תנא שחי בירושלים בסוף תקופת בית שני, כשני דורות לפני חורבנו.
Abba Saul ben Batnit was a Tanna of the latter period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, approximately two generations before the temple's destruction. He used to take questions from the Jewish public and answer on matters of the halakha, while working as a grocer. In his latter job he became known for being strict on not taking spoils and preserving a fellowman's finances, and for that reason, among others, he donated a significant amount of oil to the Jewish public, in order to revoke any suspicions about public exploitation.
On Wikipedia: עברית · English — summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA