הרב אבא יודן

Abba Yudan, whose name appears in the shortened form Abdan (also Abidan), was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the first generation, at the beginning of the third century. He was a talmid of Rebbi, Rav Yehuda HaNasi, and served as his attendant in the beit midrash, where the manner he took toward the members of the assembly is remembered.

The Gemara brings his exchange with Rav Yishmael ben Yosi, who was making his way through the assembled crowd toward Rebbi. Abdan called out, asking who it was that walked over the heads of a holy people; Rav Yishmael answered that he had come to learn Torah from Rebbi, and when Abdan asked whether he was fit for that, Rav Yishmael asked in return whether Moshe Rabbeinu was fit to learn from Hashem — and to Abdan’s ‘and are you Moshe?’ he answered, ‘and is your rebbe Hashem?’ On that same day Rav Yishmael showed his mastery in halacha before the assembly, while Abdan, coming back from an errand and pressing through the crowd, was told by Rebbi to stay standing at the door.

The account adds that he was afflicted in his body and that two of his sons drowned. His memory was nonetheless held in honor: Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, speaking of this, said that Hashem had brought him low in this world and had not left his accounting for the World to Come.