רבי אבא בר כהנא

Rabbi Abba bar Kahana was an amora of Eretz Yisrael in the third generation, a darshan and one of the great masters of aggadah. He spent time in Bavel in the beit midrash of Rav Chiya bar Ashi, and many hold that he was born there; his main activity, however, was in Eretz Yisrael, where he arrived while Rabbi Chanina bar Chama was still alive. Among his teachers were Rabbi Chelbo and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, and his colleagues were Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Zeira. Sources differ on whether he was born in Bavel and whether his father was the amora Rav Kahana.

His aggadic teachings fill the midrashim. In the Yerushalmi he praises the derashot of his colleague Rabbi Levi, though in the Midrash Rabbah he at times argues sharply against their content. Among his sayings: before the meit one says only divrei Torah; a person who has yirat Shamayim is weighed against the entire world; and "such is the way of tzaddikim — they say little and do much." Rabbi Berechiah brings many aggadic teachings in his name, and appears to have been his talmid.