Biography
Rabbi Abba bar Zavina (born about 4065/305), whose name appears also as Abba bar Zamina and Abba bar Zimona, was an amora of the fourth generation and a talmid of Rav Zeira, in whose name he brings many teachings.
For his livelihood he worked as a tailor in Rome, in the house of a non-Jew who threatened him with death unless he ate forbidden food. When he refused, the man told him that had he eaten he would have killed him — if you are a Jew, be a Jew, and if an Aramean, an Aramean. The Midrash Tanchuma brings a further account of a Jewish tailor in Rome who bought a very costly fish in honor of Shabbat, and it may be that this too is told of him, although the attribution is not confirmed.
The saying best known in his name is that if the earlier generations were like the children of angels then we are like men, and if they were like men then we are like donkeys. It is brought in his name in the Talmud Yerushalmi, Masechet Demai, in the name of his rebbe Rabbi Zeira.
Where traditions differ. His name is given in several forms — Abba bar Zavina, bar Zamina, bar Zimona. His best-known saying is brought in the Yerushalmi in the name of Rabbi Zeira, while the version of the Tosafot in the midrash, and Sefer HaYuchasin, have him saying it in the name of Eliezer Ze'ira.
רבי אבא בר זבינא היה אמורא בדור הרביעי, היה תלמידו של רב זירא והעביר מימרות רבות בשמו.
Abba bar Zemina or bar Zebina was a Jewish rabbi of the fourth century.
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