רבי חמא בר עוקבא

Rabbi Chama bar Ukva was an amora whose teachings are preserved in both the Talmud Bavli and the aggadic Midrash. In the Talmud Bavli he appears in tractate Ketubot, where he resolves a difficulty about purity by distinguishing the case of a craftsman “with his tools in his hand” — since everyone handles such items, they are subject to impurity. His ruling is invoked there as the key to settling an apparent contradiction.

In the Midrash he brings teachings in the name of Rabbi Yosei beRabbi Chanina, including an explanation of how the omer was waved before Hashem — moving it back and forth and up and down to acknowledge that the whole world belongs to Hashem. He also appears in Bereshit Rabbah sitting together with the Rabbanan and grappling with why Scripture records the lineage of a wicked man (Yishmael), an inquiry resolved when Rabbi Levi passed by. Through these passages he is shown engaged in both close halachic reasoning and aggadic study.