רבי פנחס בר חמא

Rabbi Pinchas bar Chama was an amora whose teachings appear in the aggadic midrashim, where he is brought expounding verses of Torah and the Megillot. His comments are preserved in collections such as Bereshit Rabbah, Devarim Rabbah, Ruth Rabbah, Kohelet Rabbah, and the Midrash on Acharei Mot, alongside other amoraim such as Rabbi Tanchuma and Rabbi Abahu.

The passages in which he appears range over both halachic and aggadic themes. In Devarim Rabbah he is found amid discussions framed around questions of law — the recitation of Shema and whether one who did not articulate its letters carefully has fulfilled his obligation, and matters touching on the ways of the Emori — and around verses such as the permission to eat meat “when your soul desires.” In Bereshit Rabbah he is cited on Yaakov’s setting up the stone and pouring oil upon it, drawing out the wonder of what flowed to him from Heaven, and on the place named Luz. In Ruth Rabbah his teaching is brought on Boaz’s eating and the gladdening of his heart, and in Kohelet Rabbah on the verse “He made everything beautiful in its time.” Through these citations he emerges as a voice who weaves together the plain meaning of Scripture with its deeper lessons.