רב אדא בר אבא

Rav Ada bar Abba was an amora whose statements appear across many tractates of the Talmud, dealing with both halachah and aggadah. In Menachot he reasons from the case of kilayim, which is forbidden to an ordinary person yet permitted for use above (for the sake of Heaven), and in Shevuot he discusses ranks of authority, listing the king, the governor, the officer, and the Exilarch in their order. In Horayot he brings a verse from Malachi as a source, treating the phrase “the whole nation” alongside the principle that a majority counts as the whole.

Much of his recorded learning is in dialogue with Rava, whom he challenges and questions: in Yoma on a tanna who has no enmity and does not serve, in Pesachim on a Pesach offering slaughtered for those who cannot eat it, distinguishing one truly unfit from one merely needing preparation. In Shabbat he cites a teaching from the school of Rav, that moving from the side is not considered handling, contrasting it with the view of Rav Nachman.

A vivid account in Bava Batra describes how Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, who headed the kallah gathering, would each day review the lesson with Rav Ada bar Abba before entering. On one occasion Rav Pappa and Rav Huna the son of Rav Yehoshua detained him, asking him to repeat the teachings of Rava on the tithe of animals, and the hour grew late.