Abba bar Zemina ( he, אבא בר זמינא) or bar Zebina ( he, בר זבינא) was a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

rabbi of the fourth century (fourth generation of amoraim).

Biography

He was a pupil of Rav Zeira, in whose name he transmitted many sayings. He was employed in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

as a tailor in the house of a

Gentile Gentile () is a word that usually means "someone who is not a Jew". Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, sometimes use the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is generally used as a synonym fo ...

who, under the threat of death, tried to force him to break the dietary laws. Abba, however, steadfastly refused to yield to this, and showed so much courage that the Roman admiringly exclaimed: "If you had eaten, I should have killed you. If you be a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

, be a Jew; if a heathen, a heathen!"

Tanhuma bar Abba Tanhuma bar Abba (Hebrew: תנחומא בר אבא) was a Jewish amora of the 5th generation, one of the foremost aggadists of his time. Biography He was a pupil of Ḥuna bar Abin, from whom he transmits halakhic as well as aggadic sayings. He ...

relates another anecdote concerning a pious tailor at Rome, who bought the most expensive fish; this anecdote may refer to Abba bar Zemina, but elsewhere the same story is told of Joseph, "the reverer of the Sabbath".Shabbat 119a

References

Talmud rabbis of Syria Palaestina Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire 4th-century rabbis Ancient Jewish scholars {{MEast-rabbi-stub