ABBA OF AKKO

ABBA OF AKKO (Acre; third–fourth centuries), Palestinian amora. Abba apparently served as a rabbi in Acre. None of his halakhic statements has been preserved. The Midrash (Gen. R. 15:7) quotes a solitary comment to the fact that "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen. 2:9) was an etrog ("citron"). He was so humble that even when the amora (the official interpreter of the lecture) introduced into it his own explanation which differed from his, Abba did not protest (Sot. 40a). Since he was poor, his intimate friend R. Abbahu declined to be nominated as head of the yeshivah and instead proposed Abba for the position in order to provide him with a source of livelihood (ibid., loc. cit.; see rashi ad loc.). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hyman, Toledot, 55–56; Bacher, Pal. Amor. (Moshe Beer)