Abba Bar Marta
ABBA BAR MARTA
ABBA BAR MARTA (third and first half fourth centuries), Babylonian amora. Some suggest that he was named after his mother because she cured him as a child after he'd been bitten by a mad dog (Yoma 84a). He owed a debt to the exilarch and was seized by his men on a Sabbath. However, the exilarch set him free because he was a scholar (Shab. 121b). In another incident Abba b. Marta managed to outwit the exilarch's men who sought to hold him prisoner because of his debt (Yev. 120a). In another instance Abba b. Marta owed money to Rabbah, the head of the Pumbedita academy. He went to Rabbah with the intention of repaying his debt during the sabbatical year. Rabbah answered in accordance with the halakhah. "I cancel it." Abba b. Marta took the money back, instead of saying, as the procedure demanded, "Nevertheless, I insist…." Only after the intervention of Abbaye did he realize that he had not acted properly and repaid the debt (Git. 37b). Another contemporary scholar, Abba b. Menyamin (Menyomi, Benjamin) b. Ḥiyya, who expounded Mishnayot and asked a halakhic question of Huna b. Ḥiyya (Sot. 38b, Ḥul. 80a), is sometimes identified with Abba b. Marta.
bibliography:
Hyman, Toledot, 53; Bacher, Trad, 243.
[Moshe Beer]