Adda bar Ahavah
Adda bar Ahavah or Adda bar Ahabah is the name of two Jewish rabbis and Talmudic scholars, known as Amoraim, who lived in Lower Mesopotamia, a region known in Jewish texts as "Babylonia".
The amora of the second generation
Rav Adda bar Ahavah was a Talmudist who lived in Babylonia, known as an amora of the second generation, frequently quoted in both the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmuds. He is said to have been born on the day that Judah haNasi died. He was a disciple of Abba Arikha, at whose funeral he rent his garments twice in mourning for the great scholar.At Pumbedita, Rav Adda gathered about him many pupils, whom he taught sometimes in the public thoroughfares. He lived to an old age, and when interrogated on the merits that entitled him to be so favored, he listed his merits as follows:
In another talmudic tale, Rav Adda observed on the street a woman named Matun dressed in a manner unbecoming a modest Jewish woman and he ripped off her clothing. Unfortunately for him, the woman was a Samaritan, and thus not subject to Rabbinic jurisdiction, and for the attack on her he was condemned to pay a fine of 400 zuz, and thereupon he exclaimed, "Matun, matun you were worth 400 zuz to me!"
The following is attributed to Rav Adda: "The man who is conscious of sin and confesses it, but does not turn away from it, is like the man who holds a defiling reptile in his hand; were he to bathe in all the waters of the world, the bath would not restore him to cleanness. Only when he drops it from his hand, and bathes in but forty seahs of water he is clean."