Ulla

Second Generation Amora'im.

Known as Ulla Rabbah, he was a student of Rabbi Yochanan and a colleague of Rabbah bar bar Chanah. Rabbi Chisda expounded about him: Our Sages who ascended from Babylonia.

His Wisdom

When Ulla ascended from Babylonia to Eretz Yisrael, two Jews from the city of Chozai in Babylonia accompanied him on the journey. During the trip, one of them became enraged at his companion and slaughtered him!

That one turned to Ulla and asked him: Have I not done well by slaughtering him?

Ulla was very afraid! If I do not agree with him, he will rise against me too and kill me!

Ulla replied to him: Certainly, you have done a righteous deed! And furthermore, go quickly and continue your slaughter so that he may hasten to die! Ulla arrived in Eretz Yisrael before Rabbi Yochanan and recounted to him the entire event and his reaction.

Ulla asked: Am I considered as holding the hand of transgressors? Rabbi Yochanan answered him, You did well because you saved your life, and had you not said so, he would have killed you!

Rabbi Yochanan wondered how such an act occurred, that the anger of that Jew intensified to kill his companion in Eretz Yisrael?! For it is written: “And the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart” [Deuteronomy 28:65]—in Babylonia there is a reality of a trembling heart, but not in Eretz Yisrael?!

Ulla replied to Rabbi Yochanan, At the time the incident occurred, we had not yet crossed the Jordan into the Land, and it was still outside Eretz Yisrael. [Nedarim 22a]

The Suffering of the Shechinah

Ulla and Rabbi Chisda were walking on the road. When they reached the entrance of Rabbi Chana ben Chanilai’s house, Rabbi Chisda sighed. Why do you sigh, Ulla asked him, for it is said: A sigh breaks half a person's body! Rabbi Yochanan added and said: It breaks a person's entire body?

Rabbi Chisda replied to him: How do you wish me not to sigh, I see the house of Rabbi Chana, where there were sixty ovens baking day and night to provide bread for all who were in need!

And Rabbi Chana never removed his hand from his pocket because he feared that a poor person of good family might come and ask for charity, and he was afraid that by the time he put his hand in his pocket to take out money, the poor person might be embarrassed!

There were entranceways on all four sides of his house so that when a poor person came, he could immediately enter his house through that entrance and would not have to go around! And whoever entered hungry left full!

And he would cast out wheat and barley outside his house in difficult years of famine so that those who were ashamed to take by day, would come at night secretly and not be embarrassed! Now that this house has become a ruin, should I not sigh?!

Ulla wished to appease Rabbi Chisda and said: Thus said Rabbi Yochanan: From the day the Temple was destroyed, a decree was issued upon the houses of the righteous that they should be destroyed, and the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will in the future restore them to their habitation.

Ulla saw that Rabbi Chisda's mind was not settled and said to him: Behold, the house of the Holy One, Blessed Be He, is destroyed! And it is enough for a servant to be like his Master!

His Discourses and Sayings

Ulla Rabbah expounded near the entrance of the Nasi's house: It is written: “All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to You, O Lord, when they hear the sayings of Your mouth” [Psalms 138:4]. To what do these words refer? It is not said here: “the saying of Your mouth,” but “the sayings of Your mouth” in the plural!

Therefore, the verse should be expounded thus: When the Holy One, Blessed Be He, spoke the first two commandments at the Revelation at Mount Sinai, “You shall have no other gods before Me” [Exodus 20:2], the nations of the world said: For His own honor — “I am the Lord your God,” He seeks.

Since He then said: “Honor your father and your mother” [Deuteronomy 5:16], they retracted their claim and acknowledged the first sayings. And why? Because just as a person is obligated to honor his father and mother, all the more so he is obligated to honor the Holy One, Blessed Be He, who is the primary partner in his creation like his father and mother, and furthermore, his life and death are in His hand. [Kiddushin 31a]

Ulla said: Anyone who has arrogance (gasut ruach), that is, pride, it is as if he built a high place (bamah), meaning: it is as if he worships idolatry. As it is said in the verse: “Cease from man, in whose nostrils is breath, for what is he accounted (bamah)?” [Isaiah 2:22]

Even though it is written in the verse: “what is he accounted (bamah),” do not read “bamah” with a segol (vowel mark), but “bamah” with a kamatz. For if one esteems himself in his own eyes, it is as if he worships idolatry. [Sotah 4b]