Person
Abba Shaul אבא שאול
the Tanna gravedigger who taught the imitation of God
Abba Shaul was a Tanna of the Usha generation, a man of great stature who earned his bread burying the dead; his accounts of what he saw at burials are scattered through the Talmud (Niddah 24b). The form "Abba" instead of "Rabbi" is an old title of honour.
His chief word is on the verse "this is my God and I will glorify Him": "be like Him: as He is gracious and compassionate, so be you gracious and compassionate" (Shabbat 133b)—the short formula of the imitation of God from which a whole ethic grew.
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
On the timeline
Sources
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Shabbat 133b — «as He is gracious, be gracious too»
- Niddah 24b — the gravedigger's accounts
Basis: Talmud and midrash.