For the first Generation Tanna

Tannaim

The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

 sage with a similar name, see Abba Saul ben Batnit

Abba Saul ben Batnit

Abba Saul ben Batnit was a Tanna of the latter period of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, approximately two generations before the temple's destruction. He used to take Responsa questions from the Jewish public and answer on matters of the Halakha, while working as grocer...

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Abba Saul was a fourth generation Tanna

Tannaim

The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...

 (Jewish sage). His elder contemporary was Akiva ben Joseph. Many Masoretes

Masoretes

The Masoretes were groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq...

 in the Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 cite him engaging in the topics of the Temple in Jerusalem

Temple in Jerusalem

The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...

 and the holy work done there.

He was tall at sight, and the Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

 (Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

ian, Tractate "Niddah" 61a) depicts R. Tarfon

Tarfon

Rabbi Tarfon or Tarphon, , a Kohen, a member of the third generation of the Mishnah sages, who lived in the period between the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Bethar .-Origins and character:...

 reaching only up to R. Saul's shoulder. Saul was a grave-digger. (Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

ian, Tractate Niddah 24b)

In the Talmud, Tractate "Yebamoth" (Levirate marriage

Levirate marriage

Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obligated to marry his brother's widow, and the widow is obligated to marry her deceased husband's brother....

), Abba Saul was stringent, and demanded that a levir (a "Yabbam", the brother of the deceased) should have pure-sacred intentions:
Abba Saul opined that in his days there was nowhere to be found a levir with a mitzvah

Mitzvah

The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...

(commandment) intention, and thus he revokes the commandment of the yibbum

Yibbum

Yibbum , or levirate marriage, in Judaism, is one of the most complex types of marriages mandated by Torah law by which, according to the law, the brother of a man who died without children has an obligation to marry the widow...

, replacing it with the Halizah

Halizah

Under the Biblical system of levirate marriage known as Yibbum, Halizah is the ceremony by which a widow and her husband's brother could avoid the duty to marry after the husband's death....

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