Baba ben Buta (Hebrew: בבא בן בוטא) was a Jewish sage who lived at the time of Herod the Great, who is mentioned in the Talmud.
He may have been a member of the prominent family known as The Sons of Baba ("Bnei Baba"), who, at the time of Herod's siege of Jerusalem (37 BC), resisted its surrender, and whom Costobarus protected from the wrath of Herod for twelve years, until they were discovered and put to death.
[1] Baba ben Buta is also the subject of several traditions which are found in the Babylonian Talmud.
According to a tradition preserved in the Babylonian Talmud,[2] Baba ben Buta was the only teacher of the Law who was spared by Herod.
The following conversation between the king and the blind teacher, with its aggadic embellishments, forms the principal part of this tradition, and is considered likely to have some historical foundation: "One day Herod came to visit the blind teacher and, sitting down before him, said, 'See how this wicked slave [Herod] acts.'
'He,' said Baba, 'has extinguished the light of the world [put to death the teachers], as it is written (Prov.
[6] Baba is reported to have been so scrupulous in his religious observances that he brought a free-will offering every day, for fear that he might have committed a sin requiring atonement.