הרב חנניה בן חזקיה

Rabbi Chananya ben Chizkiya (ben Guryon) was a tanna whose name is bound up with several pivotal moments in the early development of halachah. He is best remembered for defending the integrity of Sefer Yechezkel: when a child reading in his teacher’s house grasped the mystery of the chashmal and was consumed by fire that came forth from it, the Sages sought to hide away the book. Rabbi Chananya ben Chizkiya intervened, saying, “If this one was wise, are all wise?” — and the book was preserved (Chagigah 13a).

His name attaches to the upper chamber (aliyah) of Chananya ben Chizkiya ben Guryon, where the Sages gathered when they came to visit him. There, as recorded in the opening of tractate Shabbat (and discussed in Shabbat 12a–13b), the school of Shammai outnumbered the school of Hillel in a vote, and eighteen decrees were enacted on that day — among them the rulings against searching garments for lice or reading by lamplight, lest one tilt the lamp.

The Gemara in Shabbat 13b also records that Chananya ben Chizkiya and his company composed Megillat Taanit, “because they cherished the troubles” — preserving the memory of days of distress and deliverance.