רבי חייא בר יוסף

Rabbi Chiya bar Yosef was an amora of the second generation, in the third century, who learned in Bavel from Rav and Shmuel and afterward went up to Eretz Yisrael, where he learned together with Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish. His principal rebbi was Rav, whose teachings he cites again and again; at times he would go to Shmuel’s yeshiva, report a teaching of Rav, and bring back Shmuel’s response. He was Shmuel’s talmid in his own right as well, apparently after Rav’s passing, putting questions to him and on occasion disagreeing with him.

In Eretz Yisrael he brought Rav’s halachot before Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish, and though he asked Rabbi Yochanan questions in halacha he was not counted his talmid: where the two disagree Rabbi Chiya is named first, and doubts in halacha were brought before both of them together. He also cites Rabbi Oshaya. Among his talmidim, Rav Giddel learned from him while still in Bavel and brings teachings of Rav in his name; in Eretz Yisrael Rabbi Chiya bar Abba, chiefly a talmid of Rabbi Yochanan, learned from him, and the chachamim of Kisrin (Caesarea) quote him.

In Bavel he seems to have lived in Sichra on the bank of the Chidekel (Tigris), near Mechoza, where he was the town’s chacham and enacted takanot — among them that a porter who alone carried a load a little too heavy for one man and a little too light for two, and broke it, pays half the damage, the case being part negligence and part accident. In Eretz Yisrael he traded in salt. Of his family nothing is known except that he went up alone and some time later sent for his wife.

Among his rulings: one who is mekadesh a woman with something forbidden in benefit only by rabbinic decree, such as chametz in the sixth hour of erev Pesach, the kiddushin are void, as with an object of no value at all; one who buys wine that afterward sours has no claim on the seller, since how wine keeps depends in part on the buyer himself; and on the verse in Shemot 22:8 that is the source of the oath of modeh bemiktzat he taught that “the parshiyot are intermingled here” — the verse speaks of a loan though it stands in the section on deposits. In aggada he spoke of the future redemption and techiyat hameitim, and his best-known saying is that Eretz Yisrael will one day bring forth ready-baked loaves and garments of fine wool.