רב הונא בר חייא

Rav Huna bar Chiya was a Babylonian amora of the third generation. He was among the younger talmidim of Shmuel and of Rav Yehuda, and he learned as well under Rav Kahana and Rav Nachman; most of his statements in the Talmud are brought in the name of his rebbeim, and he appears in the Talmud Yerushalmi too. In several places he states in the name of Shmuel that the halacha follows the tanna Chananya, on entirely unrelated matters. His wife was the daughter of Rav Yirmiyah bar Abba, and he brings a number of halachot that he received from his father-in-law; their son was Levi.

After Rav Yehuda was niftar, Rabbah would not accept the appointment as rosh yeshiva of Pumbedita, and through those years it was Rav Huna bar Chiya who stood at the head of the yeshiva. Only after Rav Huna bar Chiya’s passing did Rabbah take up the position, so that Torah would not be neglected.

For a period he served as a tax collector on behalf of the king — a post the chachamim regarded as disgraceful, though Rav Huna saw it differently and took it on. At that time the chachamim wished to put an especially hard question to him, and four hundred of them, led by Rabbah and Rav Yosef, set out for his house, where he had prepared four hundred costly chairs of ivory for them. On the road they learned of his new office, took it very much to heart, and resolved never to enter his house again. When word reached Rav Huna he said at once: if so, I retract, and I resign the post. The chachamim then divided. Rav Yosef held that a man who had become a tax collector is disqualified and cannot be trusted even after he withdraws; Rabbah ruled that in such a case one may rely on him as before — and so he came to Rav Huna’s house with his talmidim, without Rav Yosef.

Among his rulings: honoring one’s father is paid for from the father’s money, and a son is not obligated to spend from his own purse on the expenses that honoring him entails.