רבי חמא בר ביסא

Rav Chama bar Bisa belonged to the generation that bridged the Tannaim and the Amoraim, and was the father of Rabbi Oshaya. His own father, Rabbi Bisa, sat on the beit din of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and it was Rabbi who said of Rav Chama that he was a great man; the Raavad writes that Rav Chama too sat on that beit din. He lived in the Darom, in the region of Lod, alongside his fellow Bar Kappara, and the two of them served as dayanim there. Rabbi Yudah ben Pazi and Rabbi Yose b’Rabbi Chanina bring teachings in his name.

The Gemara tells that he left his home for twelve years to learn Torah. On his return he would not walk in on his household without warning, so he went first to the beit midrash and sent word ahead of him. A young man came in and drew him into a give-and-take; the father did not know his own son after so long an absence, and seeing the sharpness of the young man his spirits fell, for had he stayed at home he too might have raised such a son. When he reached his house the same young man followed him in, and Rav Chama rose before him, taking him for a questioner — until his wife said, ‘Is there a father who rises before his son?’ Over him Rav Chama read the pasuk in Kohelet, that a threefold cord is not quickly severed, for his father Rabbi Bisa was still living. On one occasion, in a question of civil law, Rav Bisa ruled like his grandson Rav Oshaya and not like his son.