רב חמא בר גוריא

Rav Chama bar Gurya was a Babylonian amora of the second generation, in the third century of the common era, and a close talmid of Rav. Nearly every statement of his in the Talmud is brought in Rav’s name, and he is mentioned a handful of times in the Talmud Yerushalmi as well. Many of his teachings concern derech eretz — how a person should conduct his private affairs — and several deal with matters of healing, on Shabbat and in general (Shabbat 66b). Once he raised a difficulty against Shmuel, who rejected it sharply (Bava Kamma 99b); this apparently took place after Rav’s passing, when a number of Rav’s talmidim went to learn before Shmuel. The Gemara tells that a man came to ask Rav the status of a child born to a Jewish woman who had married a non-Jew, and Rav answered that he is a Jew fit to marry; Rav Chama bar Gurya advised the man to go quickly, before Shmuel arrived and ruled him unfit.

Several amoraim received Rav’s teachings through him: chiefly Rava bar Machasya (a series of statements in Shabbat 10b–11a), Rabbi Chelbo (Shabbat 37a, Megillah 19a), and Avin bar Huna (Shabbat 66b). Rabbah bar Rav Huna counts him among “our rabbis who are expert in halachah” (Gittin 86b). Nothing is known of the events of his life. The Talmud mentions a Rav Nachman bar Gurya (Shabbat 95a) who was apparently his brother, and a Gurya bar Chama of the third or fourth generation of the sages of Bavel (Berachot 53b) who may have been his son.

Among his teachings in Rav’s name: one who gives a gift to his fellow must let him know of it; a man should never single out one son among his sons, for on account of the two sela’im of fine wool that Yaakov gave Yosef beyond his brothers, the brothers grew jealous, and matters unfolded until our fathers went down to Egypt; any city whose rooftops rise above its shul is destroyed in the end; and if all the seas were ink, the reeds pens, the heavens parchment, and all men scribes, they could not suffice to record the affairs of government. He also teaches that Moshe instituted eight mishmarot of kohanim, four from Elazar and four from Itamar; Shmuel raised them to sixteen, and David to twenty-four.