רב חנינא

Rav Chanina, also called Chananya, was an amora of the second and third generations. He was born in Bavel to a family of kohanim tracing its descent from Eli HaKohen, and while still young went up to Eretz Yisrael together with his brother Rav Oshaya, where the two learned in the yeshivah of Rabbi Yochanan in Teveria. He is brought in Ketubot as a talmid of Rabbi Yannai, and in Yevamot and Kiddushin as a talmid of Rabbi Yochanan bar Nappacha as well.

Rabbi Yochanan wished to grant the two brothers semichah and was unable to, which grieved him. They explained the reason to him: as descendants of Eli they stood under what was said to him, that there would not be an elder in his house — and “elder” was understood to include an ordained rav. Never having received semichah, they did not carry the title “Rabbi” as the amoraim of Eretz Yisrael did, but were called “Rav” or “chaver,” and the two together were known as chavrehon derabbanan, the companions of the chachamim. The name attached to Rav Chanina in particular, who is often brought as chavrehon derabbanan.

He learned together with his brother in halachah and in the hidden Torah both; every erev Shabbat the two occupied themselves with Sefer Yetzirah. While the two were unmarried they earned their living selling shoes in the marketplace of harlots, and never lifted their eyes to look at them; Rava said of such men that when a bachelor lives in a city and does not sin, the Holy One praises him every day. The women of that market knew what they were and would swear by the lives of the holy chachamim of Eretz Yisrael. He was also a physician, and a number of his statements in the Gemara turn on medical knowledge, among them his remark that no one ever consulted him about the kick of a white mule and lived.

Among his sayings: the seal of the Holy One is truth; that a man cannot injure so much as a finger below unless it has been decreed above; and that the blessing of an ordinary person should never be light in one’s eyes. He is easily confused with Rabbi Chanina, since the Gemara often abbreviates the title to a single letter; where the two might be meant, the far more numerous references are to Rabbi Chanina.