רב הונא בריה דרב נתן

Rav Huna brei d’Rav Natan — the son of Rav Natan — was a Babylonian amora of the fifth and sixth generations who held the office of Reish Galuta, standing at the head of the political leadership of the Jews of Bavel. He came of the family of the exilarchs, whose lineage is traced to David HaMelech. He learned Torah from Rav Papa and from Ameimar, and in his youth he merited to sit before Rava in the yeshiva. His father, Rav Natan, was himself counted among the chachamim. Ameimar permitted him to marry a woman from Mechoza, though it lay outside the region known for its lineage, on the strength of what Ameimar had learned from Rav Zevid of Nehardea, that all lands stand in a presumption of fitness.

The office of Reish Galuta was the highest authority in the internal affairs of the Jews of Bavel, and the government generally recognized its holder as the representative of the Jews. His years in office ran alongside the years of Rav Ashi at the head of the yeshiva of Sura in Mata Mechasya, and Rav Ashi — his friend and his talmid — brings several of his teachings in the Gemara, in halachah and in aggadah.

He was close to Yazdegerd the First, king of the Sassanian empire, whose treatment of the Jews was very good, and he was among those who came and went in the royal house. Once he stood before the king with his belt girded above his waist; Yazdegerd himself straightened it down onto his hips and said to him that “a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation” is written of you, and you must carry yourselves with the splendor of the kohanim, whose avnet sits on their hips. Ameimar said to him afterward that in him was fulfilled the pasuk “and kings shall be your nursing fathers.” For all his standing he was subordinate to Rav Ashi, as Rav Sherira Gaon states in his Iggeret: in all those years after Rav Papa, Rav Ashi was gaon in Mata Mechasya, and Huna bar Natan the Reish Galuta of those days, together with Mareimar and Mar Zutra who came after him, were all subject to him.

Among the teachings brought in his name: whatever the master of the house tells you, do — except “leave.” Asking Rav Ashi about the verse listing Kinah, Dimonah and Ad’adah, he brought the derashah of Rav Gevihah of Bei Argiza, that whoever has cause for grievance against his fellow and stays silent, He who dwells forever takes up his cause. He also brought in the name of Ameimar that a document written in Persian and signed by Jewish witnesses collects from mortgaged property. According to the Sefer HaKeritot of Rav Shimshon of Kinon, one of the Baalei HaTosafot, he was niftar in 4202/442.