רבי חלקיה

Rabbi Chelkiya was an amora whose teachings are preserved in the Midrash, where he is brought chiefly by way of Rabbi Pinchas. His statements touch on the holiness of Israel and Hashem’s exaltation through judgment among the nations, opening from the verse in Yeshayahu, “And Hashem of hosts is exalted in justice.” In the material on Mishpatim, Rabbi Pinchas the Kohen bar Chama cites Rabbi Chelkiya in the name of Rabbi Simon, drawing on a verse in Zechariah concerning Hashem’s seeking to destroy the nations and Israel’s plea before Him.

In Bereshit Rabbah he is cited interpreting Sarah’s words, “Who would have said to Avraham that Sarah would nurse children” — noting that the verse uses the unusual word milel rather than the ordinary terms for speaking, a hint that Avraham would father a child at the age of one hundred, the numerical value of milel. His recorded teachings thus span both halachic-narrative sections and the aggadic readings of the patriarchs’ lives.