רבי חוצפית המתורגמן

Rabbi Chutzpit HaMeturgeman was a tanna of the third generation, at the beginning of the second century, and one of the Asarah Harugei Malchut. His title comes from his post as the meturgeman of Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh: as the Gemara in Berachot tells, the nasi would say his words quietly, and Rabbi Chutzpit would give them voice to the assembled. Rabbi Akiva applied to him the verse “Yafyafita mibnei adam, hutzak chein besiftotecha” — he had a sweet voice, and when he expounded, all came to hear and hearts were drawn close. During his years in Tzippori he sat before Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah together with Rabbi Yeshevav, Rabbi Chalafta, and Rabbi Yochanan ben Nuri.

Only a handful of his sayings survive in the literature of Chazal — some see in this the loss of the talmidim who were killed together with him. When the gezeirot of the Hadrianic persecution went out, he hid in Tzippori together with Rabbi Yeshevav HaSofer and others, but was seized and killed al kiddush Hashem; the Midrash Eleh Ezkerah counts him among the Asarah Harugei Malchut and relates that he was killed one day short of his hundred and thirtieth birthday. The Gemara in Kiddushin ties a further tragedy to his death: it was the sight of the tongue of Rabbi Chutzpit — the tongue that had given voice to Torah — cast in the dust that broke the faith of Elisha ben Avuyah. A tradition handed down from the Middle Ages places his kever near Tzfat.