רב חייא בר אבא

Rav Chiya bar Abba was an amora whose teachings appear throughout the Talmud. He often brings the words of his teachers — citing Rav in matters of aggadah, as in his comment on the verse “and in the vine were three branches” (Bereshit), which he reads as alluding to three great leaders who arise from Israel in every generation, divided between the Land of Israel and Bavel (Chullin 92a). He also brings rulings in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, such as the question of whether a husband who says he divorced his wife is believed (Bava Batra 135a).

His statements span practical halachah, including the laws of measuring fields and stony ground (Bava Batra 103a), where he both cites Rabbi Yochanan and raises his own unresolved question (left as teiku). He is also recorded questioning Rabbi Yochanan directly on the laws of healing on Shabbat, weighing whether a ruling follows the view of Rabbi Matya ben Charash (Yoma 84a). He appears in tractates including Chullin, Bava Batra, and Yoma, engaging both the rulings of earlier sages and the give-and-take of his contemporaries.