Hezekiah (Amora)
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Hezekiah (or Hizkiyah b. Hiyya [1] or Hezekiah ben Hiyya; Hebrew: חזקיה or חזקיה בן חייא; cited in the Talmud simply as Hezekiah) was a Jewish Amora sage of the Land of Israel of the second generation of the Amoraic era. He was the son of R. Hiyya and the teacher Rabbi of R. Yochanan bar Nafcha, and he is the same simple "Hezekiah" that is cited so many times in the Talmud.[2]
According to Rashi he is also considered a Tanna,[3] as well as according to the opinion of the Tosafot.[4]
Amonog his colleagues were Rabbi Yannai, who was older than him,[5] Bar Kappara,[6] Rav Kahana I,[7] and R. Joshua ben Levi.[8]
Among his most prominent pupils was R. Yochanan bar Nafcha, and as long as Hezekiah was present, Yochanan bar Nafcha was not appointed as dean of the Yeshiva out of respect for his teacher-Rabbi.
His Beth midrash was located at Tiberias, and it is storied that he used to recite the Megillah (Book of Esther) on both fourteenth and fifteenth of the Hebrew month of Adar, due to an Halakhic issue, wherein the Megillah must be read on the fourteenth in walled cities, and in the fifteenth in cities not walled since the days of Joshua bin Nun, and he was not sure whether Tiberias was walled during the days of Joshua [9][10]
References
- ↑ Hizkiyah b. Hiyya | חזקיהו בן הייא, sages of the talmud | חכמי התלמוד
- ↑ According to Rabbi Yehudah be-Rabbi Kalonymus mi-Speyer, the author of Sefer Yihusei Tanna'im ve-Amora'im, and see also: Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Avodah Zarah, 46a
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Hullin, 106a
- ↑ Babylon Talmud, Tractate Avodah Zarah, 38a
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Zebahim, 15a
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, 100a
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Menahoth, 23
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Zebahim, 109a
- ↑ Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Megillah, 5b
- ↑ Stuart S. Miller, "Studies in the history and traditions of Sepphoris", p. 27