ḤIDKA

ḤIDKA (in the TJ, Shab. 16:3, 15d Hundakas, and in Schechter's edition of Aggadat Shir ha-Shirim (1896, p. 59) Hindakah; mid-second century C.E.), tanna. Ḥidka is mentioned a few times in the beraitot of the Babylonian Talmud (BB 119a; Sanh. 56b; BM 90b. cf. Tosef. Av. Zar. 8:6). His best-known halakhah is that a person should eat four meals every Sabbath (and not three as normally accepted: Shab. 117b). Although the halakhah is that three meals suffice, some meticulous individuals act in accordance with Ḥidka's view and this fourth meal is referred to as "R. Ḥidka's meal." He transmitted sayings in the name of his associate, Simeon ha-Shikmoni, a pupil of akiva (Sif. Num. 68, 114; cf. BB 119a). An aggadic saying attributed to him is "Love the term 'perhaps,' and hate the expression 'what of it?'" (DEZ I). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hyman, Toledot, 411. (Zvi Kaplan)