ḤIYYA BAR AVIN

ḤIYYA BAR AVIN (in TJ, Bar Bun; beginning of the fourth century C.E.), Babylonian amora. Ḥiyya was the son of avin the Carpenter. He was a pupil of Huna (see Kid. 58a) and the resh kallah at his yeshivah (see She'iltot, Berakhah 165). The teachings of Rav and Samuel, which he frequently transmits (Er. 81a; Ber. 30a; et al.), he received presumably from their pupil Huna. His halakhic discussions with his contemporary scholars are frequently cited in the Talmud. Later Ḥiyya migrated to Ereẓ Israel and studied in Tiberias in the yeshivah of Eleazar in whose name he sent instructions to Babylonia (Yev. 43a). In Ereẓ Israel he received many ancient traditions of earlier scholars. He held halakhic discussions with zera (Ber. 33b) and assi (Suk. 35a). He returned to Babylonia where he was held in the highest esteem. Rava referred to him as "the lion of the company" (Shab. 111b; et al.; some explain that the word havurah, "company," was a name applied only to the yeshivah of Ereẓ Israel). Naḥman b. Isaac turned to him with his problems (Ber. 6a; et al.). After Ḥiyya's death, Rava transmitted to Ḥiyya's son the teachings he had received from him (Ket. 85b). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hyman, Toledot, 439–41; Ḥ. Albeck, Mavola-Talmudim (1969), 284f. (Zvi Kaplan)