Huna ben Joshua explained

Huna ben Joshua
Birth Place:Babylonia
Death Date:410
Other Names:Rav Huna BeReia DeRav Yehoshua
Occupation:Talmudist, Scholar
Known For:Prominent Amoraic sage, president of the general assembly in the yeshiva of Naresh

Huna ben Joshua (Hebrew: רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע, read as Rav Huna BeReia DeRav Yehoshua; died 410[1]) was a Babylonian rabbi, of the fifth generation of amoraim.

Biography

He was considered one of the most prominent Amoraic sages of his generation.

He was a student of Rava,[2] who seems to have been his principal teacher, and who sometimes praised him,[3] but occasionally blamed him.[4] He appears to have been the pupil of Abaye also.[5]

He was a colleague and a scholarly opponent (bar plugata) of Rav Papa, from whom he was inseparable, both in and out of school.[6]

When Rav Papa became head of the yeshiva of Naresh (an academy that later was relocated to Mata Mehasia, a suburb of Sura and its Yeshiva there), Huna was appointed president of the general assembly ("resh kallah") in the same school.[7]

During his studies under Rava, he earned his livelihood from a small landed property, enabling him to make the time needed for his studies. Later on, he became a business partner of his colleague Rav Papa, and earned his living from selling sesame.

Huna was wealthy.[8] He never walked more than four cubits bareheaded.[9] He ate very slowly, so that Rav Papa consumed in the same time four times as much and Rabina eight times as much.[10]

Huna lived to a great age, outliving Rava by 57 years. Once in the lifetime of Rav Papa, Huna fell desperately ill, but his life was spared because he was forbearing.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Samson of Chinon, "Sefer Keritut," p. 26a, Cremona, 1558
  2. Kiddushin 32b
  3. Horayot 10b
  4. Ketuvot 85a; Gittin 73a
  5. Rosh Hashana 24b
  6. Eruvin 12a; Berachot 58b; et al.
  7. Berachot 57a
  8. Horayot 10b
  9. Shabbat 118b
  10. Pesachim 89b
  11. Rosh Hashana 17a