Yehudah b. Hiyya

Talmudic Figures

R. Chiyya's two sons, Yehudah b. Chiyya and Chizkiyah b. Chiyya, came with him from Babylonia to Palestine as young adults. Already known for their scholarship, they added distinction to Rabbi's academy. They died prematurely and were buried on either side of their father.

Sources

The great Ḥizqiah, when he had studied Torah as much as he could, used to go and sit before the assembly hall in order to see old men and get up before them. Jehudah bar Ḥiyya used to go and greet his father-in-law Rebbi Yannai every Sabbath eve. He used to sit on a hilly place in order to see him and get up before him. His students said to him, did the teacher not instruct us, “for an Elder four cubits”? He said to them, one does not sit before Sinai. Once he did not come. He said it is impossible that my son Jehudah should change his habits…

Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 3:3:13

RABBI CHIYA RABA BAR ABA had two sons, Jehudah and Ezekiah. These at one time incurred the displeasure of the Nasi Rabbi Jehudah. As they sat at the table of the Nasi without uttering a word, he commanded his servants that they be served wine to loosen their tongues. His command was obeyed and as the two young men became merry with wine they exclaimed: “Messiah will not come as long as the two ruling houses in Israel, the house of the Exilarch in Babylonia and the house of the Nasi in Palestine, is not destroyed…

The Jewish Spiritual Heroes, Volume II; The Amoraim of Palestine and the Jerusalem Talmud, Jehudah and Ezekiah, the Sons of Rabbi Chiya

The Gemara relates a story on this topic: The sons of Rabbi Ḥiyya went out to the villages to oversee the laborers. They forgot what they had learned and were struggling to recall it. One of them said to the other: Does our deceased father know of our anguish? The other said to him: From where would he know? Isn’t it written: “His sons are honored yet he shall not know it, they come to sorrow and he shall not understand them” (Job 14:21)? The dead do not know…

Berakhot 18b:4-6