Abba Chilkiya אבא חלקיה

Abba Chilkiya was Choni haMeagel's grandson, who lived as a hired labourer in the fields. The sages sent two men to ask him for rain; he did not answer them all day—neither greeting nor question—and only at home, going up to the roof with his wife, did he pray, and the cloud rose from her corner.

The Talmud examines why he behaved so strangely: he did not return the greeting because he was hired by the day, and the time belonged to his employer; he walked ahead of his wife so that she would not be left alone on the road; he carried the brushwood on one shoulder and held his garment in his hands—"the garment is new, and the body will heal". And why was his wife's prayer accepted first? "She is at home and gives bread to the poor—from her the benefit is immediate, while my coin comes later" (Taanit 23a–b). From that analysis grew the rule about whose charity is the nearer.

The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.