Rabbi Chanina bar Chama רבי חנינא בר חמא
head of the sages of Sepphoris, named by Rebbi
Rabbi Chanina bar Chama came from Babylonia to Sepphoris and became a disciple of Rabbi Yehuda haNasi. Rebbi's testament says outright: "Chanina bar Chama shall sit at the head" (Ketubot 103b); but he would not take the seat while his senior, Rabbi Afes, lived—and in that yielding the Talmud saw his measure.
He traded in honey, understood the art of healing, and lived past eighty in vigour, crediting hot baths and the oil of his youth. His is the formula on which the whole teaching of free will stands: "everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven" (Berakhot 33b). Rabbi Yochanan was his student.
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
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Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Ketubot 103b — Rebbi's testament on the headship
- Berakhot 33b — «all is in Heaven's hands except the fear of Heaven»
Basis: Talmud and midrash.