Rav Huna brei d'Rav Yehoshua רב הונא בריה דרב יהושע
"I never walked four cubits bareheaded"
Rav Huna the son of Rav Yehoshua was a Babylonian Amora of the fifth generation, inseparable from Rav Papa: the Talmud constantly sets them side by side; they studied under Rava together and did business together.
The custom of covering the head rests on his words: "I never walked four cubits bareheaded, for the Shechinah is above my head" (Kiddushin 31a; Shabbat 118b). His too is the account of how he fell ill and his soul visited the other world, and returning he reported: "Thus they said there: whoever does not insist on his own measure—with him too they do not measure strictly" (Rosh Hashanah 17a). From this came the rule of forgiving offences that is read on Yom Kippur.
He also disputes with Rav Papa on commercial law, and the Talmud more than once decides according to him.
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
- Kiddushin 31a; Shabbat 118b — «I never walked four cubits bareheaded»
- Rosh Hashanah 17a — «who does not measure strictly is not strictly measured»
Basis: Talmud and midrash.