Rav Hisda ha-Kohen

Third Generation Amora, Rav Huna was his primary teacher and said of him: "Hisda is your name, and your words are gracious and comely." He became head of the yeshiva after Rav Huna's passing in Sura, Babylonia. Rava was his son-in-law and disciple in his generation. His colleagues were Rav Yehuda bar Yehezkel and Rav Nahman bar Yaakov; Rav Hamnuna was a scholarly colleague, and in his time, Rabbi Yohanan was head of the yeshiva in the Land of Israel.

The Greatness of His Daughters and Sons-in-Law

Rabbi Yitzhak recounted: There was a city in the Land of Israel called Gofnit, as in the verse: "Your wife is like a fruitful vine" [Habakkuk 3], meaning a successful match. [Maharsha].

Eighty pairs of Kohen brothers lived there who were married to eighty pairs of sisters from a priestly family whose father was a Kohen. They did this because the union of a Kohen's daughter who marries an Israelite does not fare well.

The Sages searched from Sura in Babylonia to Nehardea and found no Kohen who married an Israelite daughter who was not a Kohen, except for the daughters of Rav Hisda, who were married to the Amoraim Rami bar Hama and his brother Mar Ukva, who were not Kohanim. [Berakhot 44a]

Rabbi Yohanan said: "A Kohen's daughter who marries an Israelite, their union does not fare well." What is the meaning of this?

Rav Hisda says: Either he will die prematurely and his wife will remain a widow, or they will divorce, or the woman will not be blessed with children. Rav Hisda brought proof from the proximity of the verses.

It is written: "And if a Kohen's daughter becomes a stranger's wife." And adjacent to it is the verse: "But if a Kohen's daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no children." [Leviticus 22:12] If a Kohen's daughter marries a stranger (an Israelite), she will be a widow or divorced or childless. In a Baraita, they added that such a union would lead them to poverty, and all this specifically applies to an unlearned person who marries a Kohen's daughter because it is a disgrace to Aaron the Kohen, and therefore there is strictness regarding such a match.

On the other hand, Rabbi Yohanan said: "Whoever wishes to become wealthy should cling to the seed of Aaron the Kohen and marry a daughter of a Kohen." And all the more so if he is a Torah scholar and marries a Kohenet, the merit of Torah and her priesthood will make them wealthy. Therefore, Rav Hisda's daughters married two Amoraim, and the merit of Torah and priesthood made them wealthy. [Pesahim 49a]

His Teachings

Rav Hisda says: A person who does not have much bread should not eat much greens, because greens stimulate the appetite for eating bread, and he does not have much bread to eat.

And Rav Hisda said: Therefore, when I was poor, I did not eat greens. And even in my time of wealth, I did not eat greens because it is better to eat meat and fish.

Rav Hisda further says: A person who does not have much bread should not eat it little by little, but rather eat all he has at once and be sated.

He further added: Before I became wealthy, I would not break bread to eat until I had checked the entire vessel containing the bread and found all my needs within it. [Shabbat 140b]

How Rabbi Hisda Became Wealthy

It is brought in the holy Zohar: We learned, a person should reside in a place where there are people of action, meaning those with spiritual form, who are masters of Torah, good character traits, mitzvot, and upright conduct. And why?

If a person lives in a place where there are righteous individuals, they are treated favorably from Heaven by their merit.

For Rav Hisda initially lived among Capadocians whose actions were not so good, and he was in dire straits, living a life of poverty with illnesses pursuing him.

He moved from there and went to live in Tzippori among Torah scholars, and he ascended and merited many good things, great wealth, and Torah. And he would say: "All this I merited, because I entered among those whom the Holy One, Blessed Be He, watches over to benefit them." [Zohar, Parshat Bo, 38b]

Rav Papa said: If I had not engaged in making beer, I would not have become wealthy.

And some say that Rav Hisda said this: If I had not engaged in making beer, I would not have become wealthy. Therefore, the Gemara says: If you have a se'ah of dates, run to the sodna, which is the place where beer is made, because otherwise you will eat them and lose out! For in their time, they earned a lot from selling beer.

Why was the brewery called sodna? Rav Hisda says: Sodna, from the word sod – na'eh, meaning, a good counsel and acts of kindness, as one can give from the profits to the poor and do charity and kindness, because one becomes wealthy from it by not investing much in the capital, meaning in buying the dates, and the profit from the beer is great. [Pesahim 113a, Rashbam]

His Wealth and Numerous Children

Rav Hisda had wealth, sons, and daughters, and he would say: "One to whom a daughter is born first is a good and beneficial sign for the sons who will be born afterward."

The reason for this is: Some say, that the evil eye will not dominate the sons, because since he already has a first daughter, they no longer pay attention to his sons afterward and do not cast an evil eye upon them.

And Rav Hisda said: For me, my daughters are preferable to my sons. And why? Because I merited sons-in-law like Mar and Mar Ukva, sons of Hama.

And I had even wiser sons, namely: Rav Nahman, Mar Yanuka, Mar Kashisha, Rav Mari, Rav Pinhas, Rav Hanan, and Rav Tahlifa, and I arranged sixty weddings in my home, [gaining] wealth and long life. [Bava Batra 141a, Tosafot]

In my house, provisions were abundant; we did not need others. [Mo'ed Katan 28a]

Fortunate Destiny

The Sages worried when Rav Huna suddenly passed away! One Sage told them, we learned: When is it considered that a person died a sudden death? Only when he has not reached the age of eighty, but when he reaches eighty and dies without illness, this is a "kiss of death."

Rava said: Children, length of days, and a person's sustenance are not dependent on a person's merits but on the celestial destiny with which the person was created, meaning: It does not depend solely on merit, unlike all the promises explicitly stated in the Torah. [Ritva] For Ravah and Rav Hisda were both righteous Torah scholars, and when they prayed for rain, rain fell. Yet, in children, life, and sustenance, there was a great difference between them.

Rav Hisda lived ninety-two years, while Ravah lived only forty years. And if it were not dependent on destiny at all, Ravah's merit of the Torah he learned would have helped him.

Also with children, Rav Hisda made sixty weddings for his children, and Ravah, on the contrary.

With Rav Hisda, provisions were abundant, while with Ravah, they searched for barley bread to eat and did not find it. [Mo'ed Katan 28a]

His Greatness and Praises

Rav Hisda said: The reason I am greater than my colleagues is because I married a woman at the age of sixteen. [Kiddushin 29b] He added and said: The astrologers told me that I would be wise, and I used this to become wise in Torah. [Yevamot 21a]: When Rav Hisda and Rav Sheshet met, Rav Hisda's lips would tremble because Rav Sheshet was proficient in Mishnayot, and Rav Hisda feared that Rav Sheshet might raise a difficulty from one Mishna against another and ask him to reconcile them. While Rav Sheshet would recoil entirely from Rav Hisda's sharp dialectic, who was acute, possessed deep reasoning, and profound in his questions. [Eruvin 67a]

Rav Huna and Rav Hisda — who are considered the pious of Babylonia, behaving with humility — their custom was: When the world needed rain, they would say, "Let us gather together and seek mercy; perhaps the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will be appeased and bring us rain." This shows that even though rain came by the merit of one of them, they gathered together, so it would appear that the rain came due to their combined prayer. [Ta'anit 23b]

His Mouth Did Not Cease from Study

The question was asked: What is the meaning of the expression, "words of Torah 'snatch away' (or 'protect')"? They replied, they snatch away and protect from the Angel of Death, which is in the hands of Heaven, but they do not save from death at the hands of man.

As in the case of Rav Hisda: Rav Hisda was sitting and studying Torah in the study hall, and the Angel of Death's messenger could not approach him to take his soul, because his mouth did not cease from engaging in Torah, which is the Tree of Life, and whoever grasps it cannot die.

What did the Angel of Death's messenger do? He climbed and sat on a cedar tree that was in the study hall, broke a large branch, and made a noise in the vicinity of the study hall. Rav Hisda ceased his study due to the loud noise, and then [the messenger] was able to overpower him and took his soul. [Makkot 10a]