Grave

Chiya

Tanna (Zohar HaKadosh)

Rabbi Chiya bar Aba bar Acha, a native of the Babylonian city of Kafri, taught and disseminated Torah in Eretz Yisrael. His resting place is in Tzfat (the new industrial zone - above Wadi Amud). He was one of the last of the Tannaim - the sages who worked on compiling the Mishnah, which was finally edited in its final form by Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. He was the foremost disciple of Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai, frequently mentioned in the Zohar. He took part in both the Idra Rabba and the Idra Zuta. After Rabbi Shimon's passing, Rabbi Chiya fasted twice for 40 days in order to see him. He was shown a vision in which he entered Rashbi's heavenly academy and saw the Mashiach. At the instruction of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, to whom he was especially close and who often sought his counsel on many halachic matters, he participated together with his colleague and former student, the illustrious Rav Oshaya, in gathering and editing the text of the Tosefta - a collection of laws not included in the Mishnah. In both Talmuds he is referred to as Chiya Rabba - Chiya the Great. He was renowned not only for his scholarship and righteousness, but also for his diligence in spreading Torah among children in every corner of the Holy Land. It was said of him that he made nets to catch deer, from whose hides parchment was prepared for Torah scrolls; these scrolls he would send to the most remote towns to teach children. He devised an original teaching system: he divided the students of the cheder into five groups, each group learning one of the Five Books of the Torah; he would then form groups of five students, one from each group, so that each student would teach the others the book he had learned. He required teachers to teach in the holy tongue, maintaining that Egyptian Jewry had degenerated precisely because they learned Torah in Greek translation. He personally taught Torah to his nephews (one of them the great Rav, the other Rabbah bar Chana) and encouraged them to go to Bavel to spread Torah knowledge there. In doing so, he laid the foundation for a new, Babylonian, stage in the development of Judaism. It was in Babylonia that the Talmud was later written. The text of the Gemara testifies that with Rabbi Chiya's arrival in Eretz Yisrael, dry desert winds ceased, predators stopped attacking settlements, and wine stopped spoiling. When he died, the entire nation went into mourning. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said of him: "Fortunate is the generation in which people like Rabbi Chiya live." Rabbi Chiya is buried beneath Tzfat's new industrial zone, above Wadi Amud. Although Rabbi Chaim Vital describes the location of the grave based on the words of the Arizal, over the years its location was lost. Yisrael Meir Gabbai and Ohalei Tzadikim say that they determined the correct location of the grave based on their research. May the merit of the tzadik protect our people! (Zissil.com)