Rav Huna bar Chinena (article preview)

We’ve discussed many famous Amoraim, but it’s also nice to better know less famous ones when we encounter them, even if such knowledge doesn’t impact our understanding of the sugya. On Kiddushin 20-21, Rav Huna bar Chinena poses several questions to Rav Sheshet. What do we know about this Amora?

Rav Huna bar Chinena is a fourth-generation Amora. Moed Katan 9b relates that (second and third-generation) Rav Chisda’s wife would adorn herself with various cosmetic treatments on Chol Hamoed in the presence of her daughter-in-law, meaning when she already had a married son. Rav Huna bar Chinena sat before Rav Chisda and said that they only taught this allowance in the Mishnah for young women (since it gives them joy), not old women. Rav Chisda exclaimed, “By Gosh! Even your mother, your mother’s mother, and even a woman standing at the edge of her grave is permitted to adorn herself. As the saying goes, a sixty year old woman, just like a six year old woman, runs at the sound of timbrels.” He also quotes Rav Chisda in Moed Katan 16a, about giving someone three warnings (on Monday, Thursday, Monday) before excommunication.

He was also a student of Rav Yosef in Pumpedita. In Eruvin 14b, Rav Yosef cited Rav Yehuda citing Shmuel that the halacha not in accordance with Rabbi Yossi, neither regarding preparing brine on Shabbat (that there’s no difference between a little and a lot of salt), nor regarding sideposts (that a lechi need be three handbreadths wide). Rav Huna bar Chinena piped up