Ḥalafta
ḤALAFTA
ḤALAFTA (early second century c.e.), tanna, father of the well-known tanna*Yose. Ḥalafta lived in *Sepphoris where he was a leader of the community (Tosef., Ta'an. 1:14; rh 27a). His colleague was *Johanan b. Nuri who discussed halakhah with him; seemingly among his associates were also *Akiva (bb 56b, where Ḥalafta is called Abba Ḥalafta as also in Shab. 115a; Tosef., bb 2:10; Tosef., Kelim, bm 1:5), *Ḥanina b. Teradyon (Ta'an. 2:5), and *Eleazar b. Azariah (Tosef., Kelim, bb 2:2). It is possible that in the last years of the Temple he was living in Jerusalem since he transmitted an incident about Gamaliel the Elder (Tosef., Shab. 13:2). Several statements by him in halakhah and aggadah have been preserved, some by his son Yose (Kelim 26:6; Tosef., Bek. 2:19, et al.).
bibliography:
Hyman, Toledot, s.v.; J. Kanowitz, Ma'arekhot Tanna'im, 2 (1967), 107–9.
[Zvi Kaplan]