Helpetha I (Aramaic: חֶלְפְּתָא, romanized: 'Helpetha,
lit. 'willow'),[a] commonly mispronounced Halafta, was a rabbi who lived in
Sepphoris in the
Galilee during the late 1st and early 2nd centuries CE (second generation of
tannaim). He was the father of
Jose ben Helpetha and
Shimon ben Helpetha, also serving as their teacher. He is cited without
patronymic or
cognomen in the Mishnah, but as Abba Helpetha in the
Talmuds.[11]
In Derekh Eretz Rabbah a certain Abba Helpetha cites his father Abba Hagra,[b] and the same Helpetha ben Hagra cites
Johanan ben Nuri in t. Bava Kamma 9:31 and b. Shabbat 105b. According to
Paul Romanoff, Helpetha I and Helpetha ben Hagra are the same person,[12][13] but most other scholars disagree. Helpetha I is certainly not to be confused with any of the scholars named "Helpetha of Kiruya",[c][14] or with "Helpetha of
Kfar Hananiah", "Helpetha ben Shaul," and "Helpetha of Huna", later scholars.[11]
His descent is traced back to Jonadab the
Rechabite.[15] He was a senior contemporary of
Gamaliel II and Johanan ben Nuri[16] and conducted a rabbinic school at
Sepphoris. Here he introduced some ritual reforms.[17]
Helpetha seems to have attained an advanced age. He communicated to Gamaliel II an order given by his grandfather
Gamaliel I, and which he had himself heard in the last years of Judea's independence;[19] he subsequently participated in the
Akavia controversy,[20] and later he is met with in the company of
Eleazar ben Azariah,
Ḥoẓpit the Interpreter, Yeshebab, and Johanan ben Nuri, when they were old.[21] But few halakhot are preserved in his name, and most of these were transmitted by his more famous son, Jose.[22]
One of Jose's sons was named Helpetha after his grandfather, but he died young.
^In the Vienna Tosefta, Makhshirin 3:2: חילפתא בן קוינה. In the editio princeps (misprinted?): חילפתא בן קוינח. In
Samson of Sens (6:2): חלפתא בן קוניא. In
Menahem Meiri's introduction to Avot, editio princeps: חלפתא בן קבינה, MS קרינא. Can perhaps be identified with the אבא חליפא/חלפיי/חילפי/חילפיי/חילפא/חלקיה who was מן קוריא/קירויא/קרויא/קורייה or בן קרויא/קרויה, mentioned in y. Maaser Sheni 4:1, b. Bava Batra 123a, t. Maaser Sheni 4:2, Bereishit Rabbah passim, etc. See
Ratner, Ahavat Zion Virushalayim vol. XII p. 183, but the citations appear to vary widely in date.