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Hoshaiah or Oshaya (Also spelled: Oshaia; , ; died ca. 350 CE) was a
Oshaya the Seer
/ref>
Hoshaiah or Oshaya (Also spelled: Oshaia; , ; died ca. 350 CE) was a Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
amora of the 3rd and 4th amoraic generations.
Biography
It is supposed that his colleague Hanina was his brother. They were lineal descendants from Eli the priest, which circumstance they assigned as reason forJohanan Yohanan, Yochanan and Johanan are various transliterations to the Latin alphabet of the Hebrew male given name ('), a shortened form of ('), meaning "YHWH is gracious".
The name is ancient, recorded as the name of Johanan, high priest of the S ...
's failure to ordain them. For a living they plied the shoemaker's trade. Furthermore, the Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
refers once to Hoshaiah and Hanina as rabbis (with the generic term ''Rav''), when dealing with the laws differentiating magic as illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people.
Illusions may oc ...
and as wizardry
''Wizardry'' is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original ''Wizardry'' was a significant influence on early console role-playing ...
. Hoshaiah and his colleague stand out as producing magic while studying Sefer Yetzirah, which is there considered neither illusion (''aḥizat eynayim'', literally "catching of the eyes") nor sorcery.
Hoshaiah and Hanina are also mentioned in connection with a certain bath-house, the ownership of which was contested by two persons, one of whom turned over the property as " hekdesh" (for sacred use), causing Hoshaiah, Hanina, and other rabbis to leave it.
On the day Hoshaiah died, it is claimed, the largest date-palm in Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's F ...
was uprooted and fell.
Modern figures by this name
Since the late twentieth century, a Jewish illusionist borrowed this name in being called Oshaya the Seer, obviously inspired by the famous amora and his skills in the magical arts./ref>
References
Heilprin, Seder ha-Dorot
Jehiel ben Solomon Heilprin ( he, יחיאל היילפרין; c. 1660 – c. 1746) was a Lithuanian rabbi, kabalist, and chronicler.
Biography
He was a descendant of Solomon Luria, and traced his genealogy back through Rashi to the tanna Johan ...
, ii.36, Warsaw, 1878;
* Frankel, Mebo, p. 75, Breslau, 1870;
*Jolles, Bet Wa'ad, p. 20a, Cracow, 1884;
*Bacher, ''Ag. Pal. Amor.'' iii.565.
{{Amoraim
350s deaths
Talmud rabbis of the Land of Israel
4th-century rabbis
Year of birth unknown