Rabbi Ḥiyya’s sons, Yehudah and Ḥizkiyya, were twins, but one of them was fully developed after nine months of pregnancy and one was fully developed at the beginning of the seventh month, and they were born two months apart.

Yehudit, the wife of Rabbi Ḥiyya, had acute birthing pain from these unusual deliveries. She changed her clothes (in disguise) and came before Rabbi Ḥiyya. She said: Is a woman commanded to be fruitful and multiply?

He said to her: No.

She went and drank an infertility potion. Eventually the matter was revealed.

He said to her: If only you had given birth to one more belly for me, i.e., another set of twins.

As the Master said: Yehuda and Ḥizkiyya were twin brothers and became prominent Torah scholars, and Pazi and Tavi, Rabbi Ḥiyya’s daughters, were twin sisters, and became the matriarchs of families of distinguished Torah scholars.

An incident involving a certain man who was diligent about the mitzva of tzitzit (ritual fringes).

This man heard that there was a prostitute in one of the cities overseas who took four hundred gold coins as her payment.

He sent her four hundred gold coins and fixed a time to meet with her.

When his time came, he came and sat at the entrance to her house.

The maidservant of that prostitute entered and said to her: That man who sent you four hundred gold coins came and sat at the entrance.

She said: Let him enter. He entered.

She arranged seven beds for him, six of silver and one of gold. Between each and every one was a ladder made of silver, and the top bed was made of gold.

She went up and sat naked on the top bed, and he too went up in order to sit naked facing her. In the meantime, his four ritual fringes came and slapped him on his face.

He dropped down and sat himself on the ground, and she also dropped down and sat on the ground. She said to him: by the love of Rome I will not allow you to go until you tell me what defect you saw in me.

He said to her: I take an oath by the Temple service that I never saw a woman as beautiful as you. But there is one mitzva that the Lord, our God, commanded us, and its name is ritual fringes, and in it, it is written twice:

“I am the Lord your God” (Numbers 15:41). I am the one who will punish, and I am the one who will reward.

Now, said the man, the four sets of ritual fringes appeared to me as if they were four witnesses who will testify against me. She said to him: I will not allow you to go until you tell me: What is your name, and what is the name of your city, and what is the name of your teacher, and what is the name of the study hall in which you studied Torah?

He wrote the information and placed it in her hand. She arose and divided all of her property, giving one-third as a bribe to the government, one-third to the poor, and she took one-third with her in her possession, in addition to those beds of gold and silver.

She came to the study hall of Rabbi Ḥiyya and said to him: My teacher, instruct your students concerning me and have them make me a convert.

Rabbi Ḥiyya said to her: My daughter, perhaps you set your sights on one of the students and that is why you want to convert? She took the note the student had given her from her hand and gave it to Rabbi Ḥiyya. He said to her: Go take possession of your purchase. Those beds that she had arranged for him in a prohibited fashion, she now arranged for him in a permitted fashion. The Gemara concludes: This is the reward given to him in this world, and with regard to the World-to-Come, I do not know how much reward he will be given. § Rav Yehuda says: In the case of a borrowed cloak, for the first thirty days it is exempt from ritual fringes; from then on it is obligated.

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Ashi was accustomed to say, whenever he would fall on his face in prayer: May the Merciful One save us from the evil inclination.

One day his wife heard him.

She said: After all, it has been several years since he has withdrawn from me. What is the reason that he says this? One day, while he was studying in his garden, she adorned herself and repeatedly walked past him.

He said: Who are you?

She said: I am Ḥaruta, (a well-known prostitute) returning from my day at work.

He propositioned her. She said to him: Give me that pomegranate from the top of the tree as payment.

He leapt up, went, and brought it to her, and they engaged in intercourse.

When he came home, his wife was lighting a fire in the oven. He went and sat inside it. She said to him: What is this? He said to her: Such and such an incident occurred.

She said to him: It was I.

He paid no attention to her, until she gave him signs that it was indeed she.

He said to her: I, in any event, intended to transgress.