BEYOND METHUSELAH—WHO IS OLD?
passed beyond[the limit of] karet.” Said Abaye to him:“Granted, Sir, that you have passed the[limit of] karet as to years, but as to the[limit of sickening] days have you escaped that?” He replied: “Nevertheless, hold on to the half.” Huna ’s soul went into repose suddenly, and the Rabbis [of the academy] were perturbed[thereat] when Zoga, who hailed from Adiabene , taught them: What we learned applied only when one has not attained the“age of strength”[eighty] but if one has attained the“age of strength”[eighty] a sudden death is dying by the kiss.
Raba said:[Length of] life, children and sustenance depend not on merit but[rather on] mazal. For [take] Rabbah and R. Hisda. Both were saintly Rab bis ; one master prayed for rain and it came, the other master prayed for rain and it came. R. Hisda lived to the age of ninety-two. Rabbah lived[only] to the age of forty. In R. Hisda’s house there were held sixty marriage feasts, at Rabbah’s house there were sixty bereavements. At R. Hisda’s house there was the purest wheaten bread for dogs, and it went to waste; at Rabbah’s house there was barley bread for human beings and that not be had. This, too, Raba said: These three requests I made of Heaven; two were granted me and one was not.[I prayed for] the scholarship of R. Huna and the wealth of R. Hisda, which were granted me; but the modest disposition of Rabbah son of R. Huna , that was not granted me”!®