R. Hama son of Bita also went to study for twelve years. When he returned home, he said: "I will not act like Hakinai, who entered his house without previous warning."

So what did he do? He sat down at the entrance of the college and sent a message to his family, informing them that he had returned. Then his son R. Oshaya came and sat down beside him, but R. Hama did not recognize him.

When R. Oshaya asked him a question in the halakah, R. Hama noticed that he was very clever in dialectics. So he said: "If I had stayed at home, I too might have had a clever son like this man."

He meant that if he had stayed at home, he would have taught his son to become as clever as that man. Then he went home.

Soon afterwards, his son, R. Oshaya, came in. R. Hama rose to greet him. He thought that he had come to ask him another question of religious law, for he did not know that he was his son.

Then the wife of R. Hama said: "It is not proper that the father should rise before his son."

Then R. Hama said: "What is this that I hear? Is this my son? Blessed be the Lord who has granted me such a son, whilst I was away."

And he applied to him the verse of the Bible: 'And a threefold cord is not easily broken' (Eccd. 4.12), for R. Oshaya used to discuss also with his grandfather Bita, and if a man has grandchildren who study the Torah, then the Torah is permanently established and remains constantly with him.