And All of Rav's Students (article summary)
My article for this past Shabbat actually targeted a sugya that we cover today, Sanhedrin 57. Ignore the title — the better title is “And All of Rav’s Students”, but I changed it after I had submitted the article to the Jewish Link.
Here is the article (paid Substack, Jewish Link HTML, flipbooks) or image:
Also, there is not much you can figure out from that tiny manuscript image, so I will reproduce the manuscript image. What we are supposed to see in that image is in the first few lines, that it is Shmuel sitting with all the students of Rav, but, unlike the Vilna text, Rav Yehuda is not explicitly listed as sitting with them. Still, he certainly is there. It is just not in the official group list.
The basic idea is that, on Sanhedrin 57, there’s a group who have an opinion: Rav Huna, Rav Yehuda, and all of Rav’s students.
I claim that this group of second-generation Amoraim is a somewhat fixed group, in a specific time and place. Namely, right after Rav’s death, and preceding Shmuel’s death and Rav Huna assuming leadership in Sura academy, there was a group of unmoored students. They certainly maintained halachic positions, but they often were uncertain and looked to Shmuel, or to elders, for guidance. Rav Huna is one of Rav’s students but he’s still a student, not a leader of the academy. Rav Yehuda as well has not gone on to establish Pumbedita academy (also after Shmuel’s death). Which he latches on to Shmuel, he still has this student role, amongst Rav’s students. Maybe Rav Huna and Rav Yehuda have prominence among the rest of Rav’s students at this stage.
In the article, I survey the times that this grouping appears. There is also a theme, of lack of knowledge of halachot related to meals and birkat hamazon, a lack caused by Rav’s absence.