Mar Kashisha b. Rav Huna (article preview)

Bava Metzia 17b

On Bava Metzia 17b, Mar Kashisha b. Rav Chisda speaks to Rav Ashi, to question Abaye’s apparent assumption that a widow from mere betrothal collects her ketubah. This diachronic sugya involving multiple actors from two countries – second-generation Rabbi Yochanan who pronounces a rule that we don’t accept a claim that a debt has been repaid if the court established a debt; his third-generation student, Rabbi Chiya bar Abba, who questioned whether the idea needed to be stated, since it was evident from a Mishnah; Rabbi Yochanan saying the idea in the Mishnah was a pearl discovered only because he had lifted the clay shard covering it; fourth-generation Abaye questioning whether this is truly a pearl, then retracting for a reason either explicitly stated or expanded upon by later generations; Mar Kashisha b. Rav Chisda objecting to sixth-generation Rav Ashi; and finally an anonymous revision of Abaye’s reason for retracting. 

Let’s learn more about Mar Kashisha, even if only to place his scholastic generation. He certainly spoke to Rav Ashi, but is he a sixth-generation Amora? If his father is indeed third-generation Rav Chisda, could he have directly interacted with fourth-generation Abaye?