Pappa bar Abba's House
In today’s daf yomi, Bava Metzia 91a, we encounter (Rav) Pappa bar Abba and his “house”. Thus,
אָמַר רַב פָּפָּא: הָנֵי מִילֵּי בְּעוֹ מִינַּאי דְּבֵי רַב פָּפָּא בַּר אַבָּא, וּפְשַׁטִי לְהוּ לְאִיסּוּרָא – חֲדָא כְּהִלְכְתָא, וַחֲדָא דְּלָאו כְּהִלְכְתָא.
In relation to the above discussion, Rav Pappa said: These matters, stated below, were raised as a dilemma to me by the members of the house of Rav Pappa bar Abba, and I resolved these matters for them by saying that there is a prohibition in both cases. One of my decisions was in accordance with the halakha, and the other one was not in accordance with the halakha.
The Steinsaltz translation is “members of the house of Rav Pappa bar Abba”. Meanwhile, Artscroll renders דְּבֵי רַב פָּפָּא בַּר אַבָּא as “the academy of Rav Pappa bar Abba”.
I don’t know if Artscroll thinks that Pappa bar Abba is the same as Rav Pappa, in which case academy (at Naresh) makes sense, or they are simply translating the ambiguous bei as academy. Not all times does Pappa bar Abba merit the title “Rav”.
Exploring it as it appears in our sugya, the Florence 8-9 manuscript omits the title, even as de-bei looks similar to rabbi.
Vatican 115 just has R’ Pappa bar Abba asking Rav Pappa, which would certainly make Rav Pappa bar Abba a different person than Rav Pappa. Though we might wonder if that de-bei / rabbi was a confusion that occurred here.
Munich 95 just has Rav Pappa say that he was asked that, omitting the asker. This might be because it doesn’t make sense to have Rav Pappa explicitly discuss his own house / academy.
I am fairly sure it is plain Pappa bar Abba, a prominent, rich, and obese person in Rav Pappa’s generation, and therefore that it was the members of the household. This hooks into an earlier article I wrote. People assume that Rav Pappa was obese because of a few gemaras, but especially the one that has Rav Pappa states that Pappa bar Abba could break a bench by sitting on it.
However, he was not talking about himself. Read more here:
