Rav Pappa bar Shmuel (article preview)

A Mishnah (Bava Kamma 100b) discussed a dyer who damaged wool given to him to dye. If the wool was entirely destroyed by the cauldron, he pays the full value. If he dyed it unattractively (כָּאוּר) then the wool-owner pays the dyer the minimum of the dyer’s expenses and the value of the wool’s enhancement. 

What does כָּאוּר mean? In the gemara (100b-101a) Rav Nachman cites Rabba bar bar Channa that it is כַּלְבּוֹס. And, the gemara asks, what is כַּלְבּוֹס? Rabba bar Shmuel said כַּפְרָא דּוּדֵי, which Rashi explains as the sediments of dye in the cauldron from a previous dyeing, which he used to dye this new wool.

Prior to any analysis of the content, we should ensure we have the right people named. Rav Nachman bar Yaakov, a Babylonian third-generation Amora, citing an Israeli contemporary, should raise red flags. We’d instead expect him to cite his primary teacher, Rabba bar Avuah, a second-generation Babylonian Amora. Indeed, while printings (Vilna, Soncino, Venice) make this mistake, the manuscripts (Hamburg 165, Munich 95, Escorial, Bar Ilan 170, Oxford: Heb. b. 10/29–36) all have Rabba bar Avuah. So too, when the Aruch (entry כַּלְבּוֹס) quotes the gemara, it’s Rabba bar Avuah. Similarly, the Aruch and many manuscripts¹ have Rav Pappa bar Shmuel, not Rava bar Shmuel.

Vatican 116 manuscript

Rava / Rav Pappa bar Shmuel

Rava / Rabba bar Shmuel is a third-generation Amora, a reciter of bratyot in the days of Rav Chisda and Rav Sheshet. Sefer Yuchsin claims he’s the son of the famous Shmuel; Rav Hyman argues there’s no evidence of this.

Rabba bar Shmuel translates certain technical terms. Thus,