Rav Sheravya in Kiddushin of Bei Levi
A curious brayta citation at the bottom of Bava Batra 52b.
תָּנֵי רַב הוֹשַׁעְיָא בְּקִדּוּשִׁין דְּבֵי לֵוִי: נָעַל, גָּדַר, פָּרַץ כׇּל שֶׁהוּא בְּפָנָיו – הֲרֵי זוֹ חֲזָקָה. בְּפָנָיו – אִין, שֶׁלֹּא בְּפָנָיו – לָא? אָמַר רָבָא, הָכִי קָאָמַר: בְּפָנָיו – לָא צְרִיךְ לְמֵימַר לֵיהּ: ״לֵךְ חֲזֵק וּקְנִי״,
Rav Hoshaya teaches in the baraita of tractate Kiddushin that was taught in the school of Levi: If one locked the door of the property, or fenced it or breached its fence even a bit, if this was done in the presence of the seller, this is considered taking possession of the property. The Gemara asks: One could infer that in his presence, yes, he acquires it; but not in his presence, no, he does not acquire it. Why not? In any event he has taken possession. Rava said that this is what Rav Hoshaya is saying: If the act was performed in the seller’s presence, the seller need not say to him: Go, take possession, and thereby acquire the property. Since the buyer is performing the act in the seller’s presence, there is no need for the seller to specify that he consents to the buyer’s acquiring it.
R’ Oshaya / Hoshaya usually would author Tosefta, so what is this tractate of Kiddushin in Levi’s academy?
This was an error in printed texts, in which they took a relatively unknown, infrequent Sage and replaced him with a more common one, especially one associated with braytot. Thus:
However, all the manuscripts on Hachi Garsinan, namely Florence 8-9, Hamburg 165, Munich 95, Oxford 369, Paris 1337, Escorial, Vatican 115b, and Stuttgart have רב שרביא or some slight variant thereof. The shin is there from Oshaya, as well as the final aleph, so we see how a scribe could err.
Here is Vatican 115b:
Here is the short entry in Seder HaDorot on Rav Sheravya:
רב שרביה פסחים (צ"ח א'), אמר לאביי בכורות (י"ט א'). ב"מ (ס"ד סע"א), שלח לאביי ב"ב (קס"ו ב') אמר לרבא יבמות (קי"ב א'). משמיה דרבא יבמות פ"ג, ושבת (קל"ו ב') וא"ל רבינא (שם), כתובות (ק"ב ב') קדושין (ט' רע"ב, מ"ח סע"א) רבא ורבינא אמרי מקודשת רב פפא ורב שרביה אמרי אינה מקודשת. והם שנים. לא ידעתי מנ"ל דהא כל הני הנ"ל היו בדור אחד. כתב היוחסין באגרת רש"ג תני רב שרביה בקדושין דבי לוי, לא מצאתי זה בש"ס ונ"ל שצ"ל תני רב שמעיה בר זירא בקדושי דבי לוי (ע"ל):
This would seem to be a student of Rava, namely a fifth-generation contemporary of Rav Pappa. It is a good question how we know that there weren’t multiple Rav Sheravya. What exacly is Bei Levi, and did this exist in fifth-generation Amora Bavel? Or was he citing the Kiddushin deVei Levi, a much earlier brayta. For Levi was a fairly early Amora.
He quotes the sefer Yuchsin whos quotes the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon, with the correct text of our gemara. The proposal (from him, from Yuchsin — I didn’t track it down to figure out which) is to emend the text to Rav Shemaya bar Zeira in the Kiddushin of Bei Levi. (You can read his entry here in Toledot Tannaim vaAmoraim, as a student of Abaye and Rava.) I don’t think this is right, and we have all these manuscripts that support Rav Sherira Gaon’s text.
Anyway, here is what Rav Hyman has to say about Rav Sheravya:
