The Five Rav Kahanas, Part II
Here is my Jewish Link article for this week. I should have a further followup about bei Rav Kahana as another post here, later today or tomorrow.
In last week’s column, I discussed which Rav Kahana owned chickens. That is, [A] a cat chased a chicken or hen of Rav Kahana’s house, had a door slammed in its face, and it struck the door with its paw. Later, five drops of blood or venom were found on the door. This was taken as evidence that a cat is venomous even if there is no one around to save its prey (Chullin 52b). There are five Amoraim named Rav Kahana with no patronymic who appear in the gemara, and we wondered which Rav Kahana this was. Admittedly, there are low stakes to this particular chicken-ownership question. However, we more generally want to construct biographies of the Amoraim, and to construct consistent legal positions held by individual Amoraim. For any statement or sugya, we need to disambiguate the Rav Kahana (or the Ravina, or Rabbi Zeira, or Rav Asi) involved and only then assemble our biographic or legal portfolio.
Again, last week, I quoted Rav Aharon Hyman who, in Toledot Tannaim veAmoraim, gives background on each Rav Kahana. Rav Hyman distinguished between two fairly early Amoraim. Rav Kahana I was a kohen, a first-generation Amora who was a student-colleague (talmid chaver) of Rav. Meanwhile, Rav Kahana II was a non-kohen, a second-generation Amora who was Rav’s student. He divided Rav Kahana in twain based on contradictions from various sugyot, but I suggested ways to resolve those contradictions. Finally, I pointed out that, immediately after the (second telling of the) cat chasing the hen of בֵּי רַב כָּהֲנָא, the gemara records [B] a conversation between Rav Kahana and Rav regarding clawing cats and weasels. If that Amora was Rav Kahana I or II, then Rav Kahana of the preceding segment could convincingly be the same person.
However, sugya [C] immediately follows. Rav Ashi (a sixth-generation Amora) posed an inquiry: regarding other non-kosher birds aside from a netz / hawk, do they have “clawing” which would render an animal they clawed a tereifa? Rav Hillel said to Rav Ashi: When we were in בֵּי רַב כָּהֲנָא, that is, the academy of Rav Kahana, he said that other birds do have clawing.
Sugya [D], which immediately follows, has Rav Kahana quote Rav Shimi bar Ashi1 (a fifth-generation Amora who was a ben bayit of fourth-generation Abaye) that a fox does have “clawing”. Rav Dimi, a third- and fourth-generation Amora, carrying a tradition from the Land of Israel, takes the opposite position.
Some of the later instances of Rav Kahana, such as in [D], could not be Rav Kahana I or II, since a first- or second-generation Amora wouldn’t quote a fifth-generation Amora. Let us explore the remaining three Rav Kahanas.
Rav Kahana III
In Toledot Tannaim veAmoraim, Rav Aharon Hyman writes that Rav Kahana III was a fourth-generation Amora who was a primary student (talmid muvhak) of third-generation Rabba (bar Nachmani). In Sanhedrin 41b, he and Rav Safra were studying the tractate of Sanhedrin in בי רבה, Rabba’s academy (which was located in Pumbedita) when Rami bar Chama encountered them and asked them what was being studied in Rabba’s academy.
One issue I occasionally have with Rav Hyman’s analyses is that they are based on the printed text, and several manuscripts – Yad HaRav Herzog, Karlsruhe Reuchlin 2 – have the academy of Rava instead. Munich 95 has בי רבה but with the heh then corrected to an aleph, though Florence 8-9 has בי רבה. Rav Safra is a fourth-generation Amora, which would make a fourth-generation Rav Kahana plausible. However, I wonder whether this is really a reference to Rav Safra IV, who is Rava’s student. Rav Hyman also points to Shevuot 36b, where Rav Kahana encounters several students studying Shevuot in Rabba’s academy. Here, the weight of manuscripts (including Munich 95, Vatican 140) leans towards Rabba, with Florence 8-9 having bei Rav, meaning the academy.
He visited third-generation Rav Yosef in Nedarim 22b, where Rav Yosef encouraged him to taste something, but Rav Kahana refused. He visited the Land of Israel and was ordained there. Passages in Yerushalmi establish Rabbi Kahana as a Babylonian and a kohen, which means that he must be a different Rav Kahana than the one who was exiled and studied under Rabbi Yochanan.
Rav Kahana IV
Next is fifth-generation Rav Kahana IV, who is Rava’s student. We see that he often cites Rava, for instance in Bava Kamma 41b. His colleagues, with whom he interacts, include fifth-generation Rav Bibi bar Abaye and Rav Pappa. In many places, we see this Rav Kahana was the leader of Pum Nahara. For one instance of many, in Bava Batra 22a, wool-sellers came to Pum Nahara but the townsfolk stopped them from selling, imposing a local monopoly. That case came before Rav Kahana. In Chullin 95b, Rav Chanan of Nehardea arrived at Rav Kahana’s home in Pum Nahara on erev Yom Kippur. Ravens dropped livers and kidneys, and Rav Kahana told Rav Chanan that he could eat them.
Rav Kahana of Pum Nahara was sixth-generation Rav Ashi’s teacher. Rav Ashi often relates what Rav Kahana said or what they would do “when we were in Bei Rav Kahana”, that is, Rav Kahana’s academy. See Berachot 39a, 42a; Ketubot 69a, Bava Kamma 95b, 114a; Chullin 97b, Bava Batra 22b. Important for us, Rav Hyman includes Chullin 53b, where Rav Ashi said: When we were in Rav Kahana’s academy, they brought before us a lung that would keep its structural integrity when set down but when picked up would disintegrate, and we deemed the animal a tereifa based on the statement of (fifth-generation) Rav Huna son of Rav Yehoshua.
Many interactions further demonstrate this student relationship, in which Rav Ashi says “I related this report before Rav Kahana”, in Bava Metzia 92a, Chullin 11b, and several other sugyot. Rav Ashi reacts to Rav Kahana in Shabbat 137a, Pesachim 72b, Beitza 50a, and so on, saying that an explanation is difficult. Rav Hyman reads these as a student interacting with a teacher. I am not sure if objection demonstrates a student relationship more than a colleague relationship, and might place these as Rav Kahana V, assuming he exists.
Further, in certain interactions (Succah 7a, Yevamot 106b, Megillah 7b, Shabbat 136a), Rav Ashi calls this Rav Kahana “Mar”, meaning master. I think Rav Hyman understands “Mar” as indicating that Rav Ashi is the student. All these instances are objections to a position or practice that Rav Kahana displayed, where Rav Ashi asks, “didn’t the Master learn that which Rava said”. Still, I agree it works best if this is a student gently correcting his teacher, especially if Rav Kahana is also primarily Rava’s student2. Rav Hyman also notes that Rav Kahana IV held his student Rav Ashi in great respect, and referred to Rav Ashi as Mar. Specifically, in Yevamot 101b, Rav Ashi visited Rav Kahana’s academy. Rav Kahana asked him, “Does Mar want to complete the quorum of five for chalitza?” Rav Hyman discounts the possibility that this is Rav Kahana V, because of the power imbalance, with Rav Ashi being much more prominent.
Rav Kahana V
Finally, sixth-generation Rav Kahana V was Rav Ashi’s colleague. He was a student of Rav Pappa (Shabbat 89a), Rav Pappi and Rav Zevid (Sotah 45a), and Rav Shimi bar Ashi (Chullin 11b), all fifth-generation Amoraim. For instance, in Shabbat 89a, a Sage said to him, why don’t you frequent the academy of Rav Pappa and Rav Huna son of Rav Yehoshua (in Naresh), who delve into aggada3? It seems that Rav Kahana followed this advice, because we see interactions with Rav Pappa (Ketubot 86a, Gittin 89a).
Rav Sherira Gaon, in his Epistle, wrote that this Rav Kahana presided over Pumbedita academy after Rafram in approximately 394 - 413 CE. Despite this, Rav Ashi’s academy in Sura was the greater one, with all subjugated under him. This was because, in Sura, they were redacting the Talmud and all the Sages of the generation gathered there for lectures regarding how to apply halacha practically.
Assigning Rav Kahanas
My deliberately tentative suggestion, in last week’s column, was that Rav Kahana I or II owned the chicken in segment [A]. I would now suggest that it was Rav Kahana IV, of Pum Nahara. The cat was in בֵּי רַב כָּהֲנָא. Even though both Rav Steinsaltz and ArtScroll render this as Rav Kahana’s house, in every other occurrence across the Talmud, בֵּי רַב כָּהֲנָא is Rav Kahana’s academy in Pum Nahara, which Rav Ashi attended (as discussed above).
Segment [B] has him speak to Rav, so it has to be Rav Kahana I or II, as discussed last week4. Segment [C] has Rav Hillel relate to Rav Ashi what they did in בֵּי רַב כָּהֲנָא, so that is again Rav Kahana IV. Segment [D] has him quote Rav Shimi bar Ashi, so Rav Hyman says this is Rav Kahana V.
It seems quite strange to switch between so many Rav Kahanas in a single sugya5. Perhaps the Talmudic Redactors, arranging the sugya, believed that context would make it easy to disambiguate. Further, the Rav Kahanas appear in approximately chronological order. Alternatively, the arrangement is topical, and the arranger did not care about, or perhaps know about, conflating Rav Kahanas. Still, knowing which Rav Kahana said what seems like it might be important for establishing consistent legal positions.
Alternatively, note that Hamburg 169, in the second text-internal variant of the story, has איכא דאמרי אמ' רב כהנא ואיתימ' רב שימי בר אשי יש דרוסה לשועל
This is not entirely solid, since colleagues also sometimes refer to each other as Mar, and the gentle correction case might call for this title.
Rav Steinsaltz concurs with this reading in his Hebrew commentary; ArtScroll translates likewise. In the English commentary, Rav Kahana says this to the anonymous Sage.
Unless we emend, without manuscript evidence, Rav as interlocutor to Rava, which would allow him to be Rav Kahana IV.
For another instance, see Yevamot 101a, mentioned above. The first Rav Kahana in that sugya is Rav Kahana IV, but then Rav Kahana speaks of his interaction with second-generation Rav Yehuda, so Rav Hyman reads that as referring to Rav Kahana III.