Who Was Levi Sava?
In Friday’s daf, Chullin 29b, we have this dispute:
אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן לָקִישׁ מִשּׁוּם לֵוִי סָבָא: אֵינָהּ לִשְׁחִיטָה אֶלָּא בַּסּוֹף, וְרַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אָמַר: יֶשְׁנָהּ לִשְׁחִיטָה מִתְּחִלָּה וְעַד סוֹף.
§ Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says in the name of Levi the Elder: Halakhic slaughter is accomplished only at its conclusion. And Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Halakhic slaughter is accomplished from the beginning to the end of the act.
Who is Levi the Elder? Is he the same as Levi bar Sisi?
According to Hebrew Wikipedia, he is.
רבי לוי בר סיסי (או סתם לוי[1], לוי סבא) היה מחכמי ארץ ישראל (ולימים עקר לבבל) בדור המעבר מתקופת התנאים לתקופת האמוראים, ולכן הוא נחשב גם לתנא וגם לאמורא. כחכמים אחרים מבני דורו גם לוי סידר קובץ של ברייתות שהובא כמה פעמים בשני התלמודים[2].
I can see it, given that Levi would be of the appropriate generation to be cited by Reish Lakish. However, this just seems wrong. The purpose of a descriptor like Sava / the Elder is to distinguish him from the plain Levi. But this article is claiming that he is the same as the plain Levi, namely ben Sisi.
Rav Aharon Hyman said something other than this identification. Namely,
in the first entry in the image. So Levi Sava is a likely scribal error for Levi Sichya. This makes sense because it is an uncommon name, so a scribe could correct it to Sava because it kind-of looks like it.
Second, notice how Rav Hyman is willing to emend Levi Sarisa into Levi bar Sisi. What happened to “bar”. If he is willing to do this, I am not sure why we could not do a similar Levi Sichya from Levi Sisiya which is a form of Levi bar Sisi. If so, we have come full circle to Levi Sava actually being the famous Levi.