Rav Achai bar Huna רב אחאי בר הונא
a Savora whose name stands here and there in the Talmud itself
Rav Achai bar Huna is named in Rav Sherira's letter among the Savoraim of the first generation; the year of his death is the fourth of Adar 4266, one of the few dates of the age given with the day of the month.
What sets him apart is something else. In several places in the Talmud an objection stands in the name of "Rav Achai", and Rashbam—Rashi's grandson—wrote that this is a Savora and not an Amora: the voice of a man who was himself assembling this text remained inside what he assembled. If so, here is the rare case where the work of the Savoraim is visible not by style but by name.
He is not to be confused with Rav Achai of Shabcha, who wrote the Sheiltot: that one lived two and a half centuries later.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Seder Tannaim veAmoraim — the name in the list of Savoraim and the order of generations
Documents of the period
- Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — death — the fourth of Adar 4266, in the list of Savoraim
Basis: documents and evidence.