Rav Sama bar Yehuda רב סמא בר יהודה

Rav Sherira Gaon dates the age of the Savoraim from the day of Ravina's death—the thirteenth of Kislev 4260—and the first in his list of those who died is Rav Sama bar Yehuda, Sivan 4264.

Of the man himself the letter says nothing: no town, no students, no saying. That is not a copyist's lapse but a property of the age. The Savoraim did not rule anew—they laid what had been said into a text: wrote the connective passages, put a question where the thought broke off, explained why one chapter follows another. Work done so as not to be seen leaves no name behind it.