רב אחא בריה דרב אויא

Rav Acha bereh deRav Avya was a Babylonian amora of the sixth generation and a talmid-chaver of Rav Ashi. He is mentioned in the Talmud Bavli some twenty times, in every case in halachic give-and-take with Rav Ashi.

His identity is a matter of dispute among those who wrote the toldot of the sages. The author of Seder HaDorot held that he is the Rav Acha bar Avya cited several times as a talmid of Rabbi Asi and Rabbi Yochanan, among the earliest of the amoraim — and that the Rav Ashi he debates is Rav Ashi HaKadmon of the second generation, not Rav Ashi who arranged the Talmud. Rav Aharon Hyman, in his Toldot Tannaim v’Amoraim, held otherwise: Rav Acha bar Avya is a different amora of the third generation, while Rav Acha bereh deRav Avya is the son of Rav Avya, talmid-chaver of Rav Ashi who arranged the Talmud, of the sixth generation — and by all appearances he had a hand with him in that arrangement. Hyman brings that Sefer Yuchasin holds this way as well.

There are those who identify him with Rav Adda bereh deRav Avya and with Rav Acha bar Avira, each of whom appears in the Talmud a single time, and some hold that Rav Adda bar Rav Aza is he as well.