[a] Like Leviticus itself, the midrash is occasionally called Torat Kohanim,[1] and in two passages Sifra debbe Rav.
[2] Maimonides, in the introduction to his Yad ha-Ḥazaḳah, and others[3] have declared that the title Sifra debbe Rav indicates Abba Arikha is the author.
[4] His proofs are not conclusive, though neither are the opposing arguments of Friedmann,[5] who tries to show that the expression Sifra debbe Rav does not refer to the midrash under discussion.
Hoffmann remarks[10] not incorrectly that Sifra Nedabah 4:12 agrees with the views of R. Eliezer,[11] whose decision R. Judah frequently accepts as handed down by his own father, R. Ila'i, a pupil of R.
More doubtful is the relation to R. Ishmael's midrash; and in this connection must be considered the question whether the citation of certain explanations of Leviticus introduced by the formula תנא דבי ר"י and actually found in Sifra is not in part due to confusion.
1b) were not publicly taught in R. Akiva's school; i.e., Aḥare, 13:3-15; Ḳedoshim, 9:1-7, 11:14,[17] and finally, of course, the so-called Baraita de-Rabbi Yishma'el (beginning).
It exists in two recensions, of which the second, covering mishnayot 14-16 and 29-end, is cited by Rashi as "Baraita ha-Nosefet 'al Torat Kohanim she-Lanu."
[25] The Babylonian Talmud occasionally makes use, in reference to the Sifra, of the rule "mi she-shanah zu lo shanah zu" (i.e., the assigning of different parts of one halakah to different authorities),[26] but unnecessarily, since it is possible to harmonize the apparently conflicting sentences and thereby show that they may be assigned to the same authority.