Yehudai ben Nahman (or Yehudai Gaon;

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: יהודאי גאון, sometimes: Yehudai b. Nahman) was the head of the

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy a ...

Sura A ''surah'' (; ar, سورة, sūrah, , ), is the equivalent of "chapter" in the Qur'an. There are 114 ''surahs'' in the Quran, each divided into '' ayats'' (verses). The chapters or ''surahs'' are of unequal length; the shortest surah ('' Al-K ...

from 757 to 761, during the Gaonic period of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...

. He was originally a member of the academy of

Pumbedita Pumbedita (sometimes Pumbeditha, Pumpedita, or Pumbedisa; arc, פוּמְבְּדִיתָא ''Pūmbəḏīṯāʾ'', "The Mouth of the River,") was an ancient city located near the modern-day city of Fallujah, Iraq. It is known for having hosted t ...

, but Exilarch Solomon ben Hisdai appointed him as Gaon of Sura as "there is no one there (at Sura) as distinguished as he is for wisdom". He waged a strong campaign, continued by his disciple Pirqoi ben Baboi, for the acceptance of the Babylonian

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

as the standard for Jewish law in all countries. This was opposed by the Jews of Eretz Yisrael, who relied on the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

and their own older traditions. Yehudai argued that, as a result of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

persecution, the Jews of Eretz Yisrael had only preserved Jewish tradition in a fragmentary and unreliable form.

Works

He was author of the book ''Halachot Pesukot'', which discusses those

halachot ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

that were practiced in the

Diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

since the destruction of the

Second Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...

. The text, which is generally organized along the same pattern as the tractates of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cent ...

, was the subject of many abridgements and summaries. The original was lost for many years, and was only known in the form of a Hebrew paraphrase called ''Hilchot Re'u'' (publishe
Versailles 1886
, until it was discovered in a Yemenite manuscript purchased in 1911 and published i
Jerusalem in 1951

Halachoth Gedoloth controversy

One rabbinic school of thought credits him with authorship of the ''Halachot Gedolot'', or of the core of it, though it is generally agreed that the final form of that work is to be attributed to Simeon Kayyara. Based on anachronistic discrepancies, the '' Semags opinion that it was Rav Yehudai Gaon who composed the work Halachoth Gedoloth was thought to be an error. Rabbi David Gans may have been the first to suggest that the ''Semag'', in referring to "Rav Yehudai" as the author, was actually alluding to Rav Yehudai Hakohen ben Ahunai, Gaon of the Sura Academy (served 4519 - 4524 of the

Hebrew calendar The Hebrew calendar ( he, הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, translit=HaLuah HaIvri), also called the Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today for Jewish religious observance, and as an official calendar of the state of Israel ...

)Tzemach David to year 5000, vol. 1, p. 46 (Warsaw 5638 Hebrew Calendar) At all events the ''Halachot Pesukot'' was an important source for the larger work.

References

* Robert Brody, ''The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture'', Yale 1998 Geonim 8th-century rabbis Rabbis of Academy of Sura Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown Exponents of Jewish law Authors of books on Jewish law {{MEast-rabbi-stub