Amram Ben Sheshna

Amram bar Sheshna or Amram Gaon ( or ; died 875) was a gaon or head of the Academy of Sura in Lower Mesopotamia in the ninth century.

He authored many responsa, but his chief work was liturgical. He was the first to arrange a complete liturgy for the synagogue. His siddur (''Siddur Rav Amram'' or ''Seder Rav Amram''), which took the form of a long responsum to the Jews of al-Andalus, is still extant and was an important influence on most of the current rites in use among Rabbinic Jews.

Biography

Amram ben Sheshna was a pupil of Natronai ben Hilai, Gaon of Sura, and was exceptionally honored with the title of Gaon within the lifetime of his teacher. Eventually, he broke away from his teacher and started his own seat of learning.

Upon Natronai's death, about 857, the full title and dignities of the ''geonate'' were conferred upon Amram, a title which he held for 18 years, until his death.

Responsa

He is the author of about 120 responsa, most of which were published in Salonica in 1792 in a collection entitled ''Sha'arei Tzedek'', touching almost every aspect of Jewish jurisprudence. They afford insight into Amram's personality as well as religious practice among Jews of that period. For example, the ruling that interest may not be exacted even from non-Jews, nor even such minor profits as the Talmud designates as "the dust of interest", these being allowed only when customary in non-Jewish business circles. It is characteristic of Amram's method to avoid extreme stringency; thus he decides that a slave who has embraced Judaism but desires to postpone circumcision until he feels strong enough for it, is not to be hurried. He combats superstition and places himself almost in opposition to the Talmud when he protests that there is no sense in fasting on account of bad dreams since the true nature of dreams is not known. Amram's rules concerning the methodology of the Talmud are of considerable value.

Amram Ga'on responded to a query from the Jewish community in al-Andalus regarding synagogue practice, and his reply became the basis for the Sephardic prayer tradition.

Siddur Rav Amram

The most important work of Amram, marking him as one of the most prominent of the geonim before Saadiah, is his prayer book, the so-called ''Siddur Rav Amram''. Amram was the first to arrange a complete liturgy for use in synagogue and home. His book forms the foundation both of the Spanish-Portuguese and of the German-Polish liturgies, and has exerted great influence upon Jewish religious practice for more than a thousand years, an influence which to some extent is still felt at the present day. For Amram did not content himself with giving the mere text of the prayers, but in a species of running commentary added many Talmudic and gaonic regulations relating to the prayers and their associated ceremonies. His siddur, which was made familiar by the many excerpts quoted from it by the medieval liturgical writers, and which served as the model for Saadia's and Maimonides' own prayer texts, was published complete for the first time in Warsaw, in the year 1865 under the title ''Siddur Rav Amram Gaon''.

The work as published is composed of two parts. The second part containing the selichot and pizmonim for the month of Elul, for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, is certainly not the work of Amram, but appears to belong to a much later period. Even the first portion, which contains the prayers proper, is full of interpolations, some of which, such as the kedushah for private prayer, are evidently later additions in the manuscripts. But not much weight can be attached even to portions of the book which are specifically given under the name of Amram; many of the explanations are certainly not by him, but by the editors who appended his name to them, speaking of him in the third person. These explanations of the prayers make no reference to any authorities later than the following: Natronai II, Amram's teacher (17 times); Shalom, Natronai's predecessor in the gaonate (7 times); Judah, Paltoi, Zadok, and Moses, geonim before Amram (once each); Cohen Tzedek (twice); Nahshon and Tzemach, contemporaries of Amram (twice each); and Nathan of unknown date. The only authority mentioned of later date than Amram is Saadia. This indicates that the additions to the text of the prayers must have originated in Amram's time. Certainty on this point, however, can only be obtained by a comparison of the printed text with the manuscripts; that of Almanzi, according to the specimens given by Luzzatto, varies considerably from the printed text. Israel ben Todros (1305) mentions some azharot as having been composed by Amram; but no trace of these can now be found.

The text

No early manuscripts of this prayer book survive, and later manuscripts appear to be heavily edited to conform with the rites in use at the time: we therefore cannot be certain of the exact wording preferred by Amram Gaon himself. Evidence for this is:

*The manuscripts differ widely among themselves
*The text of the prayers often differs from the surviving responsa of Natronai Gaon and other contemporary authorities, and occasionally even with the halachic commentary of the siddur itself
*There are many instances where a later authority, such as Abraham ben Nathan's ''Sefer ha-Manhig'' or David Abudirham, argues for text A "as prescribed by Amram Gaon" as against text B "found in popular usage", but the current version of Amram Gaon shows text B.

Relation to current rites

The ''Siddur Rav Amram'' was originally sent to the communities of Spain, in response to a request for guidance on the laws of prayer. However, it never seems to have been adopted by them as a package deal, though they respected the individual halachic rulings contained in it. On the contrary, they appear to have edited it to suit their own requirements, so that the wording of the manuscripts and the printed version often contains variants likely to be derived from early versions of the Spanish rite. None of these early versions survives, but secondary evidence such as the Sefer ha-Manhig and the Siddur Rav Amram itself indicates that in certain respects these were different from the Sephardic rite in use today and nearer to other old European rites such as the Provençal, Italian and Old French

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