Dosa ben Saadia (; ; – 1018) was a

Talmudic scholar The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

who was the Gaon of Sura from 1012 until his death in 1018.

Biography

Born in

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

in about 935, his father

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

was a prominent figure, the Sura Gaon from 928 to 942. In a letter written in 928, his father mentions his older brother Sheerit, although he does not mention Dosa. This has led scholars to place Dosa's birth around 935, meaning that he was only a young boy when his father died in 942. In 953, Sheerit and Dosa compiled a list of their father's books. Ibn Daud states in

Sefer ha-Qabbalah ''Sefer ha-Qabbalah'' () was written by Abraham ibn Daud around 1160–1161. The book is a response to Karaite attacks against the historical legitimacy of Rabbinic Judaism and contains, among other items, the controversial tale of the kidnappin ...

that Dosa wrote a biography about his father entitled ''The Story of Rav Saadia and the Benefits He Did for Israel'' which was written in an epistle to

Hasdai ibn Shaprut Hasdai ibn Shaprut (; ), also known as Abu Yusuf ben Yitzhak ben Ezra, was a Jewish scholar, physician, diplomat, and patron of science in medieval al-Andalus (c. 905–965). He served as a minister at the court of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III of ...

. Some state that Samuel ben Hofni was the last Sura Gaon, although in his commentaries Judah al-Madari includes Dosa in a list of the Sura Gaons. Dosa is also mentioned in the glossary of

The Guide for the Perplexed ''The Guide for the Perplexed'' (; ; ) is a work of Jewish theology by Maimonides. It seeks to reconcile Aristotelianism with Rabbinical Jewish theology by finding rational explanations for many events in the text. It was written in Judeo-Arabic ...

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

, who states that Dosa was one of the scholars who combated the Greek conception of the eternity of the universe. Most scholars have identified Dosa as being identical with David ben Saadia, who wrote several Talmudic work in Arabic. When Dosa was seventy-five, he became head of the Sura academy, following the death of Samuel ben Hofni in 1012. Only a few of Dosa's responsa's survived, and the ones that did, reflect the modern

Halakic ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is based on biblical commandments (''mitzv ...

stance that defined his father. Notably, Dosa defends

Hai Gaon Hai ben Sherira (), better known as Hai Gaon (), was a medieval Jewish theologian, rabbi and scholar who served as Gaon of the Talmudic academy of Pumbedita during the early 11th century. He was born in 939 and died on March 28, 1038. He receiv ...

against the criticism that Samuel Ibn Naghrella brings forth regarding Hai Gaon's talmudic interpretations. A more unusual aspect of his life, Dosa had taken an oath in his teenage years to refrain from eating bread as an act of

asceticism Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing Spirituality, spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world ...

, which he apparently continued until his death in 1018 in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

References

{{Geonim Geonim Rabbis of Academy of Sura 930s births 1018 deaths 10th-century rabbis