Natronai ben Nehemiah (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: נטרונאי בן נחמיה; also called: Mar R. Yanka,

: בר מר ינקא) was Gaon of

Pumbedita Pumbedita ( ''Pūm Bəḏīṯāʾ'', "Mouth of the Bedita"See The river "Bedita" has not been identified.) was an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq. It is known for having hosted the Pumbedita Academy. History The city of Pumbedita was s ...

from 719 to 730; son-in-law of the

exilarch The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing polit ...

Ḥasdai I Hasdai, or Hisday, a derivative of 'Hasadiah' (), was a Jewish Exilarch of the late 7th century AD, succeeding his father Bostanai to the office. Some sources allege he left no male heirs, and the succession went with the descendants of his brothe ...

. Vain of his family connections and secure in his position, he was so arrogant in his dealings with the students that many of them left the academy, returning only after his death.Two

responsa ''Responsa'' (plural of Latin , 'answer') comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them. In the modern era, the term is used to describe decisions and rulings made by scholars i ...

are ascribed to him, both relating to the return of Jews who had left their community to follow heretical leaders. In one of these responsa Natronai decides that the followers of the pseudo-Messiah Serenus, should again be received into their community; in the other he decides against the reception of the children of certain heretic Jews who had renounced both

Talmudic 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 modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

and the Biblical Judaism. A number of responsa in the compilation ''Sha'arei Tzedek'' and elsewhere bear the name of Natronai, but it is difficult to decide whether they are the work of Natronai b. Nehemiah or of some other Natronai. This difficulty tripped up, for instance,

I.H. Weiss Isaac (Isaak) Hirsch Weiss, also Eisik Hirsch Weiss () (9 February 1815 – 1 June 1905), was an Jews of Austria, Austrian Talmudist and historian of literature born at Velké Meziříčí, Groß Meseritsch, Habsburg Moravia. After having recei ...

; who ascribed both responsa mentioned here to

Naṭronai b. Hilai Natronai ben Hilai ( or Natronai the Gaon, ; Full name: Natronai ben Hilai ben Mari) was Gaon "head rabbi" of the Sura Academy of Rabbinic Judaism in Lower Mesopotamia from 857 until 865. He held this post for ten years. He is responsible for mo ...

. As of the 1990s, consensus had that at least the responsum concerning Serenus was indeed that of Ben Nehemiah.Robert Hoyland, ''Seeing Islam As Others Saw It'' (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997), 28.

References

Geonim 8th-century rabbis Year of death unknown Rabbis of Academy of Pumbedita Year of birth unknown {{Iraq-reli-bio-stub