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 are st ...

in Sura from 757 to 761, during the

Gaonic ''Geonim'' ( he, גאונים; ; also transliterated Gaonim, singular Gaon) were the presidents of the two great Babylonian Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of ...

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 t ...

. He was originally a member of the academy of Pumbedita, but

Exilarch The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Persian 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 ...

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 The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Israe ...

, 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 that were practiced in the Diaspora since the destruction of the Second Temple. 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 Simeon Kayyara, also spelled ''Shimon Kiara'' (Hebrew: שמעון קיירא), was a Jewish-Babylonian halakhist of the first half of the 8th century. Although he lived during the Geonic period, he was never officially appointed as a Gaon, and ...

. Based on

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

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 David Gans ( he, דָּוִד בֶּן שְׁלֹמֹה גנז; ‎1541–1613), also known as Rabbi Dovid Solomon Ganz, was a Jewish chronicler, mathematician, historian, astronomer and astrologer. He is the author of "Tzemach David" (1592 ...

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