Yehudai ben Nahman

For other people with the same name, seeYehudai HaKohen Gaon ben Haninai.

Yehudai ben Nahman(orYehudai Gaon;Hebrew:יהודאי גאון,sometimes:Yehudai b. Nahman) was the head of theyeshivainSurafrom 757 to 761, during theGaonicperiod ofJudaism.He was originally a member of the academy ofPumbedita,butExilarchSolomon 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 disciplePirqoi ben Baboi,for the acceptance of the BabylonianTalmudas the standard for Jewish law in all countries. This was opposed by the Jews ofEretz Yisrael,who relied on theJerusalem Talmudand their own older traditions. Yehudai argued that, as a result ofByzantinepersecution, the Jews of Eretz Yisrael had only preserved Jewish tradition in a fragmentary and unreliable form.

Works

He was author of the bookHalachot Pesukot,which discusses thosehalachotthat were practiced in theDiasporasince the destruction of theSecond Temple.The text, which is generally organized along the same pattern as the tractates of theBabylonian Talmud,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 calledHilchot Re'u(publishedVersailles 1886), until it was discovered in a Yemenite manuscript purchased in 1911 and published inJerusalem in 1951.

Halakhot Ketzuvotis attributed to him. A critical edition of this work was published byMordecai Margaliothin 1942.

Halachoth Gedoloth controversy

Main article:Halachot Gedolot

One rabbinic school of thought credits him with authorship of theHalachot Gedolot,or of the core of it, though it is generally agreed that the final form of that work is to be attributed toSimeon Kayyara.Based onanachronisticdiscrepancies, theSemag's opinion that it was Rav Yehudai Gaon who composed the work Halachoth Gedoloth was thought to be an error. RabbiDavid Gansmay have been the first to suggest that theSemag,in referring to "Rav Yehudai" as the author, was actually alluding to Rav Yehudai Hakohen ben Ahunai, Gaon of theSura Academy(served 4519 - 4524 of theHebrew calendar)

At all events theHalachot Pesukotwas an important source for the larger work.

References

• Robert Brody,The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture,Yale 1998