The Beginning of the Geonic Era

The Talmud was sealed—and immediately the question arose: who now answers questions? The answer was found in Babylonia itself. The heads of the two great academies took the title Gaon, after the verse the pride of Jacob whom He loves (Psalms 47:5). Tradition dates the geonic era from 4349, and it will last four hundred years.

This was more than a scholar's post. The Gaon headed the academy, the court and, together with the exilarch, the whole system of Jewish self-government. Twice a year, for the kallah month, thousands gathered; at the month's end the questions that had arrived from distant lands were read out and debated in public.

From this grew the genre that still carries Jewish law—she'elot uteshuvot, questions and responsa. From Kairouan, Fez, Cordoba, Egypt and Provence came letters with money and questions; a caravan carried the answer back. Thousands survive, treating great questions and utterly ordinary ones alike.

The geonim created the first Jewish books of a new kind. Rav Yehudai Gaon compiled the Halakhot Pesukot, an early attempt to state the law without the debate. Rav Amram Gaon sent to Spain the first ordered prayer book. Rav Saadia Gaon wrote a Hebrew grammar, translated the Torah and several other biblical books into Arabic and produced the first systematic work of Jewish philosophy. Rav Sherira Gaon wrote the epistle from which we know this whole era, and his son Rav Hai was the last great head of Pumbedita.