Rav Aharon ibn Sargado רב אהרן אבן סרג'אדו
gaon of Pumbedita in the generation of the dispute over the gaonate of Sura
Rav Aharon ibn Sargado headed Pumbedita from 4703 (943) to 4720 (960). He came not from a family of academy heads but from a merchant house, and, as the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon says, his kin helped him to the seat.
The years of his gaonate fell in the dispute over the gaonate of Sura that divided Babylonian Jewry in the days of Rav Saadia Gaon. Rav Aharon held with the Exilarch David ben Zakkai. The dispute is worth remembering not for the quarrel itself but for what it shows: authority in Babylonia was divided between the head of the exile and the heads of the academies, and every generation drew the line between them anew.
He left writings as well. Four of his halakhic responsa survive in the collection Hemdah Genuzah, among them a letter to Kairouan; surviving portions of his commentary on the Torah are kept in St Petersburg, and Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra cites his words in a later age.
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Sources
Rishonim
- Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon — the place in the list of the academy's heads and the years of the gaonate
- Hemdah Genuzah, responsa 37–40 — four of his halakhic responsa, among them a reply to an inquiry from Kairouan
Basis: documents and evidence.