person · P0218
Yehudai Gaon רב יהודאי גאון
Blind gaon of Sura, trained at Pumbedita — the exceptional cross-academy appointment the Iggeret itself records. The first gaon whose halakhic program radiated beyond Bavel; the early code Halachot Pesukot is attributed to his school. Famous for insisting he taught nothing he had not received from his own teachers — the geonic ethos of reception in one sentence.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- רב יהודאי גאון
- Also known as
- Yehudai bar Nachman
- Era
- geonim
- Received the mesorah from
- Academy of Pumbedita
II. When
- Traditional
- gaon of Sura c. 4517–4521 AM
- Academic
- gaon c. 757–761 CE
- Lifespan (traditional)
- ≈61 years
- Precision
- approximate
III. Where
- Places
- Sura, Pumbedita
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Mar Rav Yehudai bar Mar Rav Nachman [led Sura] three and a half years — he was also from Pumbedita, and there was none in Sura who could compare with him in wisdom" — the Iggeret's record of his Pumbedita formation and Sura gaonate, and the basis of the corporate reception edge drawn here.
No individual teacher of his is attested; the edge is to the Pumbedita academy corporately, on the Zekenim (Zekenim (the Elders)) model.
|
tradition | ★★★★☆ | |
| Halachot Pesukot, the earliest post-talmudic legal code, is attributed to him or his immediate school; later geonim report his saying that he never taught anything not received from his teachers.
Attribution of the code is debated in scholarship. |
tradition reconstruction | ★★★☆☆ | |
| No source names his teacher. Per this atlas's succession roster, Rav Natronai bar Nehemiah held the headship of his academy during his formative window (c. 4475–4495 AM), making reception from him the likeliest reconstruction.
Derived by era-and-institution inference, not attested. His own entry records Pumbedita formation (Iggeret 1:119); this names the likeliest head of that formation.
|
reconstruction | ★★☆☆☆ | |
| He headed the Sura academy approximately 757-761 CE.
The precise dates derive from geonic chronology.
|
tradition external | ★★★★☆ | |
| Yehudai was elderly and blind when appointed to Sura.
The blindness is reported in the geonic accounts.
|
tradition external | ★★★★☆ | |
| His brother Dudai served as Gaon of Pumbedita during the same period.
The sibling relationship is recorded in the geonic chronology.
|
tradition external | ★★★★☆ |