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	JewishEncyclopedia.com - GAON
		The importance of the Geonim in Jewish history is due, in the first place, to the fact that for a number of centuries they occupied a unique position as the heads of their respective schools and as the recognized authorities of Judaism.
		The importance of the period of the Geonim for the history of Judaism is further enhanced by the fact that the new Jewish science, which steadily developed side by side with Talmudic studies, was created by a gaon, and that the same gaon, Saadia, effectively opposed the disintegrating influences of Karaism.
		The activity of the Geonim may be seen most clearly in their responsa, in which they appear as the teachers of the entire Diaspora, covering in their religio-legal decisions a wide field of instruction.
	www.jewishencyclopedia.com /view.jsp?artid=68&letter=G&search=geonim (3530 words)

	Gaon - LoveToKnow 1911
		Though the name is far older, it is chiefly applied to Rabbis who lived between the close of the Talmud and the transference of the centre of Judaism from Asia to Europe - i.e.
		The most noted of the Geonim, who will be found treated under their respective names, were Mai, Amram, Semach, Saadiah, Sherira and Hai.
		Hai Gaon died in 1038, closing the period of the Geonim after an activity of four and a half centuries.
	www.1911encyclopedia.org /Gaon (208 words)

	Geonim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Geonim (also Gaonim) (Hebrew: גאונים) were the presidents of the two great rabbinical colleges of Sura and Pumbedita, in Babylonia, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta (Exilarch) who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands.
		The Geonim officiated, in the first place, as directors of the academies, continuing as such the educational activity of the Amoraim and Saboraim.
		For while the Amoraim, through their interpretation of the Mishnah, gave rise to the Talmud, and while the Saboraim definitively edited it, the Geonim's task was to interpret it; for them it became the subject of study and instruction, and they gave religio-legal decisions in agreement with its teachings.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Geonim (1341 words)

	Geonim
		Geonim (also Gaonim) (גאונים) (Singular: Gaon גאון meaning "pride" in Biblical Hebrew and "genius" in modern Hebrew) were the rabbis who were the Jewish Talmudic sages who were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community in the early medieval era.
		The Geonim officiated, in the first place, as directors of the academies, continuing as such the educational activity of the Amoraim and Savoraim.
		The later geonim did not restrict themselves to the Mishnah and Talmud, but used the decisions and responsa of their predecessors, whose sayings and traditions were generally regarded as authoritative.
	www.seedwiki.com /wiki/conj/geonim?wikiPageId=476488 (1142 words)

	Geonim â“ FREE Geonim Information \| Encyclopedia.com: Find Geonim Research
		Geonim Plural of Gaon, the heads of the two great colleges of Sura and Pumbedita in Babylonia from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, though a minor Gaonite flourished also in the land of Israel and, after the tenth century, in Baghdad.
		Babylonian Talmudic academies led by the rabbis known as the Geonim were the centers of Jewish learning until 1038.
		New York, 1984), 191; Robert Brody The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval...
	www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1O96-Geonim.html (1035 words)

	Responsa
		In the days of the earliest geonim the majority of the questions asked them were sent only from Babylonia and the neighboring lands, where the inhabitants were more or less acquainted with the Talmud and could visit the academies in the Kallah months to hear Talmudic explanations by leading scholars.
		The later geonim did not restrict themselves to the Mishnah and Talmud, but used the decisions and responsa of their predecessors, whose sayings and traditions were generally regarded as authoritative.
		These responsa of the later geonim were often essays on Talmudic themes, and since a single letter often answered many questions, it frequently became book-length in size.
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/re/Responsa.html (4615 words)

	geonim@Everything2.com
		The geonim were the highest authority on religious law and interpretation of the Torah, and were given the power to appoint and dismiss local functionaries like judges, cantors, and kosher slaughterers.
		Last, the rulings of the geonim and their scholars were considered authoritative interpretation of the Law, and were crucial in keeping Judaism abreast of current situations under Muslim rule.
		The best of the geonim, from Sherira Gaon and Hai Gaon of Pumbedita to the great Saadia Gaon of Sura, combined these two to outshine many of their mediocre successors (of which there were plenty, the position being elaborately hereditary and not elective).
	everything2.com /index.pl?node_id=1231563 (636 words)

	My Jewish Learning: Geonic Responsa
		The answers of the geonim came back by the very same route; and as they passed through Cairo, they were copied by the yeshivah's emissaries and by local scholars.
		The language is generally categorical and imperative ("This is the halakhah," "It may not be departed from," "It may not be modified," etc.); and the directive or decision in the responsum was accepted as binding in the community that had submitted the question.
		The geonim, by basing their responsa on the Babylonian Talmud, greatly contributed to the dissemination and acceptance of that Talmud in all Jewish communities.
	www.myjewishlearning.com /texts/halakha/Geonim/geonic_responsa.htm (1411 words)

	My Jewish Learning: The Period of the Geonim
		The major achievement of the medieval Babylonian geonim (8th to early 11th century) was the successful promotion of the Babylonian Talmud as the definitive rabbinic source regarding Jewish religious practice.
		Ironically, the widespread acceptance of the Babylonian Talmud (combined with the decline of the Baghdad caliphate and the impoverishment of Babylonian Jewry) contributed to the demise of the Babylonian geonim, as important, independent centers of talmudic learning emerged in the Diaspora.
		In the tenth century, the supremacy of the Babylonian center was unequivocally established, and the geonim were responsible for fashioning the thought of all Jews within the Muslim world.
	www.myjewishlearning.com /history_community/Medieval/MedThoughtTO/GeonimPeriod.htm (852 words)

	JewishGates.Com - The Definitive Source for Talmudic Learning (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The recognition of the gaonate as a political representation of the Jewish community is attested by the fact that on the death of the exilarch his income was given to the gaon of Sura until the appointment of a new exilarch.
		The major achievement of the geonim was their success in giving legal validity to the laws of the Talmud and spreading the knowledge of the Talmud among the thousands of people who came to Babylonia from all parts of the world.
		On the one hand, the decline of the academies in the eyes of the Diaspora was caused by the competition between Sura and Pumbedita and the quarrels in the academies regarding the appointment of the gaon.
	www.jewishgates.com /file.asp?File_ID=69 (1439 words)

	Great Rabbis of the Muslim Empire
		The headmasters of these yeshivot were called Geonim, and their eminence was such that the first half of the classic Muslim era is referred to as the Geonic period (mid-7th century to mid-11th century) in Jewish history, a period which spans the entire Abbassid dynasty.
		Thus, the Geonim retained religious centrality to a degree reminiscent of the sages in the ancient Land of Israel.
		The Geonim considered the ancient sages of Israel who composed this esoteric structure to be of so high a spiritual and mystical level that their work could no longer be understood by most scholars of later years.
	www.hsje.org /great_rabbis_of_the_muslim_empir.htm (4613 words)

	Great Rabbis of the Muslim Empire
		The headmasters of these yeshivot were called Geonim, and their eminence was such that the first half of the classic Muslim era is referred to as the Geonic period (mid-7th century to mid-11th century) in Jewish history, a period which spans the entire Abbasid dynasty.
		Thus, the Geonim retained religious centrality to a degree reminiscent of the sages in the ancient Land of Israel.
		For the Geonim throughout this period the Talmud served as the exclusive basis for decision-making in halacha.
	www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org /jsource/Judaism/muslim_rabbis.html (4490 words)

	Jews - MSN Encarta
		Academies in Babylonia, headed by rabbis called geonim (plural of Hebrew gaon, meaning “eminence”), were instrumental in establishing the Babylonian Talmud as the authoritative text of the Jewish religion.
		The geonim fostered the principle that study was the highest religious ideal.
		The most significant of the geonim was Saadia ben Joseph, a remarkable 10th-century intellectual who translated the Hebrew Bible into Arabic, the language of Islamic lands.
	encarta.msn.com /encyclopedia_761567959_5/Jews.html (1422 words)

	JewishEncyclopedia.com - YEHUDAI BEN NAḤMAN
		Yehudai was highly respected as a halakic authority, and later geonim as well as rabbis hesitated to decide against his opinion (comp.
		Some Hebrew responsa are supposed to have been translated by his pupils or by the compiler.
		The "Halakot Ḳeẓubot" seem to be a compilation from the "Halakot Pesuḳot" and the "Halakot Gedolot." They are preserved in a Parma manuscript that has been published by Ḥayyim M. Horowitz in "Halachische Schriften der Geonim," first part, pp.
	www.jewishencyclopedia.com /view.jsp?artid=29&letter=Y (1151 words)

	Nahmanides
		To Nahmanides the wisdom of the ancients was unquestionable, and their utterances were to be neither doubted nor criticized.
		Indeed, the rapid progress made by Greco-Arabic philosophy among the Jews of Spain and Provence after the appearance of Maimonides' "Moreh Nevukim", (Guide for the Perplexed) ave rise to a tendency to allegorize Biblical narratives and to refuse credit to the miraculous element in the Talmud.
		Against this tendency Nahmanides strove, and went to the other extreme, not even allowing the utterances of the immediate disciples of the Geonim to be questioned.
	www.ebroadcast.com.au /lookup/encyclopedia/na/Nahmanides.html (2374 words)

	Living Halacha (Q&A) (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The other Geonim (mentioned ad loc.) who disagreed argued that there might be some drops of milk still present on the surface of the butter (as was once common), and all milk coming from a non-Jew (where we cannot be certain that said milk is from a behema tehora) is asur.
		At any rate we see that even the Geonim who were mahmir did not claim that butter is asur because it is made from milk which is itself asur.
		Thus we see that all the Geonim agree that something which was not explicitly banned is not forbidden.
	www.torahlight.com /lhhalvnokhri.htm (855 words)

	The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture - Brody, Robert - Yale University Press
		The Geonim, for whom this era is named, were the heads of the ancient talmudic academies of Babylonia.
		The Geonim and their circles enshrined the Babylonian Talmud as the central canonical work of rabbinic literature and the leading guide to religious practice, and it was a predominantly Babylonian version of Judaism that was transplanted to newer centers of Judaism in North Africa and Europe.
		Brody describes the cultural spheres in which the Geonim were active and the historical and cultural settings within which they functioned.
	yalepress.yale.edu /yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300070470 (281 words)

	[No title]
		The picture of the history of halakhah presented by the Geonim reappears in later constructions of the history of halakhah.
		The retrieval picture of the history of halakhah raised by the Geonim, and articulated by ibn Daud and later authors, thus shapes basic elements of the halakhic process: the account of the emergence of controversy, a clear conception of authority and a definite secondary role for halakhic reasoning.
		The Mishnah's and Talmud's authority is thus founded on the historically contingent fact of acceptance, a ground for authority that was rejected by later adherents to the geonic approach.
	www.law.harvard.edu /programs/Gruss/halbert.html (5943 words)

	[No title]
		Geonim twilight starts straight after the orb of the sun sets behind the horizon this period lasts for the time it takes to walk three-quarters of a mil (either 131/2 or 18 minutes).
		This is the opinion advocated by Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph, who, while acknowledging that the minhag follows the Geonim states that because of the stricture of Shabbat it is fitting not to perform Torah prohibited forms of work (melakhah) until Rabenu Tam's time has elapsed at the conclusion of Shabbat.
		Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph forcefully disagrees with these above opinions and states that the opinion of the Geonim and the minhag is quite clearly based on the Talmud that thirteen and a half minutes after the orb of the sun is hidden below the horizon is considered dark (zteit hakokhavim).
	home.earthlink.net /~etzahaim/halakha/twilight.htm (3921 words)

	Iranica.com - EXILARCH
		The distinction between the communal functions of the exilarch and the spiritual functions of the emerging rabbinic leadership was fairly well defined under the Sasanians, in contrast to the frequent overlapping of authority and function that pitted exilarchs against geonim (heads of academies) under later Arab rule.
		This decree weakened the cohesiveness of all minorities, and it was from that period that exilarchs were challenged by the geonim both for influence within the Jewish community and for funds collected from the subcommunities.
		Correspondingly the exilarch appointed judges, maintained a court, punished those who refused to recognize its decisions, regulated the affairs of the academies, and disbursed funds to needy segments of the community.
	www.iranica.com /articles/v9f2/v9f203.html (971 words)

	JewishGates.Com - The Definitive Source for Talmudic Learning (Site not responding. Last check: )
		The last of the Babylonian geonim, Hai Gaon, died when Alfasi was 25 years old.
		He comments at some length on instances where the geonim differed in their interpretation, discussing the different views and giving his own interpretation.
		At the close of the Middle Ages, when the Talmud was banned in Italy, Alfasi's work was expressly exempted, so that between the 16th and 19th centuries it was a principal subject of study among Italian Jews.
	www.jewishgates.com /file.asp?File_ID=249 (900 words)

	Guide for the Perplexed
		He acknowledges the benefit he derived from such works of his predecessors as the Halakot of Alfasi, and the writings of the Geonim, but afterwards he asserted that errors which were discovered in his works arose from his implicit reliance on those authorities.
		His originality is conspicuous in the Introduction and in the treatment of general principles, which in some instances precedes the exposition of an entire section or chapter, in others that of a single rule.
		He distinguishes between the dicta found in the Talmud, Sifre, Sifra, or Tosefta, on the one hand, and the dicta of the Geonim on the other; the former were binding on all Jews, the latter only as far as their necessity and their utility or the authority of their propounders was recognized.
	www.ccel.org /ccel/maimonides/guide.iv.i.html?bcb=0 (5203 words)

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