Hai ben Sherira
[1][2][3] He received his Talmudic education from his father, Sherira ben Hanina, and in early life acted as his assistant in teaching.
As a consequence of the calumnies of their antagonists Hai and his father were imprisoned together and their property was confiscated by the Abbasid caliph al-Qadir in 997.
[10] Hai ben Sherira's chief claim to recognition rests on his numerous responsa, in which he gives decisions affecting the social and religious life of the Diaspora.
This treatise was twice anonymously translated into Hebrew: (1) Mishpeṭe Shebu'ot (Venice, 1602; Altona, 1782); (2) Sefer Mehubbar be-Kotzer Min ha-Dinim be-Bi'ur Kelalim we-'liqarim be-Helqe Hiyyub la-Shebu'ah[15] Sha'arei Shevu'ot was metrically arranged by an anonymous writer, probably of the 13th century, under the title Sha'arei Dinei Mamonot ve-Sha'arei Shevu'ot, and by Levi ben Jacob Alkalai.
[17] Hai ben Sherira's philological abilities were directed towards interpreting the Mishnah; of this work only the portion on Seder Tohorot is extant; it was published by T. Rosenberg in "Qobetz Ma'aseh" (Berlin, 1856).
The author quotes the Mishnah, the two Talmuds, the Tosefta, the Sifra, Targums Onkelos and Jonathan, the Septuagint, the works of Saadia Gaon, the Sifre Refu'ah, and other anonymous sources.
Hai compiled also a dictionary of especially difficult words in the Bible, Targum, and Talmud, the Arabic title of which was al-Hawi.
Fragments of this dictionary were discovered and published by Harkavy;[20] these show that the work was arranged according to an alphabetic-phonetic plan of three consonants in every group; for instance, s.v.
[25] The modern editions are as follows: Dukes, Ehrensäulen, p. 96; Grätz, Blumenlese, p. 27; Steinschneider, Musar Haskel, Berlin, 1860; Weiss, Liqquṭe Qadmonim, Warsaw, 1893; Philipp, Sämmtliche Gedichte des R. Hai Gaon, Lemberg, 1881; a Latin translation by Jean Mercier, Cantica Eruditionis Intellectus Auctore per Celebri R. Hai, Paris, 1561; another by Caspar Seidel, Carmen Morale ΣτροφορυΘμον Elegantissimum R. Chai, etc., Leipzig, 1638.
Some piyyutim are ascribed to him, as the piyyut beginning with the words "Shema' qoli," preserved in the Sephardic liturgy for the evening of Yom Kippur.
He did not hesitate to consult even the Catholicos of the Assyrian Christians in an exegetical difficulty over Psalms 141:5, as the Sicilian dayyan Matzliah ibn al-Basak relates in his biography of Hai.
[35] In many passages of his responsa he warns against deviating from a custom even when the meaning of its origin has been lost, as in the case of the practice of not drinking water during the Tekufot.
Thus he protested against the practice of declaring null and void all oaths and promises which may be made during the coming year,[37] and against the refusal to grant an honorable burial to excommunicated persons and their connections.
[40] A responsum of Hai given in this commentary discloses his opinion on the subjects of divine fore-knowledge and the predestined length of human life.
[43] His answer to the question regarding the interpretation of the Talmudic tradition that four men entered paradise is interesting, and has caused much discussion.
[44] He refers to the opinion of various scholars that specially favored persons could attain, by means of castigation and the reciting of psalms, to an ecstatic state in which they might behold the heavenly halls ("heikhalot") as vividly as if they really had entered them.
Contrary to his father-in-law, Samuel ben Hofni, gaon of Sura Academy, he followed former scholars in deeming it possible that God should reveal the marvels of heaven to the pious while in this state of ecstasy.
[45] But all the elements of the later Kabbalah not found in Talmudic tradition, such as the belief that miracles could be performed with the names of God, he designated as foolishness not credited by any sensible man.
