She'iltot is an Aramaic word, meaning "Inquiries" or "Quæstiones" (in the sense of disquisitions)[1] and is arranged in order of the biblical pericopes, or weekly Torah readings.
[2] According to Abraham ibn Daud, Aḥai of Shabha completed his She'iltot between the years 741 and 763 CE,[3] a timeframe corroborated by Sherira ben Hanina in his Iggeret.
[7][1] Others seek to prove a Palestinian influence in Aḥai's work by his frequent use of the Jerusalem Talmud and of Palestinian Midrashim, Leviticus Rabbah, Ecclesiastes Rabbah, and Tanḥuma, all of which were thought to be unknown at this time in Babylonia, although this rationale is refuted by Louis Ginzberg who argues that all the alleged quotations from the Jerusalem Talmud can in fact be traced to other sources.
[1] He follows this statement (preceded by the introductory formula, "It was, however, necessary [to state]" [ברם צריך = beram ṣarikh]) with casuistic inquiries; for example, whether it is proper to include in the designation of robbery, for which the Law requires a double restitution, the case of a theft committed in the interest of the victim.
According to Ginzberg, with the decline of rabbinical knowledge in Palestine, Aḥai would have found but few pupils for pure halakhic instruction; and he therefore added aggadic elements to his lectures, in obedience to the general disposition of the Palestinians, who just then favored aggadah.
[1] This view best explains the word derashah (lecture), which occurs about thirty times in the Sheiltot, in connection with the citation of passages from the Talmud.
Considering them as portions of sermons, the frequent repetitions that occur in the Sheiltot are not strange, as this would happen to the best of preachers; while it would be difficult to explain to them if they were found in the strictly literary productions of one man.
[12] Aḥai's work very soon won great esteem, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Simeon Kayyara, who compiled the Halakot Gedolot in the year 741.
Today, scholars closely examine Aḥai's She'iltot to determine the original textual variants found in the Babylonian Talmud.