ben Ḥayyīm arranged the Masorah for the great Bomberg Bible of 1524. Elias Levita’s Massoreth ha-Massoreth (1538) and Buxtorf’s Tiberias (1620) are also important.
We must now turn back to a most difficult subject—the growth of the Liturgy. We are not concerned here with indications of the ritual used in the Temple. Of the prayer-book as it is at present, the earliest parts are the Shemaʽ (Deut. vi. 4, &c.) and the anonymous blessings commonly Liturgy. called Shemoneh ʽEsreh (the Eighteen), together with certain Psalms. (Readings from the Law and the Prophets [Haphṭarah] also formed part of the service.) To this framework were fitted, from time to time, various prayers, and, for festivals especially, numerous hymns. The earliest existing codification of the prayer-book is the Siddūr (order) drawn up by Amram Gaon of Sura about 850. Half a century later the famous Gaon Seadiah, also of Sura, issued his Siddūr, in which the rubrical matter is in Arabic. Besides the Siddūr, or order for Sabbaths and general use, there is the Maḥzōr (cycle) for festivals and fasts. In both there are ritual differences according to the Sephardic (Spanish), Ashkenazic (German-Polish), Roman (Greek and South Italian) and some minor uses, in the later additions to the Liturgy. The Maḥzor of each rite is also distinguished by hymns (piyyūṭīm) composed by authors (payyeṭanīm) of the district. The most important writers are Yoseh ben Yoseh, probably in the 6th century, chiefly known for his compositions for the day of Atonement, Eleazar Qalīr, the founder of the payyetanic style, perhaps in the 7th century, Seadiah, and the Spanish school consisting of Joseph ibn Abitur (died in 970), Ibn Gabirol, Isaac Gayyath, Moses ben Ezra, Abraham ben Ezra and Judah ha-levi, who will be mentioned below; later, Moses ben Naḥman and Isaac Luria the Kabbalist.[1]
The order of the Amoraim, which ended with the close of the Talmud (A.D. 500), was succeeded by that of the Sabōrāīm, who merely continued and explained the work of their predecessors, and these again were followed by the Geōnīm, the heads of the schools of Sura and Pumbeditha The Geōnīm. in Babylonia. The office of Gaōn lasted for something over 400 years, beginning about A.D. 600, and varied in importance according to the ability of the holders of it. Individual Geōnīm produced valuable works (of which later), but what is perhaps most important from the point of view of the development of Judaism is the literature of their Responsa or answers to questions, chiefly on halakhic matters, addressed to them from various countries. Some of these were actual decisions of particular Geōnīm; others were an official summary of the discussion of the subject by the members of the School. They begin with Mar Rab Sheshna (7th century) and continue to Hai Gaon, who died in 1038, and are full of historical and literary interest.[2] The She’iltōth (questions) of Rab Aḥai (8th century) also belong probably to the school of Pumbeditha, though their author was not Gaon. Besides the Responsa, but closely related to them, we have the lesser Halakhōth of Yehūdai Gaon of Sura (8th century) and the great Halakhōth of Simeon Qayyara of Sura (not Gaon) in the 9th century. In a different department there is the first Talmud lexicon (ʽArūkh) now lost, by Ẓemaḥ ben Palṭoi, Gaon of Pumbeditha in the 9th century. The Siddūr of Amram ben Sheshna has been already mentioned. All these writers, however, are entirely eclipsed by the commanding personality of the most famous of the Geōnīm, Seadiah ben Joseph (q.v.) of Sura, often called al-Fayyūmī (of the Fayum in Egypt), one of the greatest representatives of Jewish learning of all times, who died in 942. The last three holders of the office were also distinguished. Sherira of Pumbeditha (d. 998) was the author of the famous “Letter” (in the form of a Responsum to a question addressed to him by residents in Kairawan), an historical document of the highest value and the foundation of our knowledge of the history of tradition. His son Hai, last Gaon of Pumbeditha (d. 1038), a man of wide learning, wrote (partly in Arabic) not only numerous Responsa, but also treatises on law, commentaries on the Mishnah and the Bible, a lexicon called in Arabic al-Ḥāwī, and poems such as the Mūsar Haskel, but most of them are now lost or known only from translations or quotations. Though his teaching was largely directed against superstition, he seems to have been inclined to mysticism, and perhaps for this reason various kabbalistic works were ascribed to him in later times. His father-in-law Samuel ben Ḥophni, last Gaon of Sura (d. 1034), was a voluminous writer on law, translated the Pentateuch into Arabic, commented on much of the Bible, and composed an Arabic introduction to the Talmud, of which the existing Hebrew introduction (by Samuel the Nagid) is perhaps a translation. Most of his works are now lost.
In the Geonic period there came into prominence the sect of the Karaites (Benē miqrā), “followers of the Scripture”, the protestants of Judaism, who rejected rabbinical authority, basing their doctrine and practice exclusively on the Bible. The sect was founded by ʽAnan in the 8th The Karaites. century, and, after many vicissitudes, still exists. Their literature, with which alone we are here concerned, is largely polemical and to a great extent deals with grammar and exegesis. Of their first important authors, Benjamin al-Nehawendi and Daniel al-Qūmisī (both in the 9th century), little is preserved. In the 10th century Jacob al-Qirqisanī wrote his Kitāb al-anwār, on law, Solomon ben Yeruḥam (against Seadiah) and Yefet ben ʽAlī wrote exegetical works; in the 11th century Abū’l-faraj Furqān, exegesis, and Yūsuf al-Baṣīr against Samuel ben Ḥophni. Most of these wrote in Arabic. In the 12th century and in S. Europe, Judah Hadassi composed his Eshkol ha-Kōpher, a great theological compendium in the form of a commentary on the Decalogue. Other writers are Aaron (the elder) ben Joseph, 13th century, who wrote the commentary Sepher ha-mibhḥar; Aaron (the younger) of Nicomedia (14th century), author of ʽEẓ Ḥayyīm, on philosophy, Gan ʽEden, on law, and the commentary Kether Tōrah; in the 15th century Elijah Bashyaẓī, on law (Addereth Eliyahū), and Caleb Efendipoulo, poet and theologian; in the 16th century Moses Bashyaẓī, theologian. From the 12th century onward the sect gradually declined, being ultimately restricted mainly to the Crimea and Lithuania, learning disappeared and their literature became merely popular and of little interest. Much of it in later times was written in a curious Tatar dialect. Mention need only be made further of Isaac of Troki, whose anti-Christian polemic Ḥizzūq Emūnah (1593) was translated into English by Moses Mocatta under the title of Faith Strengthened (1851); Solomon of Troki, whose Appiryōn, an account of Karaism, was written at the request of Pufendorf (about 1700); and Abraham Firkovich, who, in spite of his impostures, did much for the literature of his people about the middle of the 19th century. (See also Qaraites.)
To return to the period of the Geōnīm. While the schools of Babylonia were flourishing as the religious head of Judaism, the West, and especially Spain under Moorish rule, was becoming the home of Jewish scholarship. On the breaking up of the schools many of the fugitives fled Medieval scholarship. to the West and helped to promote rabbinical learning there. The communities of Fez, Kairawan and N. Africa were in close relation with those of Spain, and as early as the beginning of the 9th century Judah ben Quraish of Tahort had composed his Risālah (letter) to the Jews of Fez on grammatical subjects from a comparative point of view, and a dictionary now lost. His work was used in the 10th century by Menahem ben Sarūq, of Cordova, in his Mahbereth (dictionary). Menahem’s system of bi-literal and uni-literal roots was violently attacked by Dūnash ibn Labrāṭ, and as violently defended by the author’s pupils. Among these was Judah Ḥayyūj of Cordova, the father of modern Hebrew grammar, who first established the principle of tri-literal roots. His treatises on the verbs, written in Arabic, were translated into Hebrew by Moses Giqatilla (11th century), himself a considerable grammarian and commentator, and by Ibn Ezra. His system was adopted by Abū’l-walīd ibn Jannāḥ, of Saragossa (died early in the 11th century), in his lexicon (Kitāb al-uṣūl, in Arabic) and other works.
