Hai Bar Rav David Gaon

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HAI BAR RAV DAVID GAON

HAI BAR RAV DAVID GAON , head of the *Pumbedita academy from 890 to 898. Hai was dayyan in Baghdad for many years before he became gaon; he transferred the academy of Pumbedita to Baghdad (Sha'arei Simhah of R. Isaac *Ibn Ghayyat, 1 (1861), 63–64). None of his responsa has been preserved, but some of those attributed to R. "Hai" without further definition, may be his. Harkavy attributes the Sefer ha-Shetarot ("Book of Documents") to him, but Wertheimer, L. Ginzberg, and Assaf hold more plausibly that the author of the Sefer ha-Shetarot was the famous *Hai b. Sherira. Several early Karaite scholars attributed to Hai a book of polemics against the Karaites on the subject of the intercalation of the month and the arrangement of the calendar; many scholars believe that this was Hai b. David.

bibliography:

Mann, in: jqr, 11 (1920/21), 434–5; S. Assaf, Sefer ha-Shetarot de-Rav Hai Ga'on (1930), 7–8; Ibn Daud, Tradition, 52, 37, 129; Abramson, Merkazim, 911.

[Mordecai Margaliot]