Commentators:R. Hayyei Gaon/0/en

R. Hayyei Gaon – Intellectual Profile

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R. Hayyei Gaon

Name	R. Hayyei (Hai, Hayya) Gaon רב האיי (האי) בן רב שרירא גאון
Dates	c. 950 - 1038
Location	Baghdad
Works
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by
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Background

Life

• Name – R. Hayyei (sometimes pronounced Hai, Hayya, or other variations)¹ b. R. Sherira
  • Hebrew name – רב האיי בן רב שרירא גאון
• Dates – c. 950 - 1038²
• Location – Baghdad³
• Education – 
• Occupation – 
• Family – R. Hayyei's wife was the daughter of the Gaon of Sura, R. Shemuel b. Hofni Gaon
• Teachers – His father, R. Sherira
• Contemporaries – R. Yaakov of Kairouan, R. Chananel and his father R. Chushiel, R. Shemuel ha-Nagid
• Students – R. Shemariah b. Elhanan and his son R. Elhanan, who  became the Jewish leaders of Alexandria, Egypt.⁴
• Time period – R. Hayyei is usually considered the last of the Geonim. Even though there is evidence that the Geonic yeshiva of Baghdad continued to function for another few generations (at least intermittently), after the death of R. Hayyei no later head of the yeshiva was considered a universal rabbinic authority.
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Works

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Torah Commentary

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Sources

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Impact

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Supercommentaries

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¹ Morag, S. ‘‘Hayyey = Hayyim (le-Mahut Shemo shel Rav Hai Ga’on)’’. Tarbiz 31 (1961), pp. 188–190.

² R. Avraham ibn Daud, Sefer ha-Kabbalah, Cohen ed. Hebrew section, pp. 43–45

³ A statement of R. Hai shows that the Geonim were already living and operating in Baghdad several years prior to his own appointment. B.M. Lewin, Otzar ha-Ge’onim, vol. 6, Yoma, no. 121

⁴ Robert Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture. Yale University Press: 2013. p. 128, quoting Shraga Abramson, Ba-Merkazim uva-Tefuf sot, pp. 105–179 and Moshe Gil, Erets-Yisra’el ba
Tequfah ha-Muslamit, pp. 472–477