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R. Saadia Gaon – Intellectual Profile

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R. Saadia Gaon

Name	R. Saadia Gaon, Rasag, Saadia ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi ר' סעדיה גאון, רס"ג, סעדיה בן יוסף הפיומי
Dates	882-942
Location	Egypt / Baghdad
Works	Targum and Commentary on Tanakh, Emunot VeDeiot, Siddur, Halakhic, Sefer HaMitzvot, Sefer HaAgron
Exegetical Characteristics
Influenced by
Impacted on	Ibn Ezra, R. Avraham Ben HaRambam

Background

The term "Gaon" (plural: "Geonim"), in its narrowest meaning, refers to the official head of one of the central yeshivot of Babylonia which were active primarily between the 6th and 11th centuries. In addition to overseeing the Torah study occurring in their yeshiva, Geonim were responsible for writing responsa, answering questions posed to them in letters usually concerning matters of Jewish law. This was the exclusive literary output of the Geonim until the tenure of R. Saadia, who transformed the role of the Gaon by authoring numerous works in many genres.¹

Life

• Name – Saadia (or Saadiah, Saadya) ben Yosef “al-Fiyumi” (from the Fayyūm district)²
  • Hebrew name – סעדיה בן יוסף (ה)פיומי
  • Acronym/nickname – רס"ג, Rasag
  • Arabic name – Saˁīd b. Yūsuf al-Fayyūmī
• Dates – 882 - May 18 (26 Iyar), 942³
• Location – Born in Dilāṣ, in the Fayyūm district of Upper Egypt.⁴ Later moved to Tiberias, then Baghdad (where he served as Gaon), and, for a short time, Aleppo.⁵
• Education – Precise details of R. Saadia's education are scant, but his earliest writings indicate that even before leaving his native Egypt, he was an expert in Hebrew grammar and biblical lexicography. By that time, he seems to also have been well-educated in Greek and Muslim philosophy as well as traditional Jewish sources.⁶
• Occupation – On May 15, 928, R. Saadia was appointed Gaon (head) of the Yeshiva of Sura.⁷
• Family – While in Egypt, R. Saadia had already married and had children.⁸ Some historians believe that R. Saadia had three sons and two daughters.⁹ It is certain that R. Saadia had a son named Dosa, who was born after R. Saadia was named Gaon and was named Gaon himself much later, and another son named She’erit.¹⁰
• Teachers – The only known teacher of R. Saadia is an Israeli named Abu Kathir Yahya al-Katib, who presumably taught R. Saadia general subjects such as philosophy.¹¹
• Contemporaries – R. Aaron Sarjado Gaon, Isaac Israeli,¹² David al-Muqammis of Raqqa¹³ 
• Students – Besides for the students he taught in his official capacity as Gaon of Sura, it is known that R. Saadia had students or followers who he had left in Egypt, with whom he had corresponded after emigrating.¹⁴ Among his students are the grammarian Dunash b. Labrat and Yaakov b. Ephraim, a possible author of an early commentary on the Talmud Yerushalmi.¹⁵
• Time period – R. Saadia involved himself in numerous controversies throughout his lifetime.
  • R. Saadia wrote multiple polemics against the Karaites, some which are attacks on personal Karaite leaders.¹⁶  
  • In the summer of 921, a Gaon of Israel named "Ben Meir" was planning to announce that in the coming year, the months of both Marheshvan and Kislev should be 29 days, which conflicted with the calendar rules of the Geonim of Babylonia. R. Saadia participated in an extensive campaign to ensure that all Jews, including those in Israel, would adhere to the calendar guidelines of the Babylonian Geonim.¹⁷
  • After becoming Gaon of Sura, a prolonged dispute erupted between himself and the Reish Geluta [Exilarch] David b. Zakai, involving their respective roles and leadership. R. Saadia composed a polemical work attacking his political enemies and defending his positions.¹⁸  
• World outlook – In the introduction to his polemical tract against David b. Zakai, R. Saadia indicates that he felt uniquely blessed by God with the abilities to be the leader of the nation.¹⁹ 

Works

• Biblical commentaries – Saadia composed an Arabic translation of the entire Tanakh, which he titled "Tafsīr,"²⁰ as well as a longer commentary on approximately half of the Torah and a few other books of Tanakh, including Yeshayah, Mishlei, Tehillim, Iyyov, and Daniel.²¹ 
• Rabbinics – 
  • Talmudic novellae – 
  • Halakhic codes – 
  • Responses to the works of others – 
  • Responsa – 
• Jewish thought – 
• Misattributed works – 

Torah Commentary-

Characteristics

• Verse by verse / Topical – 
• Genre – 
• Structure – 
• Language – 
• Peshat and derash – 

Methods

• – 

Themes

• – 

Textual Issues

• Manuscripts – 
• Printings – 
• Textual layers – 

Sources

Significant Influences

• Earlier Sources – 
• Teachers – 
• Foils – 

Occasional Usage

• –

Possible Relationship

• –

Impact

Later exegetes

• –

Supercommentaries

• –

¹ Robert Brody, The Geonim of Babylonia and the Shaping of Medieval Jewish Culture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. Paperback ed., 2013)

² Based on the conventions of Hebrew and Aramaic grammar, the Hebrew name סעדיה begins with a שוא נע, and perhaps should more properly be spelled as "Se'adyah," which is the transliteration preferred by Robert Brody. His name has traditionally been spelled as Saadia (or Saadiah), and so this is retained by many scholars despite its technical inaccuracy. Henry Malter, Saadia Gaon: His Life and Works (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1921), p. 25

³ These details are known from a fragmented document listing R. Saadia's works and a few biographical details written by two sons of R. Saadia, Dosa and She'erit. Published in Jacob Mann, ‘A Fihrist of Sa’adya’s Works’, Jewish Quarterly Review, 2:423-8 (1920–1).

⁴ This is known from a letter written by R. Saadia's rival, Ben-Meir. The letter was published in Abraham Harkavy, Responsa of the Geonim [זכרון לראשונים ולגם לאחרונים - זכרון רב סעדיה אלפימי] (Berlin,1892), and can be viewed here.

⁵ Malter, p. 53-63, 82; Robert Brody, Sa'adyah Gaon (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013), p. 26

⁶ Malter, p. 32-52. "From his youth Sa’adyah’s cultural exposure had been far broader than any Babylonian yeshiva student’s... His unconventional education had an even more striking impact in the cultural and intellectual spheres." Robert Brody, Sa'adyah Gaon (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013), p. 58

⁷ These are known from a fragmented document listing R. Saadia's works and a few biographical details written by two sons of R. Saadia, Dosa and She'erit. Published in Jacob Mann, ‘A Fihrist of Sa’adya’s Works’, Jewish Quarterly Review, 2:423-8 (1920–1). Cf, Malter, p. 421-428, who works to reconcile these details with other evidence regarding R. Saadia's biography. In either 932 or 933, R. Saadia was removed from his post thanks to the controversy that had erupted between himself and the Exilarch, David ben Zakai, but two years later they reconciled and R. Saadia again served as Gaon until his death in 942.

⁸ In a letter to his students in Egypt, R. Saadia mentions that he had left his wife and children in Egypt when he traveled to Israel and Baghdad, although they eventually joined him in Baghdad. This letter is published in Solomon Schechter, Saadyana, p. 24.

⁹ Malter, p. 28-30, 132

¹⁰ These are known from a fragmented document listing R. Saadia's works and a few biographical details written by two sons of R. Saadia, Dosa and Hoshea. Published in Jacob Mann, ‘A Fihrist of Sa’adya’s Works’, Jewish Quarterly Review, 2:423-8 (1920–1)

¹¹ This is known from a comment of a contemporary Muslim writer, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Masʿūdī. Malter, 32-37.

¹² Correspondence between R. Saadia and the philosopher-physician Isaac Israeli is attested to by Israeli’s student, Dunash ibn Tamim, in his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, edited by M. Grossberg (London, 1902).

¹³ This Jewish philosopher is quoted in the Commentary to Sefer Yetzirah of R. Yehudah b. Barzilai of Barcelona, ed. Halberstam (Berlin, 1885) p. 77, where R. Yehudah mentioned that he had heard that al-Muqamas learned with R. Saadia, although he is unsure about the veracity of this report.

¹⁴ Saadyana, ed. Solomon Schechter (1902), p. 24-25

¹⁵ Malter, p. 292-293

¹⁶ Samuel Poznanski, The Karaite Literary Opponents of Saadiah Gaon (London, 1908)

¹⁷ Hayim Bornstein, מחלוקת רב סעדיה גאון ובן מאיר. (Warsaw, 1904). More recent scholars have shown that R. Saadia's own role in the controversy was marginal, and that he was mainly concerned with ensuring that his Egyptian students and colleagues would side the Babylonians. Sacha Stern, The Jewish Calendar Controversy of 921/2 CE (Brill: 2019), p. 17-20.

¹⁸ Avraham Harkavy, השריד והפליט מספר האגרון וספר הגלוי. (St Petersburg, 1891)

¹⁹

Hebrew translation from the Arabic: 

שה' לא ימנע מאומתו איזה תלמיד בכל דור שילמדהו ויאיר עיניו למען יורה [אותה] וילמדה ותצליח על ידו בענינה. והסבה לזה היא מה שראיתי בנפשי מה שגמל ה' חסד לי ולה

²⁰ This terms means something like “interpretation, meaning,” (perhaps similar to the Hebrew word פשר found in Kohelet 8:1) and is distinct from the Arabic word for translation, tarjama, (similar to the word תרגום) which was the title preferred by the Karaites of R. Saadia's time for their translations. This probably intentional, as R. Saadia writes in the introduction to his work that he considered it to be more of an interpretation than a literal translation.

²¹ R. Saadia gave these commentaries various names based on their subject matter. For example, his commentary to Yeshayah is titled, “The Book of Striving for Improvement in Worship”. These titles appear to be referring to the topics of the books of Tanakh themselves, not R. Saadia's commentaries. H. Ben-Shammai, “Saadya’s Introduction to Isaiah as an Introduction to the Books of the Prophets.” [Hebrew] Tarbiẓ 1991 (60: 371–404)