Background
Hai Gaon or Hai ben Sherira was born in 939.
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HAI GAON
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He assisted his distinguished father, Sherira ben Hanina who was gaon (head) of the great Talmudic academy of Pumbedita (situated at that time in Baghdad), in teaching and administering the academy. After Sherira retired in 998, he was succeeded as gaon by Hai, who w'as the most prominent personality in the Jewish world of his time. Scholars came to study with him from many parts of the Jewish world, including Byzantium and western Europe. Although Babylonian Jewry had started to decline, Hai, like his father, maintained Babylon’s great prestige as a center of learning and authoritative legal rulings.
His replies are written in the same language as the queries — Hebrew, Aramaic, or Arabic. He also wrote monographs on civil and religious law, in which he organized the scattered Talmudic discussions into topical units. These were written in Arabic and subsequently translated into Hebrew. Only parts of his commentary on Talmudic tractates have survived. He was also the author of a short work on the messianic redemption, and wrote liturgical poems. Hai continued to write and teach until his one hundredth year.
Achievements
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Hai is best known for his responsa (replies to problems of Jewish law). About a thousand of these are extant, about a third of all the known responsa of the gaonic period. Even other great rabbinic authorities appealed to him for final decisions and some queries came from as far away as Spain and Ethiopia.
Politics
He based his rulings on the Talmud, the views of his predecessors, and customary practices.
