Hai Gaon

Hai ben Sherira, born in 939, was the son of Sherira Gaon and worked beside him for years before succeeding him at the head of the Pumbedita academy, then based in Baghdad, early in the 1000s. Sherira died in 1006. Hai led the academy until his death on 28 March 1038. Hundreds of his responsa survive, sent to Kairouan, Fez, Spain and beyond, on law, Talmud interpretation, theology, and even magic and mystical names, which he treated with caution.

He also wrote legal monographs in Arabic, among them treatises on oaths (Mishpetei Shevuot) and on buying and selling (Sefer HaMekach VeHaMemkar), and a commentary on the Mishnah order of Tohorot. In Spain, Samuel ibn Naghrela (Shmuel HaNagid) wrote an elegy for him. His death in 1038 is the usual marker for the end of the Geonic age and the start of the age of the Rishonim.