Yehudai Gaon

Yehudai ben Nahman, a scholar from Pumbedita, served as Gaon of Sura for about three years in the 750s. Tradition says he was blind, and that he made a point of never answering a question unless he had both a Talmudic proof and a tradition from his teacher. His legal rulings were gathered by his students as Halakhot Pesukot ("Decided Laws"): short, practical rulings on prayer, Shabbat, festivals, food and civil law, set out in Aramaic without the Talmud's debates.

This was a new kind of Jewish book, a handbook for ordinary communities rather than for scholars. It became a main source for Halakhot Gedolot, the larger code that soon followed. It survived in a Hebrew version known as Hilkhot Re'u, and later in an Aramaic manuscript from Yemen. His student Pirkoi ben Baboi pressed communities everywhere, including those in the Land of Israel, to follow Babylonian practice, a sign of how far Geonic authority now reached.