Simeon Kayyara

Simeon Kayyara (Hebrew: ????? ?????) was a Jewish-Babylonian halakist of the first half of the 9th century. The early identification of his surname with "?ahirah," the Arabic name of Cairo (founded 980), was shown by J.L. Rapoport ("Teshubot ha-Ge'onim," ed. Cassel, p. 12, Berlin, 1848) to be impossible. Neubauer's suggestion ("M.J.C." ii, p. viii) of its identification with ?ayyar in Mesopotamia is equally untenable. It is now generally and more correctly assumed that "?ayyara" is derived from a common noun, and, like the Syro-Arabic "?ayyar," originally denoted a dealer in pitch or wax. Rabbinic sources often refer to Kayyara as "Bahag," an abbreviation of "Ba'al Halakhot Gedolot" (="author of the "Halakhot Gedolot"), after his most important work.

The "Halakhot Gedolot"

?ayyara's chief work was the "Halakhot Gedolot" (????? ??????), or, as it is called by some Jewish-Spanish authors, to distinguish it from later halakic codices of a similar nature, "Halakhot Rishonot" (see "Ha-Ma'or," Ket. v.; ?ul. i.; RaMBaN, "Mil?amot" to Shab. iii.; I. Halevy, "Dorot ha-Rishonim," iii. 103). It gives the entire halakic and practical material of the Talmud in a codified form, and seems to represent the first attempt to treat it according to its contents rather than according to the arrangement of its treatises.

As to the time of its composition all the older authorities are silent. Abraham ibn Daud alone has an allusion to this problem, which has caused much perplexity. According to him ("Sefer ha-?abbalah," in "M. J. C." i. 63), "Simeon ?ayyara wrote his work in the year 741, and after him lived Yehudai Gaon, author of the "Halakhot Pesu?ot", which he compiled from Simeon's "Halakhot Gedolot." According to A. Epstein, there can be no doubt that Simeon ?ayyara wrote the "Halakhot Gedolot," although some authors ascribe this work to Yehudai Gaon. Ancient authorities, like the geonim Sherira and Hai ben Sherira ("Teshubot ha-Ge'onim," ed. A. Harkavy, No. 376; Isaiah di Trani, "Ha-Makria", No. 36; "Teshubot Ge'onim ?admonim," ed. Cassel, No. 87, Berlin, 1848), Samuel ben Jacob Jam'a (????), of Kabez, author of Arabic rules for slaughtering (see Steinschneider in A. Geiger, "Jüd. Zeit." ii. 76), Israel ben Abba Mari of Marseilles ("Ittur," ed. Warsaw, p. 65a; comp. "Halakhot Gedolot," ed. Warsaw, 191b; ed. A. Hildesheimer, p. 387), and others, testify to this fact. It is also evident from the statements of these authorities that Simeon ?ayyara's chief sources were the "She'eltot" of R. A?a of Shab?a and the "Halakhot Pesu?ot" of Yehudai Gaon.

Sources

The A. Hildesheimer edition of the "Halakhot Gedolot," Index, p. 140, gives no less than 83 passages in which the "She'eltot" has been cited (Reifmann, in "Bet Talmud," iii. 111 et seq., gives 109 passages); and it has in addition more than 40 literal though unacknowledged quotations from this same source. It is more difficult to trace material borrowed from Yehudai Gaon's "Halakhot Pesu?ot," since the original form of that work has been lost. A comparison with the redaction of Yehudai Gaon's composition, which has been preserved as the "Halakhot Pesu?ot" or "Hilkot Re'u" (ed. Schlossberg, Versailles, 1886), shows that most of the halakhot in that recension are found in the "Halakhot Gedolot," although they deviate from it both in wording and in arrangement. Simeon ?ayyara, however, used yet another recension of the "Halakhot Pesu?ot," and at times cites both. There were of course other sources at his disposal which have not been preserved. Not only does the fact that both the "She'eltot" and the "Halakhot Pesu?ot" were used, but also certain passages in the "Halakhot Gedolot" of themselves, prove that the work was composed about the year 825, apparently at Sura, since many explanations and usages of the "Halakhot Gedolot" are elsewhere cited under the names of Geonim of that place.

Interpretations and redactions

In the course of time the "Halakhot Gedolot" underwent many changes. In Spain and in North Africa the legal decisions of the Geonim were incorporated into the book, and its whole appearance was so changed that gradually a different recension was developed. The original or Babylonian redaction exists in printed form in the editions of Venice (1548), Amsterdam (1762), Vienna (1810), etc., and finally in that of Warsaw (1874, with an index of passages and notes by S. A. Traub). This redaction was used by the Babylonian geonim and by the German and northern French scholars; for the citations of the latter from the "Halakhot Gedolot," which work they ascribe to Yehudai Gaon, refer to this recension.

The second or so-called Spanish redaction (?????? ??????) exists in a manuscript in the Vatican library, and has been edited by A. Hildesheimer in the collection of the "Me?i?e Nirdamim" (Berlin, 1888-92). The material of this recension is much richer and more comprehensive, since it contains many passages from the Talmud, mnemonic introductory words ("simanim"), the order of the weekly lessons, and, most important of all, legal decisions of the Geonim, usually indicated by the term "shedar" (="he sent"), which are lacking in the earlier redaction (see I. Hildesheimer, "Die Vaticanische Handschrift der Halachoth Gedoloth," in "Beilage zum Jahresberichte des Rabbinerseminars zu Berlin," 1885-96, and Schorr in "He-?alu?," xii. 100). The first gaon of whom a "teshubah" is mentioned in this recension is Yehudai Gaon; the last, ?ema? ben Pal?oi (d. 890). A. Epstein has concluded, accordingly, that this redaction was made, or rather finished, about the year 900, in some place where the Jews were in close literary correspondence with the Babylonian seminaries. This was either in Spain or in northern Africa—probably in Kairwan, the center of Talmudic studies at that time. Evidence in favor of Kairwan is supplied by a passage in the "Halakhot Gedolot" (ed. Hildesheimer, p. 175), which mentions a usage as being common among the "Bene Afri?a"; for it is known that "Afri?a" frequently connotes Kairwan.

From northern Africa or Spain this recension was carried into Italy: it was used by the scholars of these three countries; and all of them regarded Simeon ?ayyara as its author. In the 12th century the recension was brought to northern France, and in the 13th to Germany, where it is sometimes cited by the scholars of both countries as "Halakhot Gedolot shel Aspamia" (see R. Tam, "Sefer ha-Yashar," No. 509; "Or Zarua," B. M. No. 276; Sanh. No. 23). On the other hand, the Babylonian redaction in the 13th century reached Italy, where it was used by Isaiah di Trani (see "Ha-Makria", No. 31).

Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography

*A. Epstein, in Ha-Goren, iii. 46 et seq.;
*A. Harkavy, Teshubot ha-Ge'onim, pp. xxvii., 374 et seq.;
*J.L. Rapoport, in Kerem ?emed, vi. 236;
*Schorr, in Zunz Jubelschrift (Hebr. part), pp. 127 et seq.;
*He-?alu?, xii. 81 et seq.;
*Weiss, Dor, iv. 26, 32 et seq., 107, 264;
*Brüll, in his Jahrb. ix. 128 et seq.;
*Grätz, Gesch. v. 234;
*idem, in Monatsschrift, vii. 217 et seq.;
*S. T. Halberstam, ib. viii. 379 et seq., xxxi. 472 et seq.;
*I. Halevy, Dorot ha-Rishonim, iii. 200 et seq.;
* see also the bibliography of the article Yehudai ben Na?man.

External links

* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=151&letter=K&search=halakhot%20gedolot Jewish Encyclopedia article for Simeon Kayyara] , by Richard Gottheil and Max Schloessinger.

References

*JewishEncyclopedia