Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon
literary work composed by Sherira Gaon
Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon (Hebrew: אגרת רב שרירא גאון), also known as the Letter of Rav Sherira Gaon, and the Epistle of Rav Sherira Gaon, is a responsum penned in the late 10th century (987 CE) in the Pumbedita Academy by Sherira ben Hanina, the Chief Rabbi and scholar of Babylonian Jewry, to Rabbi Jacob ben Nissim of Kairouan, in which he methodologically details the development of rabbinic literature, bringing down a chronological list of the Sages of Israel from the time of the compilation of the Mishnah, to the subsequent rabbinic works (Tosefta, Sifra, Sifre, etc.), spanning the period of the Tannaim, Amoraim, Savoraim, and Geonim under the Babylonian Exilarchs (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: רֵאשׁ גלותא Rēsh Galūthā), concluding with his own time. Therein, Sherira ben Hanina outlines the development of the Talmud, how it was used, its hermeneutic principles, and how its lessons are to be applied in daily life whenever one rabbinic source contradicts another rabbinic source. It is considered one of the classics in Jewish historiography.
Letter's content
Sherira's letter (henceforth: Iggeret), in its length, takes the form of a short book. In it, Sherira endeavored to answer an inquiry from Kairouan about the authorship and composition of the Mishnah and Talmud, and in particular why earlier authorities are seldom cited by name and the authorities that are so cited do not seem to be chronologically continuous. Sherira is one of the first to present a detailed discussion on the Savoraim, including their activity in revising and finishing the Talmud. The letter he wrote is the chief source for the history of the Talmudic, post-Talmudic, and geonic periods. Jacob ben Nissim of Kairouan addressed, in the name of his community, a number of questions of historical interest to Sherira, inquiring especially into the origin of the Mishnah and the sequence of the redactions, the origin of the Tosefta, and the sequence of the Talmudic, post-Talmudic, and geonic authorities. The reply seeks to clarify the basic principles upon which the chain of transmission of the Oral Law is founded.
Sherira clearly and lucidly answers all these questions, throwing light upon many obscure passages of Jewish history.
The public source identifies “Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon” as literary work composed by Sherira Gaon. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Iggeret, Rabbi and Sherira.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q46142486. VIAF identifies the subject as 8973157527415227300006. The Library of Congress control number is n89135058. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.