page_title: Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon
section_title: Editions
hierarchical_section_title: Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon / Editions
caption_attribution_description: English: Page 12a from the Responses of the Geonim, Geonim [author]; Stern, Solomon Gottlieb, 1807-1883 [previous owner] North Africa or Greece; 1300-1399, now at Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna עברית: אגרת רב שרירא גאון
context_page_description: Iggeret of Rabbi Sherira Gaon, 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 in the Pumbedita Academy by Sherira Gaon, 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, spanning the period of the Tannaim, Amoraim, Savoraim, and Geonim under the Babylonian Exilarchs, concluding with his own time. Therein, Sherira Gaon 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.
context_section_description: The Iggeret exists in its original Aramaic both in "French" and "Spanish" recensions.  The "French" recension is written completely in Aramaic, while the "Spanish" recension (now at the Vienna National Bibliothek, Ms. Hebr. 120) is a 13th or 14th-century copy written on paper, in what appears to be North African or Greek rabbinic script, measuring 270 x 202 mm, and composed of a higher proportion of Hebrew. The two recensions appear to differ on the question of whether the Mishnah was recorded in writing by Rabbi Judah haNasi. The Spanish recension definitely says that it was.  The French recension appears to say that it was not, and this was the traditional view among Ashkenazi Jews.  However, the notes to a recent edition of the French recension argue that the French wording is also consistent with the Mishnah having been written down. The scholarly consensus, up to and including Solomon Schechter, was that the "Spanish" recension was the original version, and this is strongly urged by Rabbi Israel Moses Hazan. More recent scholarship holds that the names are wrongly attributed: the so-called "French" version is the older, but is in fact a product not of France but of Spain.
  A partial translation of the Iggeret was made in English in 1975 by David M. Goodblatt, and a complete translation in English made by R. Nosson Dovid Rabinowich in 1988 where he conflates both the Spanish and French editions in his new translation, especially where he thought one text would lend greater clarity to the subject. Earlier translations were made of the Iggeret in Latin, French, and Hebrew, although of poor quality.
  A sequel to the Iggeret is Sefer ha-Qabbalah written by Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud.
caption: Page from Iggeret Rav Sherira Gaon (Courtesy of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)
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