Life
Sherira was born in 906, the descendant, both on his father's and his mother's side, of prominent families, several members of which had occupied the gaonate. His father was Hananiah ben R. Yehudai, also a gaon. Sherira claimed descent from Rabbah b. Abuha, who belonged to the family of the exilarch, thereby claiming descent from the Davidic line. Sherira boasted that his genealogy could be traced back to the pre-Bostanaian branch of that family, which, he claimed, on account of the deterioration of the exilarchate had renounced its claims thereto, preferring instead the scholar's life (Letter of Sherira Gaon, in Neubauer, l.c. i. 23, 33). The seal of his family was a lion, which was said to have been the emblem of the Judean kings (Ibn Daud, l.c.).
Sherira officiated first as chief judge. While in that office, he refused to recognize the election of Nehemiah ben Kohen Tzedek as gaon in 960. On Nehemiah's death in 968, Sherira was elected gaon of the Academy of Pumbedita, soon after which he appointed his son, Hai, chief judge in his place (Sherira, l.c. i. 41).
In 997, he and his son were maliciously denounced by enemies to the caliph al-Qadir, though the nature of the accusation is unknown. He and his son were imprisoned and deprived of their property, even of the necessaries of life. Though the incarceration was brief, Sherira was now in very bad health. Sherira resigned the gaonate in 998, appointing his son as his successor (Ibn Daud, l.c.).
Sherira died soon after at the age of 100 years, in 1006. (Ibn Daud, l.c., according to Weiss's emendation in "Dor," v. 174)
Read more about this topic: Sherira Gaon
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“There are in life such confluences of circumstances that render the reproach that we are not Voltaires most inopportune.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“There is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time. As the air I breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature, as the light on my book is yielded by a star a hundred millions of miles distant, as the poise of my body depends on the equilibrium of centrifugal and centripetal forces, so the hours should be instructed by the ages and the ages explained by the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The life of a repo man is always intense.”
—Alex Cox, British screenwriter. Miller (Tracy Walter)