רב חזקיה גאון

Rav Chizkiyah ben David, Chizkiyah Gaon, was the last head of the great yeshiva of Pumbedita and the Reish Galuta of Bavel — the final bearer of both crowns at the close of the era of the Geonim. He came of the house of the Exilarchs, a descendant of Rav David ben Zakkai and, by tradition, of Zerubavel ben Shealtiel of the royal line of Dovid, and he is mentioned with the title Reish Galuta from 4781/1021. When Rav Hai Gaon was niftar in 4798/1038, Rav Chizkiyah was appointed to fill his place at the head of the yeshiva; though scholars differ whether he formally carried the title Gaon, all agree that he engaged in halachah and sent halachic igrot to the kehillot of the golah.

After some twenty years at the head of the yeshiva and the golah, his enemies slandered him falsely before the Muslim caliph al-Qa’im; he was imprisoned, tortured, and put to death, in 4818/1058 according to the Hebrew sources. With his murder the ancient yeshiva of Pumbedita closed forever, and the period of the Geonim came to its end. His sons fled to Granada, to the house of Rav Yehosef HaNagid, whose father, Rav Shmuel HaNagid, had been their father’s close friend and had honored him with a song printed in Ben Tehillim. His line endured: his son Yosef was the grandfather of Rav Yehuda ben Barzilai of Barcelona, the Ibn Yachya family traced its descent to his son David, and the office of Reish Galuta — vacant for decades after his death — was filled again by his grandson, Chizkiyah the second, son of David.