רב נחשון גאון

Rav Nachshon Gaon was among the Geonim, the heads of the Babylonian academies whose responsa and rulings shaped the development of halachah. His teachings are preserved through citation in later halachic works rather than as a continuous treatise.

In matters of monetary law he is cited on the laws of a guarantor (the arev): when a guarantor asks the court for time to produce the borrower, Rav Nachshon rules that if the borrower’s whereabouts are known he is granted enough time to bring him, and if they are unknown he is given thirty days. This ruling is brought in the halachic discussion of suretyship in Choshen Mishpat. He also appears in the laws of prayer, where his explanation of the Kaddish is cited — connecting “yitgadal v’yitkadash” to the verse describing the days of Gog and Magog, when Hashem’s Name will be magnified and made whole, as it is written in Zechariah, “on that day Hashem will be One and His Name One.”