רב נטרונאי גאון

Rav Natronai bar Rav Hilai (c.853)was one of the geonim of Sura, the son of the gaon Rav Hilai bar Rav Mari. He came to the gaonate only in his old age, long after his father, after eight other geonim had sat on his father’s seat one after another — and despite his years he was the most productive gaon to his day. She’elot reached him from every corner of the diaspora, and some three hundred of his teshuvot have been preserved. He was the first gaon known to have written in Arabic, and he wrote with equal command in Aramaic and in Hebrew.

His closest ties were with the Jews of Sefarad. To the kehillah of Lucena (Spain) he sent the order of the hundred berachot a man is obligated to say each day, laying a foundation on which Rav Amram Gaon later built his siddur; many of Rav Natronai’s teshuvot on tefillah and berachot were taken into that siddur. He stood firmly against the Karaites and labored to root out customs suspected of leaning toward them, though he did not force his own practice on those who asked of him. Among his rulings: that a place is not a reshut harabbim unless six hundred thousand pass through it — brought by Rashi and Tosafot — and that one should not hold the tzitzit in hand during Keriat Shema, for fear of appearing haughty. A later legend among the Jews of Sefarad told that Rav Natronai had come to them from Bavel by kefitzat haderech; Rav Hai Gaon rejected it, suggesting some imposter had claimed to be him. His son was Rav Hilai Gaon.