רב צמח בן חיים

Rav Tzemach ben Chaim was Gaon of Sura at the end of the ninth century — the stepbrother of Rav Nachshon ben Tzadok, sons of one mother, whom he succeeded in the gaonate and whose seat he held for some seven years. Nothing is known of the gaon’s personal life. His successor, Rav Malka, held the gaonate only a few months, and in that same year Rav Hai ben Nachshon, Rav Tzemach’s nephew, was appointed in his place.

Rav Tzemach is known above all for the teshuvah he sent to the community of Kairouan concerning Eldad HaDani, the traveler who appeared in their city with unfamiliar halachot that he traced back to Moshe Rabbeinu. The teshuvah treats nine points and closes by finding an excuse for Eldad’s forgetfulness; it was printed in part in the first edition of Shalshelet HaKabbalah, and Avraham Epstein published it as fully as possible in his sefer on Eldad HaDani. One further teshuvah of the gaon appears in the Constantinople edition of the Pardes, ending with the very words that close the first — “linetot yamin u’smol” — and teshuvot in Sha’arei Tzedek and in the collection Chemdah Genuzah have been ascribed to him as well.