רב יהודאי גאון

Rav Yehudai Gaon was one of the Geonim, the heads of the academies whose rulings shaped Jewish practice in the centuries after the close of the Talmud. He is brought in later halachic literature as an early authority whose decisions were weighed alongside those of the Rambam and other Rishonim.

In the cited material his name appears in the discussion of berachos: he rules, together with Rav Hai, that after the blessing recited following the eating of fruit and similar foods one answers Amen to one’s own concluding blessing, since it marks the end of the matter, just as one answers Amen after the blessing of Boneh Yerushalayim. The Rambam differs, holding that one answers Amen only when two or more blessings are said in succession. Through such citations his teachings are preserved and debated within the codes touching on Orach Chaim and the practical laws of daily life.