In the year 4682 or 922 C.E. Pesach was celebrated two days apart by the Jewish communities of Eretz Yisroel and Bavel.(1) In Eretz Yisroel, under the leadership of Ben Meir,(2) who claimed to be a descendant of Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi, the Jewish community observed the Pesach holiday beginning on a Sunday while in Bavel under the leadership of the Reish Galusa, David Ben Zakkai, Pesach began two days later on a Tuesday.
There are a number of fragments of letters currently found in the Bodleian library of Oxford University that were discovered in the Cairo Geniza from which we learn the story of the Ben Meir controversy.
One fragment is a letter from the Babylonian academy addressed to Ben Meir. Rav Saadiah Gaon had been requested by the Raish Galuta (Rav David ben Zakkai) to refute Ben Meir who was trying to assert the supremacy of Eretz Yisroel by ignoring the rule of Dechiyos, known as Molad Zakein and reducing postponements (See sidebar ) for Rosh Hashana. What Ben Meir proposed to do was add 642 chalakim to the deadline of noon for the discovery of the new moon and avoid having to postpone Rosh Hashana for two days.
Ben Meir wanted the months of Marcheshvan and Kislev 4682 to be made “Chaseirim” instead of “Sheleimim” and consequently Pesach would be celebrated on a Sunday of that year, two days earlier than those adhering to the Babylonian calendar who were celebrating it on Tuesday. (3) He believed he had a right to do this based on both Halacha and the fact that it was the sole right of Eretz Yisroel to establish the new moon and fix the calendar.
Various views have been advanced to understand why Ben Meir believed he should have the power to deviate from the established calendar.
The calendar was based on the time in the city of Babylon where noon was approximately 56 minutes earlier than in Jerusalem. Ben Meir was claiming to add 642 parts which was 35 minutes, partly to offset the difference. He was also trying to reduce the number of postponements provided for in the accepted calendar. In Ben Meir’s opinion the festivals were being unnecessarily postponed and he feared, celebrated on the wrong days.
Rabbi Saadiah who was extremely well versed in astronomy attempted to use conciliatory language to pursuade Ben Meir not to carry out his plan
Ben Meir’s intention to make Cheshvan and Kislev of 4682 deficient, and have Pesach celebrated on Sunday instead of Tuesday became known in the summer of 4681 (921 C.E.).
At that time Rav Saadiah was in Aleppo and rumors reached him that Ben Meir was going to change the calendar. Rav Saadiah immediately wrote Ben Meir several letters; the established calendar was correct and that he should not make any changes to it, he insisted. When Rav Saadiah left Aleppo and went to Baghdad,(at the time the seat of of the Yeshiva of Pumbedita which had relocated to that city) he learned that not only did his warning have no effect on Ben Meir, but the latter had issued an offical proclamation of his intention of changing the calendar.
Once the proclamation had reached Bavel, the Reish Galusa, David ben Zakkai in conjunction with the Geonim of both academies, Sura and Pumbedita (4) and Saadiah addressed an offical letter to Ben Meir warning him not to contemplate any change to the calendar. The Geonim also sent out letters to abide by the old order and not to heed any of the changes proposed.
Saadiah writes to Ben Meir:
“Know that when I was yet in Aleppo, some pupils came from B’al Gad [a town at the foot of the Lebanon Mountains] and brought the news that Ben Meir intend to proclaim Cheshvan and Kislev deficient. I did not believe it but as a precaution I wrote to him in the summer[not to do so] The exilarch, the heads of the academies, all Allufim teachers and scholars likewise agreed to proclaim Heshvan and Kiselv full….In conjunction with their letters I wrote to most of the great cities, in order to fulfill my duty. Persist ye also in this matter and close up this breach, and do not rebel against the command of G-d. None of the people dare to profane G-d wilfully, to eat leavened bread on Passover and eat, drink and work on the Day of atonement. May it be the will [of the L-rd] that there be no stumbling block and no pitfall in your place or in any other place in Israel. Pray answer this letter and tell me all your affairs and your well being. May your peace grow and increase forever!(5)
Instead of heeding Rav Saadia’s request, Ben Meir sent his son (6) to Jerusalem to proclaim there for the second time the proposed changes to the calendar. He responded to the charges of the Geonim and Saadiah that their authority should be denied and that matters of the calendar should be left as in former times in the hands of the Palestinian scholars.
Evidence of the significant role Rav Saadiah played in the affair was that in a letter that Ben Meir sent to his adherents in Baghdad, he denounces Rav Saadiah in particular in scathing terms,
In the meanwhile Pesach was approaching and a serious split took place in the Jewish community, the warnings not having yielded the desired result. Most of the Jews in Eretz Yisroel and Egypt (7) celebrated Pesach two days earlier than the Reish Galuta, Geonim and Rav Saadiah Gaon and the rest of the Babylonian community.
The schism was so great that a hundred years later, a non-Jewish historian found it important enough to mention it in his account of historical events.(8)
The quarrel seems to have continued for almost two years with separate festival days being celebrated by Klal Yisrael.
In a book entitled Sefer HaMoadim written by Rabbi Saadiah Gaon. which is no longer extant except for some pages found in the Cairo Geniza, we learn that there was even some thought given by the Babylonian Geonate to actually try to involve the government to try to have Ben Meir removed from his position. But in the end they decided against this.(9)
Ben Meir and his supporters were ultimately crushed and defeated. In his letters, Ben Meir attributes his downfall to Rav Saadiah Gaon. Saadiah is believed to have been only 32 years old at the time. Despite his relative youth, Rabbi Saadiah‘s wisdom, genius, and profound literary skills– he actually called Ben Meir, Ben Hamachshich, the one who brings darkness as opposed to the one who brings light (the literal meaning of his name) —enabled him to win over the rest of the Jewish community as a result of which the established calendar was once again adhered to by the entire Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael and in the diaspora.
Rav Saadiah Gaon, at the behest of the Geonate authored another work called Sefer Hazikaron which was in commemoration of this terrible schism that took place, and in which were recorded all the activities of Ben Meir, his errors in calculation, the proceedings of the Geonate against him and in particular the reasons for their continued adherence to the accepted record. A lenghthy fragment found in the Cario Geniza is a remnant of this work. (10)
***
Saadiah Gaon was born in the disrtict of Faiyum (or Pithom as is known in the Torah) in upper Egypt in the year 892 C.E.(11). He was descended from Yehudah’s third son, Shelah as well as from Chanina ben Dosa.In fact one of Rabbi Saadiah Gaon’s sons, an outstanding Talmid Chochom was called Dosa. Rabbi Saadiah’s father Yoseph ben Pinchas (died 920) was a jabadh (banker) at the Abbasid court during the reign of al-Mugtadir, in Baghdad when the econimic situation was very dire. Saadiah father and Aaron ben Amram were the two chief bankers around whom the financial administration of the caliphate revolved. It was said about them that had even one of these two been dismissed, the business of the Caliph would have come to a standstill. (12)
A founder of Judeo-Arabic literature — Rabbi Saadiah Gaon translated the Torah into this language. Known as the Tafisr it was read for centuries in the shuls of the Jews of Yemen after the reading of the Parshah every week. He was a prolific writer in all subjects, Halachah, Hebrew grammar, language, mysticism, Torah, philosphy and literature.(13)
After his death he was called by Ibn Ezra “Rosh HaMedabrim Bechol Makom.” (The chief authority in every field)
Hundreds of his works are no longer extant; we know of them only from their being mentioned in the writings of other scholars and historians. Others have survived the centuries. Emunot Vede’ot, the Hebrew translation by Ibn Tibn of his Kitāb ul-ʾamānāt wal-iʿtiqādātwas written as a defense of Rabbinic Judaism against the Karaites who rejected the Torah SheBe’al Peh.
His works, many of which remnants have been found in the Cairo Geniza include
Agron, a Hebrew rhyming dictionary
Kutub al-Lugah – Books onthe Hebrew Langauge
Tafsir al sab’ina lafzach- Translations of the Hebrew words that appear only once in the Torah
Ta’amei Tekiot – Ten Reasons for the Blowing of the Shofar on Rosh Hashana with the rituals of the festival
Reshut -an introduction to Azaharot cotnaing a division of 24 or 25 classes of the 613 Mitzvot.
Pizmon Lechasan- Hymn for a bridegroom
Kitab al Madchal- Book of Introduction to the Talmud
Perush 13 Middoth – Commentary on the 13 Hermenuetic Rules
Perush on Massaches Brachos
Kitab al Mawarit- Book on the laws of inheritance
Achkam Al Wadia- Laws on Pledges
Kitab al Shahadah wal-wwtik- Book on Testimony and Contracts
Tafsir al Arayot- Interpretation of the laws of incest
KItab al Terefot- Book on forbidden foods
Kawl fi’l Riba – Treatise on Usury
Sefer Tum’ah Vetaharah -On Defilement and Purity
Sefer HaMatanot – Laws regularing the legal aquisition of gifts
Matnot Kehuna- On the Priestly Gifts
Hilchos Niddah – Laws on Niddah
Sefer HaIbur – Book of the Leap Year
Arba’ah SHearim – The Four Gates
Kitab al Tarikh- Book of Chronology
Seder Tannaim Ve’emoraim – Chronoly of the Tannaim and Amoraim
Toldot Rabbenu HaKadosh – Geneaology of Rabbi Yehudah the Holy
Megillas Bnei Chashmoniam- The Scroll of the Sons of the Hasmoneans
Tafsir Kitab al Mabadi- Commentary on the Book of Creation
Kitab al -Radd ala Anan- Refutation of Anan the leader of the Karaites.
Kitab al Tamyiz – Book of Distinctions – Book against the Karaites
Kitab al-Radd ala Ibn Sakawaihi – Refutation of Ibn Sakawaihi
Kitab al-Radd al al-Muhtahamil- Refutation of Muhtahamil
Hadd al-Insan- Definition of Man
Makalah fi sirg al Sabt- Treatise on the Light of Sabbath
And the list goes on and on.
Another copy of his Perush on Sefer Yishayahu (Book of Isaiah) was recently found in the Genizah of Afghanistan.
Several years after the Ben Meir Controversy, Rabbi Saadiah was appointed as Gaon of the Yeshiva in Sura. He was dismissed for a short while because he did not want to compromise on his principles and was afterwards reinstated.
The Rambam who lived more than two centuries later, and who was greatly influenced by Rav Saadia, said of him: “Were it not for Rav Saadia Gaon, the Torah would have almost disappeared from the Jewish people. For it was he who shed light on that which was obscure, strengthened that which had been weakened, and spread the Torah far and wide, by word of mouth and in writing.(14)
(1) Carlebach, Elisheva, Palaces of Time: Jewish Calendar and Culture in Early Modern Europe, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, London, England, 2011 p.14
(2) Some scholars believe his name was Aaron ben Meir based on a fragment of Saadia’s Sefer HaMoadim. However Dr. Henry Malter who authored a definitive work the life and works of Rav Saadiah Gaon, first published in 1921, JPS, Piladelphia, is not certain that his name was Aaron and throughout his book, calls him Ben Meir. He only mentions Aaron as a possible first name in a footnote, (See note 149, page 72 in the reprinted edition of Malter’s,Saadiah Gaon, His Life and Works,Hermon Press, N.Y., 1969).
(3) See Guillaume, A. “Further Documents on the Ben Meir Controversy,” Jewish Quarterly Review, no. 4 (1915): 543–557.
(4) It is not clear who was the Gaon of Sura but at that time two Gaonim shared the seat at Pumbedita,
(5) Malter, pp. 82-83
(6) A son of Ben Meir by the name of Avrohom served as the Gaon for several years and was succeeded by a son Aaron. It is not clear which son of Ben Meir is being referred to.
(7)And even a small number in Babylonia where Ben Meir had followers.
(8) Elijah of Nisibis (11th century) in Baethgen’s Fragmente syrischer und arabischer Historiker, Leipzig, 1884, pp. 84, 141. See Malter p. 84 note 179
(9) Malter p. 86
(10) Rabbi Saadiah’s Kitab al Ibur or Sefer HaIbur was also supposed to have been written as a result of this controversy. See Carlebach p. 14
(11) The Jewish Quarterly Review in January 1893 (Volume 5) carried an article by Dr. M. Friedlander entitled The Life and Works of Saadiah Gaon. Dr. Friedlander writes that this article commemorates the millenium of Rabbi Saadiah Gaon’s birth. (The paper was read at an earlier date sometime in 1891). Based on this and other sources, it is believed that Rabbi Saadiah Gaon was born around 892 although there are many biographies which give his birth year as ten years later. In a postscript in Malter’s Book, he mentiones a fragment containing a list of Saadiahs writings compiled by his sons She’erit and Dosa eleven years after their father’s death. Their father’s death is given exactly 26 Iyar (1253 of the Seluecidaean era) which is May 18, 942 C.E.The fragment also says something about 60 years less 40 days but the rest is missing. Malter believes tht It probably refers to the fact that Saadiah lived almost 60 years and claims that his new birth date is ten years earlier than what was believed before this fragment appeared. Since the fragment is not complete, this is only conjecture on Malter’s part and it is hoped that maybe with the discovery of the Genizah in Afghanistan more light will be shed on the date of his birth. The later birth date rests on a statement by the twelfth-century historian Abraham ibn Daud that Saadia was “about fifty” years old when he died
(12) Fischel, Walter, Jews in the Economic and Political Life of Mediaeval Islam, London, 1937. P. 28
(13) See S.D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: THe Jewish Communities of the World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza Volume V: The Individual p. 380. “Five memorial volumes honored the millenium of his death (Baghdad 942), three in the U.S. one in England and a particulary voluninous one in Israel.” See also Marcus, Jacob Rader The Jews in the Mideival World: A source Book: 315-1791 Revised edition with an introduction and updated bibliographies by Marc Saperstein, Cincinnati, p. 323
(14) Mindel, Nissen, Talks and Tales, Kehot Publication Society.