Josiah ben Aharon he-Ḥaver

Josiah ben Aaron he-Ḥaver

Josiah ben Aaron he-Ḥaver (d. 1025) was probably the last Palestinian gaon from the family of Aaron ben Me’ir. Very little is known about his life, and even the exact dates of his gaonate are unknown, although it seems certain that he was for a time av bet din (head of the court) in Acre (Akko). It was only afterwards, but no later than 1015, that he became the gaon of the yeshiva in Jerusalem, and he served in this capacity at least until 1020. Later on, the yeshiva moved to Ramla, plausibly in consequence of the growing tension between the Rabbanite and Karaite communities in Jerusalem.

Josiah ben Aaron he-Ḥaver was involved in a controversy with one of the leaders of the Karaite community in Jerusalem, plausibly David ben Boaz. The letters Josiah ben Aaron sent to the representatives of the Jewish community in Egypt and preserved in the Cairo Geniza give testimony to the miserable state of the Jews in Palestine during the persecutions by the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim.

Marzena Zawanowska

Bibliography

Gil, Moshe. A History of Palestine, 634–1099, trans. Ethel Broido (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 189–191 [301], 744–746 [899], 835–836 [949].

Mann, Jacob. “Addenda to the Responsa of the Babylonian Geonim as a Source f Jewish History,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 12 (1921): 433–471.

———. The Jews in Egypt and in Palestine Under Fā ṭ imid Caliphs (1920–22; repr. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969–70), vol. 1, pp. 65–66, 71; vol. 2, pp. 49, 52–53, 66–72.

———. “The Responsa of the Babylonian Geonim as a Source of Jewish History,” Jewish Quarterly Review, n.s. 7 (1916–17): 457–490; 8 (1917–18): 339–366; 9 (1918–19): 139–179; 10 (1919–20): 121–151, 309–365.

———. “A Second Supplement to the Jews in Egypt and in Palestine Under Fāṭimid Caliphs,” Hebrew Union College Annual 3 (1926): 257–308.

Mann, Jacob. Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature (Cincinnati, 1931–35; repr. New York: Ktav, 1972), vol. 1, pp. 314, 335; vol. 2, pp. 46, 135.

Poznański, Samuel. Babylonische Geonim im nachgaonäischen Zeitalter (Berlin: Mazer und Müller, 1914), pp. 85–86, 97.

———. “Deux listes commémoratives de la gueniza,” Revue des Études Juives 66 (1913): 60–74.

Citation Marzena Zawanowska. " Josiah ben Aaron he-Ḥaver." Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Executive Editor Norman A. Stillman. Brill Online , 2013. Reference. Jim Harlow. 04 January 2013 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-jews-...>