(8th cent. CE). Gaon of Sura 760-764. Yehudai came from Pumbedita, but when the position of Gaon of Sura became vacant the exilarch Solomon ben Ḥasdai went against the prevailing custom and appointed him to the position. Yehudai was blind. In spite of this disability, his scholarship was so great that it was rare for a scholar to question his legal rulings. His Responsa, the first by a gaon, were written in Aramaic and were often very terse---sometimes running to a word or two. On the other hand, when he was asked to explain a passage, he would deal with the topic at length. In his Halakhot, Alfasi claims that the power to offer absolution of vows by Torah scholars had become so rampant and indiscriminate that Yehudai abrogated it. He even banned the study of the talmudic tractate Nedarim, which deals with vows.
Yehudai wrote a work on Jewish law known in somewhat different versions as Halakhot de-R. Yehudai Gaon, Halakhot Pesukot, Halakhot Ketsuvot, and Halakhot Ketanot. Though each differs from the others in some way, it is clear that they share a common origin. The work was translated into Hebrew, sometimes even with a translation of the talmudic passages quoted in Aramaic. In his criticism of later halakhic works, Paltoi Gaon objected to Yehudai's book on the grounds that people might study it instead of the Talmud itself. Yehudai's responsa are frequently quoted in Sefer ha-Pardes and Maḥzor Vitry.
