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Natronai bar Nehemiah

NATRONAI BAR NEHEMIAH (also known as Rav Yenuka), gaon of *Pumbedita, 719–730. Natronai married into the family of the exilarch. According to *Sherira Gaon he was said to have dealt so severely with the students of the academy that some of them left and went to the academy at Sura, returning only after his death. Natronai was lenient to the repentant followers of the false messiah Severus (*Serenus), though they had rejected certain talmudic ordinances, permitting them to return to the communal fold. In one responsum however, he opposed the acceptance into the community of children of certain heretical Jews, who had renounced both biblical and talmudic Judaism. Virtually nothing is known of his halakhic decisions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Baron, Social2, 5 (1957), 190, 193f., 207; B.M. Lewin (ed.), Iggeret R. Sherira Ga'on (1921), 102f.; Sha'arei Ẓedek, responsa (19662), 54–55.


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.