Gaon (Hebrew: גאון, gā'ōn, lit. 'pride', plural geonim, גְּאוֹנִים ‎, gĕ'ōnīm) was originally a formal title for the Geonim, heads of Talmudic academies in the 6th–11th century.

Gaon, the title accorded to the Jewish spiritual leaders and scholars who headed Talmudic academies that flourished, with lengthy interruptions, from the 7th to the 13th century in Babylonia and Palestine.

The gaon of Sura sat at the right hand of the exilarch, while the gaon of Pumbedita sat at the left. When both were present at a banquet, the former pronounced the blessing before and after the meal.

The Geonic period spanned nearly 450 years, from Rabbi Chanan of Ashkaya, the first Gaon, in 589, to Rabbi Hai Geon, the last Geon, in 1038. Throughout the Jewish world, these two Geonim were …

According to a tradition that originated in the Sura academy (Neubauer, Chronicles, 2 (1895), 78), only the heads at Sura were called gaon and not their counterparts in Pumbedita. This was accepted by …

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The meaning of GAON is a Jewish head of one of the Babylonian academies at Sura and Pumbedita from about a.d. 589—1038 and usually an eminent religious scholar and judicial authority —used as …

Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005). Plural geoynim.

Nov 28, 2025 · Gaon (plural Gaonim or Geonim or Gaons) The Gaon also was distressed by the veneration the Hasidim accorded their rabbinic leaders, men whom the Gaon generally regarded as …

The title of gaon came to be applied to the heads of the two Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita. The title became popular around the end of the sixth century. As the academies of Sura …