With them begins a new period of Jewish history, which we may confidently call the scientific epoch. The spring-time of Israel's history returned, and in its pure atmosphere the sweet voice of poetry again made itself heard. Contemporary writers scarcely noticed that a remnant of Jewish antiquity, the Exilarchate, was now at an end. It was soon forgotten in the new life that had just made itself visible. Just as the religious life had freed itself from the Temple of sacrifice, so now it gradually withdrew from the influence of the temple of learning on the banks of the Euphrates, and established a new center for itself. The first half of the tenth century became, through the concurrence of favorable circumstances, a turning-point in the progress of Jewish history.
Jewish history was gradually transferred to European ground. Judaism assumed, so to speak, a European character, and deviated more and more from its Oriental form. Saadiah was the last important link in its development in the East; Chasdaï and the scientific men whom he influenced became the first representatives of a Judæo-European culture.
Saadiah (Arabic, Said) ben Joseph, from the town Fayum in Upper Egypt (892–942), was the founder of scientific Judaism amongst the Rabbanites, and the creator of religious philosophy in the Middle Ages. He was a man of extensive knowledge who had absorbed the learning of the Mahometans and Karaites, and impregnated it with Talmudic elements. More remarkable even than his knowledge was his personality. His was a religious spirit and deep moral earnestness. He had a decided character, and belonged to those who know how to render account of their actions, and who persevere in carrying out what they think right. Little is known of his youth. There were few, if any, great Talmudical scholars in Egypt at that time, and the fact that Saadiah became famous in this branch of literature speaks well for his mental power. He was more at home in the Karaite literature than previous Rabbanites had been. In his twenty-third year (913) he made a fierce attack upon the Karaites, which was felt by them for centuries afterwards. He wrote a book "In Refutation of Anan." The contents of this book are unknown, but it is probable that Saadiah attempted to prove in it the necessity of tradition, and also to expose Anan's inconsistencies. He adduced seven arguments in proof of the necessity of tradition, which, weak as they are, were afterwards accepted for the most part by the Karaites. He wrote another book in which he showed the absurdity of the boundless extension of relationship in the Karaite law. He characterized Anan as "an ambitious man, who possessed too much boldness and too little fear of God," and who rejected Talmudic Judaism only in order to avenge a personal slight.
Before he had arrived at maturity, he undertook a more difficult task, fraught with important consequences for Judaism. Hitherto, the Karaites had devoted special attention to the Scriptural text, whereas the Rabbanite teachers had, to a certain extent, neglected it, because the Talmud satisfied all the needs of their religious life.
The Karaites had composed numerous expositions of the Bible, the Rabbanites but few. Saadiah, who felt this want, undertook to translate the Bible into Arabic, the language understood, at this time, from the extreme West to India. To this translation he added notes, for three reasons. He wished to make the Bible accessible to the people. He thought that thereby the influence of Karaism, which sought to refute Talmudic Judaism through its exegesis, would be counteracted. Finally, he wished to remove the misconceptions of the people, and conquer the perversity of the mystics, who rendered the words of the Bible literally, and thus gave an unworthy description of the Godhead. He favored the philosophical idea which conceives God in His exaltedness and holiness to be a spirit. His translation was to satisfy both reason and Talmudical tradition. This was the basis of his view of Judaism. Teachings of the Talmud are as divine as those of the Bible, and neither the Bible nor tradition may be contrary to reason. According to Saadiah, the contradictions are only on the surface, and he sought by his translation and exposition to remove this illusion. To carry out this aim, he adopted interpretations of the text which are arbitrary and forced.
Out of deference to his Mahometan readers, Saadiah made use of Arabic characters, which were seldom employed by the Jews who wrote Arabic. Although Saadiah shows great mental power and independence in his translation, his renderings cannot be highly praised. The very fact that he does not allow the text to speak its own language, and that he wished to find at one time the Talmudical tradition, at another a philosophical meaning in the words and the context, necessarily prevented him from giving a true exposition. He impressed the exegesis of Scripture into the service of tradition and of the philosophy of the time, and made the text imply more than the meaning of the words allowed. At the same time that he wrote his translation, Saadiah composed a kind of Hebrew grammar in the Arabic language. He also composed a Hebrew lexicon (in Hebrew, Iggaron). Even here he often missed the truth as to the grammar and etymology of the words. His exegetical and grammatical works are of importance in so far as they broke fresh ground in Rabbanite studies, and introduced exegesis and philology as new departments. Even his mistakes proved instructive in later times.
In his exposition of the first book of the Pentateuch, Saadiah again challenged the Karaites. The dispute arose out of his endeavor to prove that the Karaite calendar was not in accordance with Scripture. In attacking Karaism, he had disturbed a hornets' nest, and aroused a host of opponents. The Karaites had hitherto waged war against Talmudic Judaism without meeting with opposition. They were, therefore, greatly disturbed when a Rabbanite, endowed with intellect and knowledge, entered the lists against them. A lively contest arose, which served its purpose in awakening scientific interest. Saadiah's chief opponent was the Karaite Solomon ben Yerucham (Ruchaïm). This Karaite (born in Fostat in 885, died in 960), who lived in Palestine, and was only a few years older than Saadiah, did not rise above mediocrity. He was of a violent and acrid nature, and imagined that he could settle scientific questions by scoffing and abuse. When he returned from Palestine to Egypt, and perceived the impression that Saadiah's written and oral attacks upon Karaism had made even in Karaite circles, he was filled with rage against the young and spirited Rabbanite author, and determined to write a double refutation—in Hebrew for the educated, and in Arabic for the masses generally. In his Hebrew reply, which consists of eighteen doggerel verses alphabetically arranged (Milchamoth), he treats Saadiah like a child. The whole work breathes nothing but slander and coarseness. In fact, the Karaite polemic writings generally deserve consideration more on account of the method by means of which they seek to cover up their mistakes, than on account of their contents or their form. Ben-Yerucham's composition took the shape of a letter to the Karaite communities in Egypt.
Ben-Yerucham was not the only Karaite who sought to defend the sect against Saadiah's attacks. The various writers vied with one another in the fierceness of their attacks upon the young Rabbanite by whom their anti-Talmudic creed was threatened with destruction. If the Karaite authors expected to silence Saadiah by means of abuse they were mistaken. He refuted their arguments, substantiated his assertions, and was always on the alert to take up arms. He wrote two other polemic treatises against Karaism in Arabic, the one "Distinction" (Tamgiz), and one against Ibn Sakviyah, who had entered the lists in defense of the Karaites. Saadiah's works carried his fame to the communities of the African and Eastern Caliphate. The venerable Isaac Israeli read his writings with avidity, and his pupil, Dunash ben Tamim, fairly devoured them. At the seat of the Gaonate, too, he was favorably known, and the attention of the leaders was directed to him.
The school of Sora was in a sad state of decadence, and was so deficient in learned men, that the Exilarch David ben Zaccaï found it necessary to invest a weaver named Yom-Tob Kahana ben Jacob, with the honor of the Gaonate, but he died in his second year of office (926–928). The Gaon of Pumbeditha, Kohen-Zedek, who did his best to establish his college as the exclusive authority, made an agreement with the Exilarch, to whom he had become reconciled, to close the school of Sora, to transplant the members to Pumbeditha, and to appoint a titular Gaon of Sora, who should have his seat in Pumbeditha. The son of a Gaon, named Nathan ben Yehudaï, was invested with this titular dignity, but he died suddenly. His sudden death seems to have been taken as a condemnation of the intention to abolish the old college at Sora. The Exilarch David then determined to fill up the vacancy and to restore the ancient school of Sora. He had two candidates in view: Saadiah, and Zemach ben Shahin, an obscure member of the old nobility. The Exilarch appealed to the blind Nissi Naharvani to assist him in his choice. His advice was the more disinterested as he himself had declined the honor. Nissi voted for Zemach, but not because he had any personal dislike to Saadiah; on the contrary, he manifested much love for him. "Saadiah surpasses all his contemporaries in wisdom, piety, and eloquence," he said of him, "but he is very independent, and shrinks from nothing." Nissi justly feared that Saadiah's inflexible spirit would be the cause of disputes and dissensions between him and the Exilarch. Nevertheless, David decided for Saadiah. He was called from Egypt to Sora, and formally installed as Gaon (May, 928). It was an exceptional circumstance that a foreigner who had not studied in the Talmudic schools, and had not passed step by step through the various offices should, at a bound, attain to the highest honor next to the Exilarchate. Besides, Saadiah was more known for his scientific work than for his Talmudic scholarship. With his call to office, Babylonia in a sense resigned the supremacy which for seven centuries it had held over all other lands. This supremacy was now enjoyed by another country, and philosophy was placed on a level with the Talmud. The spirit of inquiry that had been banished from the halls of the schools with Anan, the founder of Karaism, made a solemn return into those halls with Saadiah.
Saadiah invested the college of Sora with new splendor by his character and fame. During his presidency Pumbeditha was thrown into the shade. He sought to fill up the gaps that had arisen in the academy. He appointed worthy young men to academic offices, and was faithful to the duties of his position. What must have been his feelings when he entered for the first time the halls of learning where the great authorities, the Amoraïm, had taught before him! Soon, however, he no doubt became conscious of the fact that there existed but the smallest remnant of that former greatness, and that the high-sounding titles and dignities were mere semblances of things long since sunk into oblivion. The Exilarchate, the head of the Judæo-Babylonian community, was without intrinsic excellence, and was constantly at variance with the schools. Not being officially recognized at court, the Exilarchate had to purchase its existence from courtiers and ephemeral rulers, and was threatened with extinction, whenever its opponents should offer a larger sum. The money needed to maintain the Exilarchate was forcibly exacted from the people. Alike in the Exilarchate and in the academic colleges, corruption and oppression were the order of the day, the only object in view being to maintain the authority of the chiefs. Eloquence, virtue, piety, were wanting in the hearts of the leaders. The Exilarch David once sent his sons to levy an extraordinary contribution from the different communities; and when the congregation at Fars (Hamadan?) refused it, David excommunicated them, denounced them to the vizir, who accused them before the Caliph, when a heavy fine was imposed upon them. The Geonim had not a word to say against all this! Saadiah himself had to be silent; he had not been in office long enough to protest. His eminence had raised him many enemies who were eager for his downfall. Not alone Kohen-Zedek was jealous of him, because Pumbeditha was thrown into the shade, but a young man from Bagdad, Aaron (Caleb) Ibn-Sarjadu, learned, rich, and influential, distrusted and opposed him. Saadiah observed the great defects in the Jewish communal life in Babylonia in silence. He wished first to be on firmer footing. His sense of justice was, however, too deeply wounded, when he was expected to take part in the iniquities of the representative of the Jewish community. He could no longer restrain himself, and now revealed his inflexible character.