Chananel Ben Chushiel (or Rabbeinu Chananel), 990-1053) was a rabbi and one of the last Geonim. He is best known to scholars of Judaism for his commentary on the Talmud. Events Construction of the Al-Hakim Mosque begins in Cairo. ... Events June 18 - Battle of Civitate - 3000 horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX Good harvests in Europe Malcolm Canmore invades Scotland. ... Rabbi (Classical Hebrew רִבִּי ribbī; modern Ashkenazi and Israeli רַבִּי rabbī) in Judaism, means teacher, or more literally great one. The word Rabbi is derived from the Hebrew root-word RaV, which in biblical Hebrew means great or distinguished,. In the ancient Judean schools the sages were addressed as רִבִּי... Geonim (also Gaonim) (גאונים) (Singular: Gaon [גאון] meaning Genius in Hebrew) were the rabbis who were the Jewish Talmudic sages who were the generally accepted leaders of the Jewish community in the early medieval era. ... Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... The first page of the Talmud, in the standard Vilna edition. ...

Rabbeinu Chananel was born in Kairouan, Tunisia. He studied under his Father, Chushiel, the Rosh yeshiva (head) of the Kairouan yeshiva and through correspondence with Rabbi Hai Gaon. Chananel's most famous student is probably Isaac Alfasi. Kairouan (Arabic: Al-qayrawn) is a city in Tunisia, about 160 km south of Tunis. ... A Rosh yeshiva (Hebrew: ראש ישיבה) (plural in Hebrew: Roshei yeshiva, but also referred to in the English form as Rosh yeshivas) is a rabbi who is the academic head, or rosh (ראש), of a yeshiva (ישיבה), a college of higher Talmudic study. ... Yeshiva (or yeshivah) (Hebrew, pl. ... Rabbi (or Rav) Hai Gaon (969-1038) was one of the last geonim (rabbinic authorities of the early Middle Ages). ... Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (Isaac Hakohen 1013-1103), also the Rif (ריף), is best known for his work of Halakha, the legal code Sefer Ha-halachot (ספר ההלכות), considered the first fundamental work in halakhic literature. ...

He wrote the first complete commentary on the Talmud, this is today embedded in the actual Talmud page. The commentary presents a paraphrased summary of the main arguments in the gemara, omitting most of the non-legal sections (Aggada). A distinctive feature of the commentary is the presentation of the parallel passages from the Jerusalem Talmud. The Gemara are the Rabbinical commentaries and analysis on the Mishnah, undertaken in the Academies of Palestine and Babylon over a 300 year period to about 500CE. The Mishnah is the core text, and the gemara is the analysis and commentary which “completes” the Talmud (from gamar גמר, to complete). ... Aggadah ( Aramaic אגדה: tales, lore; pl. ... The Jerusalem Talmud (In Hebrew Talmud Yerushalmi, in short known as the Yerushalmi), also known as the Palestinian Talmud, (not related to current Palestinian issues at all!), was written in the Land of Israel at the same time of the writing of the the Babylonian Talmud, (which is known as...

R. Chananel was also the author of a commentary on the Pentateuch. While no full copy of this work survives today, we possess many fragements of it, and it has been published twice by the Israeli publisher Mosad Ha-Rav Kook, once as its own separate book, and once on the page of Torat Hayyim, the Rabbinic Bible put out by Mosad Ha-Rav Kook.

External links

• Hananeel Ben Hushiel, jewishencyclopedia.com
• Hananel Ben Hushiel, jewishhistory.org
• Rabbenu Hananel, Prof. Eliezer Segal