AHA OF SHABHA

born c. 680, , probably at Shabha, near Basra, Iraq died c. 752 Aha also spelled Ahai prominent Babylonian Talmudist who is the first rabbinical writer known to history after the close of the Talmud. Aha's She'eltot (Questions, or Theses), published in Venice in 1546, was an attempt to codify and explicate materials contained in the Babylonian Talmud. Written in Aramaic and unique in its organization, the text connects decisions of the Oral Law with those of the Written Law. The connections, many of them original, are concerned not only with ritualistic laws but also with ethical obligations. She'eltot itself came to be regarded as a literary model and was widely copied.