Peirush Rav Shmuel Ben Chafni HaGaon Al HaTorah

Shmuel ben Hofni was the last gaon of Sura. His father was a Talmudic scholar and av bet din, probably of Fez. Shmuel was the father-in-law of Hai ben Sherira Gaon. The most important work of Shmuel was in Bible exegesis. He has been referenced as a leading advocate of pshat, simple, temperate explanation and has been placed in the front rank of Bible commentators of the geonic period. Fragments of Samuel's commentary on the Pentateuch were preserved only in the Leningrad Ms. (St. Petersburg Ms.) and in Mss. from the Cairo Geniza, and which were collected, rendered into a Hebrew translation and published in 1979 by Aaron Greenbaum.