a certain order of Jewish doctors, who appeared in the East, after the closing of the Talmud. The word Gaons signifies "excellent, sublime;" as in the divinity schools we formerly had Irrefragable, Sublime, Refolute, Angelic, and Subtile doctors. The Gaons succeeded the Seburans or Opinioners about the beginning of the sixth century. Chanan Meichitia was the head and first of the excellents. He restored the academy of Pandebita, which had been shut up for 30 years.