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ion were the absence of sources and the belief that the work appeared to be intended to supersede study of the talmud some criticisms appear to have been less rational in nature indeed maimonides quotes the talmud in stating that one should study the talmud for a third of one s study time 8 the most sincere but influential opponent whose comments are printed parallel to virtually all editions of the mishneh torah was rabbi abraham ben david of posquières raavad iii france 12th century many critics were especially bitter against the new methods which he had employed and the very peculiarities which he had regarded as merits in his work failed to please his opponents because they were innovations thus they reproached him because he departed from the talmudic order and introduced a division and arrangement of his own and because he dared to sometimes decide according to the tosefta and the jerusalem talmud as against the babylonian talmud especially sharp was the blame heaped upon maimonides because he neglected to cite his sources this was considered an evidence of his superciliousness since it made it difficult if not absolutely impossible for scholars to verify his statements and compelled them to follow his decisions absolutely yet despite all this maimonides remained certain that in the future the mishneh torah would find great influence and acceptance this is boldly expressed in a letter to his student rabbi yoseph ben ha rav yehudah and all that i ve described to you regarding those who won t accept it the mishneh torah properly that is uniquely in my generation however in future generations when jealousy and the lust for power will disappear all of israel will subsist lit we be satiated on it alone and will abandon all else besides it without a doubt except for those who seek something to be involved with all their lives even though it doesn t achieve a purpose maimonides response edit sefer ahavah illuminated manuscript ca 1351 spain or southern france maimonides defended himself he had not composed this work for glory he desired only to supply the necessary but lacking code for there was danger lest pupils weary of the difficult study might go astray in decisions of practical importance 9 he noted that it had never been his intention to abolish talmudic studies altogether nor had he ever said that there was no need of the halakot of rabbi isaac alfasi for he himself had lectured to his pupils on the gemara and at their request upon alfasi s work 10 however he did state that for the masses there was no need for talmud study as the mishne torah along with the written torah would suffice 11 he also stated that in depth study of talmudic discussions was a waste of time for the sole purpose of study was to know how to practice the law 12 he said that his omission of his sources was due solely to his desire for brevity although he regretted that he had not written a supplementary work citing his authorities for those halakot whose sources were not evident from the context he would however should circumstances permit atone for this error however toilsome it might be to write such a supplement 10 raavad was forced to acknowledge that the work of maimonides was a magnificent contribution 13 nor did he hesitate to praise him and approve his views in many passages citing and commenting upon the sources later works e g yosef karo s kesef mishné set out to find sources for maimonides decisions and to resolve any disputes between him and the raavad yonah of gerona edit title page from sefer shaarei teshuvah 1960 pocket edition by yonah gerondi d 1263 first published in 1505 yonah of gerona was a cousin of nachmanides ramban who was initially a member of the vocal opponents of the yad he was involved in the burning of a number of copies of the sefer ha madda in the 1240s regret followed when he saw the talmud being burnt in paris in 1244 which he interpreted as a sign from heaven that he had been mistaken he set out to the land of israel to ask forgiveness on maimonides grave in presence of ten witnesses but failed to continue to his destination he composed a classic work on penitence titled shaarei teshuva the gates of repentance during his soul searching 14 influence edit thus the work of maimonides notwithstanding the sharp attacks upon it soon won general recognition as an authority of the first importance for ritual decisions according to several authorities 15 a decision may not be rendered in opposition to a view of maimonides even though the latter apparently militated against the sense of a talmudic passage for in such cases the presumption was that the words of the talmud were incorrectly interpreted likewise one must follow maimonides even when the latter opposed his teachers since he surely knew their views and if he decided against them he must have disapproved their interpretation 1 even when later authorities like asher ben jehiel the rosh decided against maimonides it became a rule of the oriental jews to follow the latter although the european jews especially the ashkenazim preferred the opinions of the rosh in such cases but the hope which maimonides expressed that in time to come his work and his alone would be accepted has been only half fulfilled his mishneh torah is indeed still very popular but there has been no cessation in the study of other works ironically while maimonides refrained from citing sources out of concern for brevity or perhaps because he designed his work to be used without studying the talmud or other sources first the result has often been the opposite of what he intended various commentaries have been written which seek to supply the lacking source documentation and indeed today the mishneh torah is sometimes used as a sort of an index to aid in locating talmudic passages in cases where maimonides sources or interpretation thereof is questionable the lack of clarity has at times led to lengthy analyses and debates quite the opposite of the brevity he sought to attain on the other hand this only became an issue for students and scholars who studied the mishneh torah s sources according to maimonides himself deducing law from the sources had already become a precarious proposition for a number of reasons even in his own times this necessarily relates to different subjects like the influence of the exile language skills lack of time censorship and alternate versions of the talmud printed editions and textual accuracy edit over time many textual errors and distortions have appeared in the various editions of maimonides mishneh torah these inaccuracies are in the text of rulings in the drawings made by maimonides as well as in the division and thus the numbering of rulings there are various reasons for these inaccuracies some are due to errors in the copying of manuscripts before the age of printing or mistakes by typesetters of later editions others are due to conscious attempts to correct the text and yet others to christian censorship in countries under its control in addition maimonides himself frequently edited the text of his own autograph copy such that manuscripts copied from his own book did not preserve his later corrections thus the received version may not be the text that maimonides intended us to read often the distortions in existing versions prompted questions on the mishne torah which were solved in many creative and different ways by the scholars throughout the generations many of these questions don t arise in the first place if the version is corrected based upon reliable manuscripts in order to determine the exact version scholars use reliable early manuscripts some of them containing maimonides own signature which are free of both christian censorship and the changes of later readers who tried to correct the text on their own without manuscript evidence since the middle of the 20th century there have been five scientific printings of the book rabbi shabsai frankel s edition includes critical editions of the classical commentators on mishneh torah as well as the book itself however the actual text of mishneh torah in this edition is based heavily on the printed editions rather than the early manuscripts whose variant readings are relegated to marginal notes and an apparatus at the end of each volume 16 all the volumes have been published rabbi yosef qafih s edition 17 is based mainly on yemenite manuscripts and includes an extensive commentary by qafih that surveys the discussions of the classical commentaries on mishneh torah and includes verbatim citation of previous commentaries in their entirety along with qafih s comments the yad peshutah edition by rabbi nahum rabinovitch rosh yeshivat yeshivat birkat moshe in ma ale adumim this edition is based on a number of manuscripts different ones are used for the different books according to their reliability and includes an original commentary on the mishneh torah the exact mishneh torah edition by rabbi yitzchak shelat also of yeshivat birkat moshe has no commentary it compares the printed versions to the fixed version so far four volumes have been printed the publisher expects to print two new volumes each year a one volume edition 1000 pages published by yeshivat or vishua and now in its third edition reflects all the editions based on reliable manuscripts accompanied by surrounding indexes but with no commentary the text was checked again based mainly on qafih s edition it gives variant readings from the other leading editions only in cases where the changes are meaningful the mishne torah project of the yeshiva also plans to publish a multi volume pocket edition including vowel diacritics and cross references to other passages and to maimonides other works the pocket version of sefer ha madda the book of knowledge is already in print codes and commentators edit see also list of commentaries on mishneh torah title page of karo s shulchan aruch mishneh torah itself has been the subject of a number of commentaries the most notable being magid mishné by vidal de toulouse migdal oz by shem tov ben abraham ibn gaon kesef mishné by yosef karo mishné la melech by judah rosanes lechem mishné by abraham de boton rabbi david ben zimra radbaz and haggahot maimuniyyot by meir hakohen which details ashkenazi customs most commentators aim to resolve criticisms of the raavad and to trace maimonides sources to the text of the talmud midrash and geonim later codes of jewish law such as arba ah turim by rabbi jacob ben asher and shulchan aruch by rabbi yosef karo draw heavily on maimonides work and in both whole sections are often quoted verbatim also there were many attempts down to the present time to force those who follow the rulings of maimonides to change to the shulchan aruch or some other latter work of minhag halakha in response to this karo wrote who is he whose heart conspires to approach forcing congregations who practice according to the rambam of blessed memory to go by any one of the early or latter day torah authorities is it not a case of a fortiori that regarding the school of shammai that the halakhah does not go according to them they the talmudic sages said if one practices like the school of shammai he may do so but according to their leniencies and their stringencies the rambam is the greatest of all the torah authorities and all the communities of the land of israel and the arab controlled lands and the west north africa practice according to his word and accepted him upon themselves as their chief rabbi whoever practices according to him with his leniencies and his stringencies why coerce them to budge from him and all the more so if also their fathers and forefathers practiced accordingly for their children are not to turn right or left from the rambam of blessed memory and even if communities that practice according to the rosh or other authorities like him became the majority they cannot coerce the minority of congregations practicing according to the rambam of blessed memory to practice like they do and there is no issue here concerning the prohibition against having two courts in the same city lo tithgodedu since every congregation should practice according to its original custom present day edit study edit the in depth study of mishneh torah underwent a revival in lithuanian judaism in the late 19th century the lithuanians did not use it as a source book on practical halakha as they followed the ashkenazi authorities such as moses isserles and the aruch ha shulchan instead they used it as a guide to talmudic interpretation and methodology given the fact that the mishneh torah entirely omits these topics this reading seems paradoxical and against the grain their method was to compare the talmudic source material with maimonides final decision in order to reconstruct the rules of interpretation that must have been used to get from one to the other it thus remains an integral part of the yeshiva curriculum as regards talmud study it is one of the primary works referenced in analyzing the talmudic text from a legal point of view as mentioned it is also a primary text referenced in understanding the halakha as presented in the arba ah turim and shulchan aruch and mishneh torah is thus one of the first post talmudic sources consulted when investigating a question of jewish law see yeshiva talmud study yeshiva jewish law halakha codes of jewish law prominent recent authorities who have written commentaries on the work include rabbis meir simcha of dvinsk ohr somayach chaim soloveitchik chiddushei rabbeinu chaim yitzchok isaac krasilschikov tevunah isser zalman meltzer even haezel and more recently the lubavitcher rebbe rabbi menachem mendel schneerson hadran al harambam elazar shach avi ezri nahum rabinovitch yad peshuta and rabbi yosef kapach see also list of commentaries on mishneh torah many scholarly speeches e g the traditional rabbi s speech on the shabbat preceding pesach and yom kippur often revolve around a reconciliation between two passages in maimonides work rav soloveitchik s work al hateshuvah discussing repentance in the light of rambam s work is widely studied and referenced in modern orthodox communities in the days leading up to rosh hashanah and yom kippur today thousands of orthodox jews particularly chabad hasidim participate in one of the annual study cycles of mishneh torah one or three chapters a day innovated by the lubavitcher rebbe rabbi menachem mendel schneerson in the spring of 1984 parallel to the three or one chapter s a day cycle there is a daily study of the sefer hamitzvot book of the commandments also authored by maimonides a popular commentary rambam la am rambam for the nation was produced in 1971 by rabbi shmuel tanchum rubinstein he published by mossad harav kook 18 non primary source needed this 20 volume set is widely used in daily rambam study in the israeli chabad and religious zionist communities adin steinsaltz produced a similarly positioned commentary publi...
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