Mishneh Torah: Encyclopedia II - Mishneh Torah - Maimonides' sources

Mishneh Torah - Maimonides' sources

Maimonides sought brevity and clarity in his Mishneh Torah and as in his Commentary on the Mishnah, he refrained from detailing his sources. He felt it sufficient to name his sources in the preface. He drew upon the Torah and the rest of Tanakh (the Old Testament), both Talmuds, and the Midrashic literature. On occasion he preferred rulings in certain Midrash collections to rulings in the Talmud, which at the time was a rare opinion.

Later sources include the responsa (teshuvot) of the Geonim. The maxims and decisions of the Geonim are frequently presented with the introductory phrase "The Geonim have decided" or "There is a regulation of the Geonim", while the opinions of Isaac Alfasi and Joseph ibn Migash (his immediate teacher apart from his father Maimon) are prefaced by the words "My teachers have decided".

Maimonides likewise refers to Spanish, French, and Palestinian rabbinic authorities, although he does not name them, nor is it known to whom he refers. He drew from non-Jewish sources, and a great part of his researches on the calendar was based upon Greek theories and reckonings. Since these rules rested upon sound argument, he thought that it made no difference whether an author was a prophet or a Gentile. In a like spirit he adopted principles of Aristotelian Greek philosophy in the first book of the Mishnah Torah, although no authority for these teachings was to be found in Talmudic or midrashic literature.

A number of laws appear to have no source in any of the works mentioned; it is thought that Maimonides deduced them through independent interpretations of the Bible.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Maimonides' sources", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki