22
I'm going to answer this question indirectly. I have had discussions with several Lubavitchers who have come up with some compelling (to them) reasoning how the Rebbe זצ"ל can be Moshiach, which leads inexorably to the conclusion that he must be Moshiach. I'm not going to attempt to express the arguments here, even though you have asked for them, because I ...
21
The Commentary on the Mishnah came first. In his colophon at the end of it, Rambam writes that he began writing the commentary at age 23, and finished it at age 30, in the year 1479 of the "Era of Documents" (4928 since Creation, 1168 CE).
The Mishneh Torah, on the other hand, was written in the 4930s. In the introduction he says that the current year is ...
19
As Dov F has noted, the argument over praying in a mosque is now split between R. Ovadia Yosef and the Tzitz Eliezer. Please see the update below regarding the original Rambam responsa that is referred to by R. Ovadia.
The Tzitz Eliezer writes against praying in a mosque in his responsa Volume 14, #91:
ולמדנו מכאן שהקדשים של כותים וגם המשוגע של ...
19
There are several historical factors to consider, particularly the advent of the internet.
We live in the age of information. The gap between rabbinic leadership and the lay is being broached with great rapidity. More people are interested in a more horizontal society wherein they approach sources, analyze them, digest them, etc. and interact on such basis ...
18
The following is just my understanding of the sources, and if there are any mistakes (ex: in the Ramban's reasons to disagree with the Rambam, the titles given to mitzvos, etc.), please point them out to me. I used the Mishneh LaMelech's Derech Mitzvosecha § 1, this article, and the Ramban's summary at the end of his Hasagos to help with this list.
In ...
18
The famous position attributed to the Kotzker Rebbe is that, since the Rambam paskened that demons do not exist, his psak halacha caused the demons to cease to exist. See my analysis here.
This position is discussed in Prachei Rashi,
שאל אחד את רבי מנדל מקוצק: הרמב״ם במורה נבוכים כופר
במציאות שדים וכשפים, ואלו בתורה כתוב ״ולא יזבחו עוד את זבחיהם
...
18
This discrepancy was noticed by the Radvaz (Shu"t Chelek 3 Simman 585), Mishneh LeMelech (Parshas Derachim, Derech Mitzvoseicha Chelek 4 Simman 467), and the Minchas Chinuch (Mitzvah 467), among others.
As mentioned, the Chinuch leaves out the mitzvah against a zar eating terumah, and he replaces it with the prohibition against bringing the korbon pesach on ...
17
According to Mechon Mamre:
TL;DR
TOTAL - 16,818 (+ 104)
Hamada` - 725
Ahavah - 730 (+ 63)
Zemanim - 1,738 (+ 41)
Nashim - 1,207
Qedushah - 1,140
Hafla'ah - 820
Zera`im - 1,582
`Avodah - 1,537
Haqorbanot - 651
Taharah - 2,317
Nezaqim - 993
Qinyan - 1,191
Mishpattim - 1,141
Shofettim - 1,046
Hamada` - 725
Yesode'i HaTorah - 140
De`ot - 130
Talmud Torah - ...
15
R' Yaakov Weinberg, in an audio recording, addressed this issue (as an issue with the ani maamin, which R' Weinberg, like you, rejected), and he explained that the point of the Rambam is not to say that the specific texts which we have now are identical to the one transmitted to Moshe. Rather, the point of the Rambam is to say that Moshe was a faithful ...
15
The Gemara (Yoma 78b) writes that one who sleeps with shoes on, 'has tasted a taste of death', and since tasting death is probably not a good thing, some poskim write that sleeping with shoes on should be avoided (see Kaf Hahayyim Y.D 116:211, for example). The book Shemiras Haguf Vehanefesh (no. 115) also writes that wearing shoes to sleep causes someone to ...
14
The list of differences can be found in an appendix to the Minchas Chinuch.
Ramban includes all of these positive mitzvos, which the Rambam doesn't
Mitzvah 1: Positive mitzvah of eating maaser sheni.
Mitzvah 2: Positive mitzvah of not eating impure trumah
Mitzvah 3: Positive mitzvah of not selling shvi'is fruits
Mitzvah 4: Positive mitzvah of settling ...
14
In the introduction to his commentary on Masekhet Avot (Shemonah Peraqim), chapter five, the Rambam says (in Shmuel ibn Tibbon's translation):
והוא הדין מי שהתרגשה עליו מרה שחורה, ועמד והסירה בשמיעת הניגונים ובמיני הזמר, ובטיול בגינות ובבניינים נאים, ובישיבה עם צורות נאות וכיוצא בדברים שמרחיבים הנפש ומסירים הרהוריו הקודרים ממנה.
In an English ...
14
See Gil Students tremendous treatment entitled "Can The Rebbe Be Moshiach?"
In Chapter Five called What Counter-proofs can be
Brought? Rabbi Student brings the arguments that many meshichist lubavitchers use to argue that the Lubavitcher rebbe was/is/will be Moshiach.
From the beggining of the chapter:
There are two types of proofs that are brought for ...
14
I wrote to Hotzaat Shabsi Frankel with this inquiry, and they responded that the unusual numbering is due to a misguided guess at how many volumes the set would ultimately be:
Thanks for your inquiry. Yes, it is because of the order in which it was published, and the expectations of how many volumes we would end up with. At the end there were more volumes ...
13
The statement of Maimonides to which you refer is from his Yad Hachazaka, Repentence [or: Return] chapter 3. There he writes (in my own loose translation):
Everyone has merits and sins. Someone whose merits are more than his sins is a tzadik. Someone whose sins are more than his merits is a rasha. Half and half, he's a benoni [=middle person].
So, ...
13
An online translation can be found here.
13
Did Rashi's works even reach the lands in which the Rambam lived?
To summarize Prof. Shamma Friedman's piece, scholars in the early 20th century assumed from Rambam's silence, that he did not have access to Rashi's works, and furthermore, that they were generally unavailable in Egypt at that time.
Additionally, we can infer from Rambam's early ...
13
Several rabbinic commentators raised this question without being able to answer it:
R. Noach Simcha Faks pointed out this omission and noted that in the Talmudic source-text in Bava Batra 14b, Ezra is enumerated as one of the books:
Kovetz He'arot Hatemimim V'an"sh Chag HaSukkot Gilyon Noach p. 66
הנה יש להעיר דמקור דברי הרמב"ם בהל' הנ"ל בגמ' במס' בבא ...
13
Both Maimonides and Gersonides believed that manna fell from heaven.
Maimonides discusses the verse which describes the manna as raining down from the doors of heaven and asserts that the "doors of heaven" part is figurative, implying that the "raining down" part is literal:
Guide for the Perplexed 2:47
The same is the case with the following passage--"...
12
No, you are not supposed to ignore most non-religious Jews.
Rambam Hilchos Mamrim 3:3:
אבל בני אותן הטועים ובני בניהם, שהדיחו אותם אבותם ונולדו במינות, וגידלו אותן עליו--הרי הן כתינוק שנשבה לבין הגויים וגידלוהו הגויים על דתם, שהוא אנוס; ואף על פי ששמע אחר כך שהיה יהודי, וראה היהודיים ודתם--הרי הוא כאנוס, שהרי גידלוהו על טעותם. כך אלו האוחזים בדרכי ...
11
Rambam, Hilchos Yesodei Hatorah Chapter 3. From Chabad.org
Halacha 1
The spheres are called the heavens, the firmament, the habitation, the skies.
There are nine spheres. The closest sphere is the sphere of the moon. The second sphere, which is above it, is the sphere which contains the planet Kochav (Mercury). The third sphere, which is above it, ...
11
The Rambam himself addresses your question. He writes the following in Moreh Nevuchim regarding the science in the Gemara:
Moreh Nevuchim (3:14):
אל תדרוש ממני להתאים את כל ענייני האסטרונומיה שהם ציינו אל המצב כפי שהוא, כי המתמטיקה היתה לקויה באותם זמנים. והם לא דנו בזאת מבחינת שהם מוסרים אמרות אלה מפי הנביאים, אלא מבחינת שהם היו חכמי אותן תקופות ...
11
There is indeed at least unnamed but very early Rabbi who believed this prayer to be proof that there's no prohibition of praying to angels. See the responsum published by Simcha Emanuel in Hamayaan, Tishrei 5758. (This article attributes the same responsum to R. Eliezer Rokeach, though this is not necessarily correct).
Also, before answering the question ...
11
In his article "'What' Hath Brisk Wrought? The Brisker Derekh Revisited," R. Moshe Lichtenstein argues that,
the basic change wrought by R. Hayyim was the refocusing of the
learning process upon the hard halakhic data that emerge from a sugya,
instead of upon the mechanisms by which they were derived. To state
the point in more technical terms, the ...
11
Rav Nachum Rabinovitch, שליט"א, in his magnum opus, Yad Peshuta, (Hakdama U'minyan Hamitzvos, Intro to the Division of the Books pp. 187-190) contrasts the Rambam's division of 14 categories of halacha as described in his Moreh Nevukhim, from that in his Yad Hachazaka. As opposed to the in the Moreh where he emphasizes the communal obligation first, the Yad ...
11
Yes, several subsequent Jewish authorities criticized Maimonides, either for his general approach or for specific statements. A few examples:
Nachmanides in his commentary to Genesis 18:1 criticizes Maimmonides's non-literal interpretations of certain Biblical incidents:
But such words contradict Scripture. It is forbidden to listen to them, all the more ...
10
The Alter Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, explains in the beginning of Tanya that if you take the Rambam's words (which are also Rashi and Tosfos' words) at face value, they create several contradictions.
First, they contradict Rabba, who called himself a beinoni despite the fact that he never stopped learning, to the extent that the Angel of ...
10
It may be that Rambam would distinguish between whether the magician actually did some kind of action or not.
Suppose, for example, you have someone who claims that he will use magic to harvest a field of cucumbers (the example given in the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 67a). There are, then, three possibilities:
He performs some action (waving a wand, saying some ...
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