31
Ralbag held of a number of views which might be considered problematic, or against normative theology. The first three listed below, are more deviant than the subsequent two. The former would be considered a theological anomaly (and perhaps even heretical) even in Ralbag's own milieu. The latter would probably not have caused a stir for many of the rishonim, ...
21
From Wikipedia:
R' Menachem Mendel Kasher in an article in the periodical Sinai refutes many of [Gershom] Scholem's points (used to argue that Zohar was authored by R. Moshe De Leon). He writes:
Many statements in the works of the Rishonim refer to Medrashim that we are not aware of. He writes that these are in fact references to the Zohar. This ...
17
The Rabbis learn out that there are 39 Melachot because of a numerical value (kind of). From here (or here, if that link doesn't work), quoting Talmud Shabbat 70a:
...it says, (Shemot 35:1-2) And Moshe gathered together the entire congregation of the Children of Israel and he said to them: 'Eileh HaDevarim' (these are the things--plural) that HaShem ...
17
One of the first Tosafot in Gittin 2a (מתני' המביא גט) brings that the reason the Get has 12 lines is because the gematriya of Get is 12.
ומה שנוהגים לכתוב י"ב שורות בגט אומר ר"ת משום דגט גימטריא י"ב
That which we're accustomed to write 12 lines in a Get- Rabbeinu Tam says because "Get" has a gematriya of 12
14
We never claimed that the recipe originated from the Terumas Hadeshen; that was the article author's own conclusion. What we said in the book was, "As early as the fifteenth century, it is recorded that every Friday evening the Austrian sage Rabbi Israel ben Petahiah Isserlein (1390-1460) welcomed Shabbes with “three fine hallot kneaded with eggs oil, and a ...
14
The g'mara in Mo'ed Katan 28 derives that the age of "death at the hands of heaven" is 60 from the pasuk
תָּבוֹא בְכֶלַח אֱלֵי קָבֶר כַּעֲלוֹת גָּדִישׁ בְּעִתּוֹ
in which the bold word has the numerical value of 60, yielding the interpretation
You will come to the grave at 60, like a stack that goes in its proper time
I am not sure if this satisfies ...
13
In the Yerushalmi (Shekalim 1:3), Rav Yochanan ben Zakkai's position that the tribe of Levi was obligated to give the annual half-Shekel Temple tax is derived from the verse (Exodus 30:13) זה יתנו where זה is 12 in Gematria, implying all 12 tribes need to give the tax. Rambam (Shekalim 1:7) rules like this opinion.
13
I found a case attributed to the Semag (one of the last ba'alei Tosfos) where a sin is so heinous that not only is forgiveness not an option, but we don't administer capital punishment since putting this person to death won't serve as atonement (ie we let him live).
But first some background.
There's a prohibition of offering one's children to Molech, a ...
12
What I find interesting about the Rosh is that he remained an Ashkenazi-centrist, even in his host country. He started a Yeshibha based on the Ashkenaz model, married his sons, exclusively, to members of his own extended family (although he did marry his daughters to Sephardim, probably students at his Yeshibha..).
Another interesting thing to point out is ...
12
There's a significant amount of literature on this which I'm not going to look up right now, so please excuse the lack of sources; I'll try to edit them in later (they were all found by following the footnotes to introductions to the Mosad Harav Kook editions of the relevant mesechtos, even though the most thorough introduction I believe is that on Eiruvin ...
10
The single best place for online texts, commentaries and shiurim relating to Yerushalmi is definitely http://www.yerushalmionline.org/
They have daf yomi recordings for all of the Yerushalmi from shiurim given by Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer as well as 100s of pdf's of articles and commentaries on the Yerushalmi.
In my limited experience with the ...
10
The Tur (CM 25) records a dispute whether a Rishon has authority to argue against a gaon. The Raavad maintains that one may not, whereas the Rosh says it is possible to:
כתב הראב"ד שאין אדם עתה בזמנינו רשאי לחלוק על דברי גאון כדי שישתנה הדין מדברי גאון אלא בקושיא מפורסמת וזהו דבר שאינו נמצא לפיכך החולק על דברי גאון הוי כטועה בדבר משנה וכן אם טעה בפסקי ...
10
Your suspicions are correct and confirmed by Aptowitzer (Intro. to 'Ravia', pg. 39), Urbach (Ba'alei HaTosafos, Jer. 1969, pg. 179) and Ginzberg (JE, Eliezer b. Joel). His full name was Yoel b. Yitzchok HaLevi. He was born in the first quarter of the 12th century and died at the turn of the next. He was also a son in-law of R. Eliezer b. Nathan (Ravan, ראב״ן)...
10
The consensus of the majority of traditional and modern authorities is that the "Rashi on the Rif" is not written by Rashi, but rather by a different scholar around the 13th and 14th centuries.
The following image is taken from the Oz V'hadar edition of Masectha Brachos, from page 3 of the introduction to the Rif. It is referring to a paragraph in which ...
9
The following is from an old project of mine. It is in rough chronological order, so I cut it off by the 15th century, but some Acharonim still managed to squeeze in. :)
Classic Mussar Seforim
The following is a select list of major works of mussar:
Mishlei (Proverbs) – Shelomo HaMelech (King Solomon). The book of Mishlei is probably the first work ...
9
While your question is overly broad, the short answer is "yes" - at least so far as Rishonim are concerned, and only because I don't know of any examples from geonim. (There are numerous examples of humour being employed in the Talmud, but that's beyond the scope of what you asked).
There are two famous examples from Ibn Ezra, who lived from approximately ...
9
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 ...
9
The Meiri (13th cent.) describes the unique features of the Mishneh Torah in his introduction to Beit HaBehira:
That it is omits the Talmudic dialectics, and presents just ruling.
That it is written in Mishnaic Hebrew.
That it includes all laws; even those which are not practically applicable.
That it includes material from a great number of sources ...
9
Prof. Yedidya Alter Dinri records in his Hakhmei Ashkenaz B'Shilhi Y'mei HaBeynayim (pp. 278-9) as cited by R. Yisrael Peles in Yeshurun (20 p. 890) that many Aharonim held that Likkutei Maharil (aka Sefer Maharil) is not a fully reliable work. For example, the Yad Malakhi (klalei HaPoskim: Klalei Shaar HaMehabrim V'HaMefarshim: 33) cites R. Sh'muel Bachrach ...
9
The Rivash in his Tshuvos #45 mentioned that some of the Ralbag's beliefs that he felt were influenced by nontraditional wisdom. Rivash does mention that Ralbag wrote otherwise nice works.
Rivash pointed to a few problematic ones in particular. One, in regard to Hashem's knowledge of the future. Two, concerning the sun standing still for Yehoshua 'he ...
9
Tosafot Shants are printed in the margins of Eduyot in the standard Vilna edition of the Talmud (counterintuitively, it isn't usually printed in editions of the Mishna). You can read it online here. His commentary to tractates in Zera'im, Middot and Tahorot is also printed with the Talmud.
8
His full name is R. Shlomo ben Avraham; here's the entry for him in Otzar Hagedolim. מרדוש (should properly be מדרויש or some variant thereof; Maharshal, in his teshuvah no. 29, where he brings the "chain of tradition" up to date to his own times, writes מדרוויש) is after the town where he lived - Dreux, France.
Maharshal lists him among the primary ...
8
The Rambam writes in one of his letters:
We do not pose difficulties with [i.e. from] the Aggadah. Are they words of Tradition or expressions of reason? Rather each individual considers their explanation as it seems fit to him. In this [Aggadah] there are no words of Tradition, no prohibition and no license, and no law among the Laws; therefore we do not ...
8
The quote actually comes from Mivchar HaP'ninim, which was written originally in Arabic, then translated into Hebrew by Judah ibn Tibbon (father of the famous translator of Maimonides' "Guide", Samuel ibn Tibbon). Perhaps one reason why a quote such as the one you saw became popular was due to the publication of an English version of the book (available here)...
8
The Sma"k (written by Isaac ben Joseph of Corbeil) is an abridged version of the Sma"g (written by Moses ben Jacob of Coucy) including additional agaddic and ethical material. Cited here for instance.
See also here p. 9
The Sma"k is based on the Sma"g but targets a wider audience, to this
effect it includes few sources and focuses on the final ...
8
It is the Rivmats, Rabbi Yitzchak Ben Malki Tzedek, from Siponto in Italy. A little more about him in the Wikipedia entry about him.
The following source helped me find him (top of page 126).
8
Tosefos to Berachos 44a, s.v. על העץ, cites the ספר המיימוני.
ובס' המיימוני מצריך להזכיר בה מעין המאורע בשבת ובי"ט
8
According to a quote from Rav Chaim Kanievsky, there are only 3 places in Shas where Rambam is mentioned in Tosfos (brought down in the stories at the end of the 29th chapter of the Artscroll English Orchos Yosher, Page 400. Including the 2 already mentioned for the sake of completion):
1: Berachos 44a, Dibur Hamaschil על העץ ועל פרי העץ :
ובס' המיימוני ...
7
The best online resource would be yerushalmionline.org. It contains shiurim from R' Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer on the entire Yerushalmi, and links to helpful seforim.
The top things to keep in mind (sorry, I can't think of exactly 5 right now) are that Yerushalmi's language is more terse than that of Bavli, and there is often little or no consensus as to how a ...
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