33
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, ...
23
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 ...
15
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
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
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 ...
12
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 ...
12
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 ...
11
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 ...
11
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 ...
10
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 ...
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)...
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
Tosefos to Berachos 44a, s.v. על העץ, cites the ספר המיימוני.
ובס' המיימוני מצריך להזכיר בה מעין המאורע בשבת ובי"ט
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.
9
One of the Ritva's teachers was Rav Aharon Ha-Levi, often known by the acronym רא"ה. He was indeed a direct descendant of the Ba'al Ha-Maor.
8
Shaalos Uteshuvos Radbaz 3:444 says that perhaps the Riva felt that his time was up and knew that he would die either way and therefore did not eat.
"אפשר דריב"א ז"ל הרגיש בעצמו דאפילו שיאכל ימות ד'לב יודע מרת נפשו',
והיינו דקאמר: ברי ושמא ברי עדיף. כלומר: הברי שלי [שאמות] עדיף משמא
שלכם [שאולי תצילו אותי], ולפיכך לא רצה לאכול".
The "ברי" was ...
8
It is not true that the Meiri's Bet haBechirah was "rediscovered" in modern times. The work had never been missing, but was merely in manuscript form for some six hundred years, only being printed for the first time in the 18th century. My guess is that the anonymous author of the article you cite is using the phrase "modern times" to refer to this period, ...
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).
7
According to Encyclopedi Yehudit ר' ברוך בר' שמואל ממגנצא' was the author of Sefer Hachachma and it has been lost.
ברוך בן שמואל ממגנצא - תלמודי ופייטן. חי בסוף המאה הי"ב ומת במגנצא
בשנת 1221. היה תלמיד מובהק של רבי אליעזר ממיץ. חתם על התקנות שנעשו
במגנצא בשנת ד"א תתק"ף המובאות בסוף מהר"ם דפוס פראג.
חיבר את ספר "החכמה" בהלכה המובא בראשונים, הספר ...
7
Most of the works from the Meiri were printed for the first time in the 20th century. Shimon bM is correct in that the Beit ha-Beḥirah, the most famous work of the Meiri, was first printed in the 18th century, but there is now a corpus of the Meiri that is due to the work of 20th century scholarship. Here are some examples:
The Meiri wrote other ...
7
R. Menachem M. Kasher compiled such a bibliographic list in his Sare HaElef (Section 4), some of which is available here for free (though not the section you’re looking for).
7
The Sdei Chemed (vol. 9, Klalei HaPoskim 10:2) delineates the order of authority and reverse chronology as follows:
Shu"t HaRashba
Torat HaBayit / Avodat HaKodesh / Piskei Challah / Shaar HaMayim
Chiddushei HaRashba
He does bring a Pri Megadim who considers the possibility that certain Teshuvot were written prior to the Torat HaBayit and leaves it ...
7
I’d suggest the quote, albeit not exact, is from Tosafot (Chulin 125b s.v. Yachol):
בהא דאמרינן בביצה (י.)... דהתם במת שלם דאין דרך לשורפו ולנתחו פחות מכזית
7
"Rabbi Yehoshua ben Zeruz, son of the father-in-law of Rabbi Meir, testified before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi about Rabbi Meir that he ate the leaf of a vegetable in Beit She’an without tithing or separating teruma, as he holds that Beit She’an is not part of Eretz Yisrael and therefore is not sacred with its sanctity. And Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi permitted all ...
6
It seems Ashkenazi Jews of the time - including the Tosafists - lacked formal secular knowledge.
Rabbi Prof. Ephraim Kanarfogel wrote in his essay "The Tosafist Oeuvre and Torah u-Madda":
"The Ba'alei ha-Tosafot flourished in northern France and Germany (Ashkenaz) during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. While the Jewish communities of ...
6
Based on some research, e.g. this link, I would venture that the Chazzal, the Rishonim and even early Achronim never heard of it and rarely if ever experienced the zap of static electricity.
About the only way to accidentally produce static electricity without synthetic materials is by rubbing silk on glass, or fur on copper.
Since they didn't wear ...
6
Korei Dorot Chapter 3 records the following story featuring Mahari Abuhav (my translation):
ואמרו על הרב מהר"י אבוהב ז"ל שהיתה עינו אחת סמויה...פעם אחד היה מהלך בדרך בשדה וישב לו הרב על שן סלע אחד, וב' נכבדים ישבו אחד מימין ואחד משמאל, והיה בחור אחד תלמידו עומד לפניהם, והרב ז"ל בדיחא דעתיה והיו מדברים בדברי צחות, ופנה הרב אל התלמיד ואמר ליה ...
6
here you go:
http://www.docdroid.net/rko0/kefayet.pdf.html
and a review by a scholar you should be sure to read:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8F_PW9P6dqlRjI2RERad3haakU/view?usp=sharing
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