Many halachic authorities dating back to the Rishonim have suggested that the difficult winter weather played a role in the menorah’s being moved indoors. The Ritva (Rabbeinu Yom Tov ben Avraham Alashbili), commenting on the[…]
While some earlier rishonim required waiting between eating beheima meat and eating dairy, Rambam was the first to state that one must wait after eating poultry, as well. (Beheima meat refers to meat from cows,[…]
The Tosafist redactions that emerged in the late thirteenth century were edited commentaries that contained the integrated teachings of the Tosafist masters of the past century and a half. Certainly, the redactions were not identical.[…]
Although Riba’s commentary is the earliest extant representative of the initial stage of the Tosafist enterprise, the true image of independent Tosafist dialectics was embodied in R. Jacob b. Meir (R. Tam, d. 1171). R.[…]
The independence of early Tosafist works notwithstanding, it is important to realize that talmudic scholars never operated in a complete intellectual vacuum. Indeed, most Tosafists approached the talmudic text with the analysis of the earlier[…]
Anyone who regularly learns Rashba, Ritva, Rambam, or Rabbeinu Chananel sees that these Rishonim were clear masters of the Yerushalmi as well as the Bavli. Such does not seem to be the case for Rashi[…]