Clarifications on the Rambamist Mesora

B"H

There is a great deal of misinformation on the Maimonidean shita and its current status.  For this reason some clarifications are in order.  IYH this will help readers have a clear understanding of the direction Maimonidean Judaism has taken to the modern day and to have appropriate discernment in assessing Maimonidean spaces in the sphere of Jewish thought.  To be sure there is a constant Maimonidean mesora, and it does actually exist in the real world and not only online or in WhatsApp.  However, to get a better understanding of this we must first clarify what continuity is for the sake of understanding a mesora.

Masekhet Avot describes the basic premise of mesora.  Moshe Rabbenu received the Torah at Har Sinai.  He taught Torah to Yehoshua bin Nun among others.  Yehoshua bin Nun taught the Shofetim who taught the Prophets who taught Anshe Keneset haGedola who taught the Tannaim who taught the Amoraim who taught the Savoraim who taught the Geonim.  This is a bit of glossing over, but it makes the point.  Just as the Tannaim established that halakha would be according to Bet Hillel except in specific cases, the Geonim had a crisis of divergent perspectives, namely the Geonim of Bavel and the Geonim of Erets Yisrael.  In Bavel there were prestigious yeshivot which had existed since Hazal, including the Yeshiva of Pumbedita and the Yeshiva of Sura.  For several generations the Geonim of Babylonia held influence over the East, while the Geonim of Erets Yisrael held influence over the West.  However, the influence in the West was waning.

Halakha became more codified with the publication of Beur Halakhot Gedolot, written by Rav Shimon Kayara.  To be sure Rav Shimon Kayara was not a Gaon in the normative sense; he was not a Rosh Yeshiva.  Nevertheless, the Behag was greatly influential and received approbation from the Geonim including Rav Saadya Gaon and Rav Hai Gaon.  Additionally, Jews in the West looked to the Geonim in Babylonia for liturgical advice, and this resulted in the publication and distribution of Seder Rav Amram Gaon and Seder Rav Saadya Gaon.  The liturgy of Erets Yisrael was different from this Babylonian Nosah, and it would continue to be used for some time, but the influence of the Babylonian Geonim was growing.  This influence became more significant due to the Kairouan Yeshiva.

Rabbenu Hushiel ben Elhanan was born in Babylonia, yet was later compelled to remain in North Africa after a harrowing incident in which he and some of his companions were abducted into slavery and ransomed by the Jews in North Africa.  The Kairouan Yeshiva bridged a gap between North Africa and Babylonia.  In time this Kairouan tradition was exported to Spain by Rif, a student of Rabbenu Nissim.  A few generations later Rambam fled to North Africa again to escape the Almohad persecution.  

As you can see here what we know as the Maimonidean tradition has precedent before Rambam and has not consistently been called Maimonidean.  This is very important, because a mesora requires a rav to talmid relationship which continues successively.  At one time this was simply the Babylonian tradition, and thereafter it was the Kairouan tradition.  This is critically important when assessing contemporary Maimonidean thought.  Rambam did not develop from a vacuum; he emerged from a mesora.  Likewise, any existing Maimonidean mesora must have a legitimate lineage, and this Maimonidean tradition can exist by another name and even be academically regarded as distinguishable from the mediaeval Maimonidean tradition.  By the rules of mesora an emergent ideology that is not historically linked to this tradition is not legitimately Maimonidean.  

Rambam's works are groundbreaking and exceptional in themselves; that is beyond the scope of interest here for now, and we are more concerned with the general approach of Rambam and its continuity.  Rambam had several detractors during and after his lifetime, but he enjoyed much support in part of France, al Andalus, North Africa, the Levant, Yemen, and India.  However, Rambam had most direct influence in Egypt; this is where the rav to talmid relationship is most evident in the mesora following Rambam.  Following Rambam four generations of Rambam's descendants held the role of Nagid.  Here the Maimonidean mesora flourished.  Nevertheless, it is good to clarify what that means.  This does not mean Jews in Cairo treated Rambam as an infallible and final authority, just as Rambam did not treat Rif and Rabbenu Henanel, his own predecessors with estimable literary achievements, as infallible final authorities.  In fact Rambam himself even notes exceptions to his own positions in Mishneh Torah and establishes communal norms contrary to Mishneh Torah in teshuvot he authored.  However, the general approach to Gemara fostered by Rambam and the Kairouan Yeshiva before him remained the influence of the Jews of Cairo.  

In the sixteenth century the Middle East and North Africa was flooded with Jewish refugees leaving Spain and Portugal.  Many of these refugees brought the Tosafist traditions prevalent among the Jews of Catalan and Castillo with them, yet some brought forth the Maimonidean tradition from Aragon, al Andalus, and Portugal.  Among these were Rabbi Yosef Saragosi and his student, Radbaz.  Radbaz also learned with Rabbi Yitshak Sholal, the last rabbi to hold the office of Nagid in Egypt, and presided in the bet din of Rabbi Yitshak Sholal.  Upon conquering Egypt the Ottoman Empire abolished the office of Nagid, yet Radbaz held the office of Hakham Bashi in Cairo for forty years, de facto succeeding Rabbi Yitshak Sholal as the head of the Maimonidean community in Egypt.  

Through the influence of Rabbi Yosef Saragosi, Rabbi Yitshak Sholal, and Radbaz the Jewish community of Tsefat became a major Maimonidean sphere of influence.  The hakhamim in that generation in Tsefat are too numerous to recount briefly and too lofty to be neglected.  However, for the purposes of this writing it is worth mentioning a few specific hakhamim.  Rabbi Yosef Saragosi himself resided in Tsefat.  Likewise, Radbaz encouraged his student, Arizal, to make aliya and settle in Tsefat to learn with Ramak, a Maimonidean whose family originated from al Andalus.  Even those who had lived in Tosafist centers in Spain were influenced in Tsefat to cling to the Maimonidean shita, including quite notably R Yosef Caro, the Maran.  Later Radbaz himself also lived in Tsefat and presided in the bet din alongside Maran.  

The hakhamim of Tsefat proposed to reestablish semikha according to the standards established by Rambam in Hilkhot Sanhedrin.  This initiative was put forward by R Yaakov Berab.  Among those whom R Yaakov Berab ordained by semikha were Maran who in turn ordained R Moshe Alshikh who in turn ordained R Hayim Vital.  R Hayim Vital was a talmid of Arizal.  

From this point onwards the Maimonidean tradition has not been called Maimonidean in academic circles; it has instead been called Lurinaic in reference to the name of Arizal.  In fact this philosophy has been further subdivided to distinguish the talmidim of R Hayim Vital who became influential in Yerushalayim from those in Tafilalt from those in Damascus from those in Constantinople etc.  Just as Rambam had also found admirers outside of his immediate sphere of influence, Arizal found admirers throughout the Jewish world including Yemen and Ashkenaz.  Nevertheless, the central focus of the Lurianic mesora has been among Sephardim.  

The Maimonidean tradition still flourishes, just as it flourished even before Rambam.  Before Rambam's lifetime this mesora found influence among the Babylonian Geonim, the Kairouan Yeshiva in modern Tunisia, and Cordova in Spain.  In Rambam's lifetime he imported this system of thought into Egypt wher it flourished and found favorable influence abroad, quite notably including al Andalus, Aragon, Lunel, Sicily, North Africa, the Levant, Yemen, and India.  In Egypt this mesora was fostered and eventually exported to Tsefat by Radbaz and his talmidim.  Thereafter, this mesora was known as Lurianic rather than Maimonidean.  In successive generations R Hayim Vital, a talmid of Arizal, formed a hub of Lurianic thought in Damascus, and his talmidim spread across much of the Jewish world, especially among Sephardim and in Yemen, and this system of thought gained admiration in parts of Ashkenaz and Baghdad as well.  

All the best.