326 A History of Judaism
known as Rabad, who headed his own academy in Posquières in south-
ern France. Rabad devoted tractates to critical notes (hassagot ) on the
works of codifiers both in the distant past (such as Yitzhak Alfasi) and
in his own time, notably his bête noire, Zerahyah b. Yitzhak b. Levi
Gerondi (who had himself criticized Alfasi’s code). His attack on Mai-
monides’ Mishneh Torah was fierce:
He intended to improve but did not improve, for he forsook the way of all
authors who preceded him. They always adduced proof for their state-
ments and cited the proper authority for each statement; this was very
useful, for sometimes the judge would be inclined to forbid or permit
something and his proof was based on some other authority. Had he
known that there was a greater authority who interpreted the law differ-
ently, he might have retracted. Now, therefore, I do not know why I should
reverse my tradition or my corroborative views because of the compen-
dium of this author. If the one who differs with me is greater than I – fine;
and, if I am greater than he, why should I annul my opinion in deference
to his? Moreover, there are matters concerning which the Geonim disagree
and this author has selected the opinion of one and incorporated it in his
compendium. Why should I rely upon his choice when it is not acceptable
to me and I do not know whether the contending authority is competent
to differ or not? It can only be that ‘an overbearing spirit is in him.’^19
Halakhic developments in the later Middle Ages had a decisive impact
on the shape of rabbinic Judaism in the following centuries. The divide
between Sephardim and Ashkenazim widened and was acknowledged,
while all streams of rabbinic Jewry embraced with enthusiasm the com-
mentaries of Rashi and his successors in the study of the Talmud. But the
relations between the rabbinical academies in which the halakhah
developed and the individual sages who dominated these developments
were much complicated by the intrusion into the same rabbinic circles of
new ideas about philosophy and mysticism, to which we now turn.
Maimonides: Faith and Philosophy
Of the various ways in which Islam shaped the development of Judaism
in the Near East, North Africa and Spain from the ninth century to the
fifteenth, much the most radical was in the practice of philosophy as a
bulwark for religious doctrine through rational argument. We have seen
that Philo in the last century of the Second Temple had adopted Platonic