Q&A: Does Maimonides Change the Talmud?!
Does Maimonides Change the Talmud?!
Question
I found in Maimonides’ responsa that he wrote that he changed from the Talmud:
“Question: Let his honor instruct us regarding what you mentioned in law 10 of chapter 1 of the laws of hametz: perhaps one might err between the fifth and the sixth hour, whereas the wording of the legal rulings says: perhaps one might err between the fifth and the seventh. Please clarify for us the correct version:
Response: What is mentioned in the legal rulings, that perhaps one might err between the fifth and the seventh, is correct, and that is the wording of the student, according to the way he asked there. But I mentioned the case that is more commonly found, namely, an error of one hour with the following hour, and I presented it as though the discrepancy were smaller, because our intention in this entire composition is to bring the laws closer to reason, or to the matter that is more likely” (* copied from the book Ma’aseh Rokeach *): Moses son of Rabbi Maimon, of blessed memory.
And I was very surprised by this. Are there other examples of this? Is this legitimate? Did other medieval authorities (Rishonim) also do this with the Talmud? What is the explanation for it?
Answer
I don’t know this responsum, and I assume he means Laws of Hametz ch. 1, law 9 (not 10). I would just say that it may be a matter of changing the version in the Talmud on the basis of reasoning, even though that was the version before him. And by logic it’s clear that he is right and there is a mistake in the textual version.
Discussion on Answer
And also, why is it “clear by logic that he is right and there is a mistake in the textual version”?
As I said, I didn’t check. But logically it seems more reasonable to me that we’re talking about an error between the fifth and sixth hours, not between the fifth and seventh. That’s all. In any case, Maimonides himself wrote that he does not contradict the Talmud except where there is another passage that disagrees. I recall Rabbi Benedict’s book, “Maimonides Without Deviation from the Talmud.”
The matter is explicit in his words: “But I mentioned the case that is more commonly found, namely, an error of one hour with the following hour, and I presented it as though the discrepancy were smaller.” Meaning, there is no change here in the explanation; rather, he used an example that seemed more plausible to him. This is not a dispute with the Talmud.
Maimonides does this many times; I’m writing a thesis on it right now.
Does what?
Changes from the Babylonian Talmud. Certainly in the rationales for laws; Rabbi Rabinovitch already wrote about that.
As for sources, this is an old rule and many have already written about it.
I didn’t really understand where you got that there is a mistake in the textual version. It’s explained explicitly in the Talmud that it is because of the concern that one might err on a cloudy day. True, that’s a more forced explanation than Maimonides’ explanation (and because of that he wrote that he changed from the reasoning in the Talmud). But there is no hint here at all that Maimonides thought there was a mistake in the textual versions.