Rishonim

The Rishonim (sing. Rishon), great figures of the medieval Judaism, literally " Premiers" or " Anciens" (commentators) are the Rabbin S and Posqim which lived era ranging between the Gueonim and the Choulhan Aroukh, i.e. of 1250 with 1500.

Medieval Judaism

The distinction between Rishonim and Gueonim is of a rather historical nature that halakhic. Rishon can as well dispute the opinion of another Rishon as that of Gaon, but its opinion is valid only in the condition of basing itself on that of a Amora.

The medieval Judaism is dominated by three large currents:

the philological approach , whose greatest figure is undoubtedly Rachi. They are harnessed with the continuation of the task undertaken by Gueonim, namely to comment on the Tanakh, mainly the Torah, while concentrating less on the drash , the allegories and lessons morals contained or interpretable starting from the Writings, that on the pshat , the simple direction of the verses, respecting the structure and the direction of the verse without being encumbered useless phraseology. One owes them the clarification of ancient and obscure texts, like the Talmud, and a much better comprehension of the direction.
philosophical approach “”, influenced by two schools of thought, mainly: the Neo-Platonism, whose large representative is Abraham ibn Ezra, and the philosophy aristotelician whose giant was incontestably Maïmonide , and whose influence on the Jewish thought is undoubtedly deepest. One can say that any posterior philosophical approach of the medieval Judaism, was to know if his opinion were shared, with or without reserve, or if one opposed it.
the mystical approach “”, whose Provence was a great center, where the Kabbale is transmitted in a jealously kept secrecy, before diffusing in Spain, where Nahmanide makes it perspire in its comments, and where Moïse of Leon discovers (or " redécouvre"?) the Zohar. After the expulsion of Spain, the center moves in Ground of Israel, and is established with Safed.

Separation is of course extremely artificial. Thus, Nahmanide mixes mystical and philosophy in its comments based on the study of that of Rachi, the comment of Abravanel can be regarded as having assimilated and synthesized the three currents, the RaVad III, burning destroyer of the ideas of Maïmonide, is highly famous Kabbaliste, Moïse Cordovero writes “Kabbaliste and the philosopher”.

One can however outline a difference noted enough between the approaches Sépharade and Ashkénaze of the texts: since Isaac Alfasi with Yossef Karo, while passing by Maïmonide, the Eastern Judaism mainly seeks to extract the legislative contents from the Talmud in order to establish a code of the Jewish law, whereas the Judaism ashkénaze is focused rather on the direction, as will illustrate it later the dialectical debates in the talmudic academies Polish Lithuania or .

Some Rishonim following the chronological order (nonexhaustive list)

Dunash Ben Labrat, grammairien and poet of the 10th century.
Rabbenou Gershom, talmudist and legislator of the 11th century, Germany
Rachi, (Solomon Ben Ytzhak), commentator and talmudist of the 11th century, France
Isaac Alfasi, (the Rif ), talmudist and North-African codifier of the 11th century.
Maïmonide, Moshe Ben Maimon, ( Rambam ), philosopher, talmudist and Andalusian codifier of the 12th century
Tossafistes, ( Tosfot ) disciples of Rachi in France and Germany, of 11th at the 13th century.
Yehuda Halevi, ( Kuzari ), philosopher, theologist, poet of the 12th century, Spain-Cairo (on the way towards the Holy Land)
Abraham ibn Daud, ( Sefer HaKabbalah ), Spanish philosopher of the 12th century.
Abraham ibn Ezra, ( Even Ezra ), exégète and poet of the 12th century.
Asher Ben Yehiel, ( Rosh ), talmudist and codifier of the 13th century, Germany and Spain
Samuel Ben Judah ibn Tibbon, translator of the writings of Maïmonide, 13th century, France
Nahmanide, Moshe Ben Nahman, ( Ramban ), commentator, talmudist and Spanish kabbalist of the 13th century.
Solomon Ben Adret, ( Rashba ) Spanish talmudist of the 13th century.
Abba Husband, ( Minhat Kenaot ), talmudist of the 13th century, France.
Yaakov Ben Asher, ( Baal HaTourim ), Talmudiste of 13th at the 14th century, Germany and Spain.
Gersonide, Levi Ben Gershom, ( Ralbag ), philosopher and talmudist of the 14th century, France.
Hasdai Crescas, ( Gold Hashem ), talmudist and philosopher of the 14th century
Efraim Elnekave, ( ha Rav ), talmudist and doctor of the 14th century, Spain, North Africa.
Gift Isaac Abravanel, philosopher and exégète of the 15th century, Portugal, Spain, Venice.
Yossef Karo, talmudist and codifier of 15th in the 16th centuries, Spain, Israel.

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