[Avodah] Rambam

[Eli Turkel]

<<Now obviously Ri Migash disregarded his own advice! One Hilluq is
obvious: to pasqen from Shas one needs to master all of Shas. But most
Rabbsi who lack such mastery ought to rely upon Gaonic secondary sources.

This hilluq explains the above Rambam! When young he relied upon
secondary sources, as he himself became a master, he went directly to
the original sources.>>

This article claims that when ambam wrote Perish Hamishnayot he held like
the Ri Migash even though he had already mastered Shas.
Later in life he became convinced that the Geonim had many mistakes and
so held that one cannot rely on them.
His Yad Hazakah is meant to be a substitute for the psakim of the Geonim

The article is in Volume 8 of Hakirah by Asher Buchman

A sample quote:
" Rambam (Iggerot HaRambam  Shilat ed p 647 and 305)
blames himself for having relied on the opinions of earlier geonim without
having analyzed the issue fully when he wroter the perush hamishnayot.
in his youth he was
at least partially guilty of what is apparently the universal fault of others -
not doing the full analysis of primary sources that the chachmei
hatalmud expected of us"

Buchman theorizes that the gadol that Rambam felt he was misled by was
--- the Rif !!
While in the perush hamishnayot he says he disagreed in less than 10 places in
Yad Chazakah he disagrees in many more places. He continually revised
Perush Hamishnayot
throughout his lifetime (not clear what version our printed version is
based) and probably never reached a final version before his death

-- 
Eli Turkel