Ri Migash—Rabbi Yosef ibn Migash רבי יוסף אבן מיגאש
the Rif's heir in Lucena, teacher of Rambam's house
Rabbi Yosef haLevi ibn Migash (1077–1141) came to the Rif at fourteen and spent fourteen years with him. Dying, the Rif appointed as head of Lucena not his own son but him—a case the Spanish chronicles cite as the model that Torah is not inherited by blood.
His novellae on Bava Batra and Shevuot are the first commentaries of a new kind in Spain: not a retelling of the sugya but an analysis of its structure. Rambam, who studied under his student—his own father—speaks of him in the introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah in words he used of no one else: "this man… a wonder in the eyes of all who understand". Through Ri Migash the Spanish school of the Rif reached the Mishneh Torah.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Rambam, introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah — «his grasp of the Talmud astounds anyone who understands»
- Abraham ibn Daud, Sefer haKabbalah — the transfer of Lucena from the Rif
Basis: documents and evidence.