Rabbi Yonatan ha-Kohen of Lunel רבי יהונתן הכהן מלוניל
head of the Lunel yeshiva, who questioned the Rambam and was answered
Lunel was a small town, not a capital, but in the twelfth century its yeshiva stood level with the great ones. It was held by Rabbi Yonatan ha-Kohen, and his chief work is not a book but a correspondence.
When the Mishneh Torah reached Provence, Lunel worked through it and found places where the Rambam's ruling differed from what was taught there. They wrote to Egypt. The Rambam answered—and answered with respect: here he explained, there he granted that the questioners were right. These Answers to the Sages of Lunel are a rare case where one sees not the verdict of a great man but a conversation.
From the same town came the second request: to translate the Moreh Nevuchim from Arabic into Hebrew. Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon undertook it, and a book written for one student became a book for everyone who reads the holy tongue. Both requests came from one beit midrash.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Teshuvot le-Chachmei Lunel—the Rambam's answers — his questions and the answers to them, named
- Rabbi Shmuel ibn Tibbon's preface to the Moreh Nevuchim — the request of the sages of Lunel for the translation
Basis: documents and evidence.