The Ri Migash (Rabbi Yosef ibn Migash)

The Rif's chosen successor, he led the Lucena academy for nearly four decades. The Rambam's father studied under him, and the Rambam called him a master whose understanding of Talmud astonished all who saw it.

Who was the Ri Migash?

Rabbi Yosef ibn Migash, known by the acronym the Ri Migash, was the chosen successor of the Rif and the head of the academy of Lucena for nearly forty years. He was the leading Talmudist of al-Andalus in the first half of the twelfth century, and the teacher of Rabbi Maimon, the father of the Rambam. The Rambam wrote that his understanding of the Talmud astonished all who saw it.

Student of the Rif

Yosef ibn Migash was born in 1077, in Granada or Seville, to a family that had held important positions. At the age of twelve he went to Lucena to study with the Rif, Rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi, who had recently come from North Africa to head the academy there. He remained with the Rif for about fourteen years and became his closest student.

Before his death in 1103, the Rif ordained Yosef ibn Migash and appointed him as his successor, passing over his own son. He was only twenty-six years old.

Head of the Lucena academy

The Ri Migash led the academy of Lucena for thirty-eight years, until his death. Under him it remained the most important center of Talmudic learning in Spain, and students came from across al-Andalus to study with him. His greatness was praised by Yehuda HaLevi, who wrote poems in his honor.

His approach was marked by a deep grasp of the Talmud’s reasoning and by attention to practical halakha. The Rambam, who was born only a few years before the Ri Migash’s death, studied his teachings through his father and through the Ri Migash’s writings, and often followed his rulings.

His works

The Ri Migash wrote novellae on the Talmud, of which those on tractates Bava Batra and Shevuot survive and are still studied, and he answered many questions of halakha. His responsa, originally written mostly in Arabic, were collected and are cited by later authorities. Many of his rulings are known from quotations in the works of the Rambam and other Spanish sages.

Death

The Ri Migash died in Lucena in 1141. A few years later, in 1148, the Almohads invaded al-Andalus and the great Jewish communities of the south, Lucena among them, were destroyed or scattered.

The Ri Migash’s legacy for Sephardim

The Ri Migash is the link between the Rif and the Rambam, the two greatest halakhic authorities of the Sephardic world before Maran Rabbi Yosef Karo. Through his teaching in Lucena, the Torah of North Africa and al-Andalus was handed on to the Rambam’s generation, and from them to every Sephardic community since.

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