New Mishne Torah

Students of Rabbi Eliyahu Zeini have published a one-volume edition of Maimonides' Code, the Mishne Torah. They advertise that their edition incorporates varia lectiones culled from other editions of the book published in recent years - those of R Joseph Kafih, Shabse Frankel, Nahum Rabinovitch and Yitzhak Shilat. They boast that they have corrected changes made by censors. But the really interesting changes in the Code are the more subtle ones, the ones made by scribes, or by the author himself.

Here's the rub. Kafih's edition is based exclusively on Yemenite manuscripts. Frankel's represents primarily European manuscripts and printed editions. Rabinovitch's version, with his commentary Yad Peshutah, follows the Oxford manuscript. As far as I am aware, only Shilat made use of Genizah fragments.

The Maimonidean presence in the Genizah is very strong. Thanks to the Fustat synagogue, we have many fragments in the Rambam's handwriting, and many other pages written by his close acquaintances. For examples, see here and here and here (by the way, the Arabic original of the Guide is here).

Avi Lifshitz, a student of Shilat, recently completed a Master's thesis at Bar Ilan University studying the significance of these fragments in the study of Mishne Torah. This is an important step, that must be followed by an appraisal of the relative worth of individual scribes and copies.

One small example, in shorthand. Isure Biah 21:9 - "U-bilvad...". Frankel's edition testifies that this phrase is missing from most manuscripts. It is also not to be found in a genizah fragment, BL Or. 10832/1, from the Gaster collection.