Date: 13 Jul 2004
Time: 07:40:25 -0700
A
few points here:
--There is great debate over which teshuvoth of the Rambam are authentic
--although Mori Qafahh does have a masorah on which ones are real.
--The Talmud Bavli we now possess (although accurate for the most part) has clearly been corrupted. We can
bypass this issue by following the Yad of the Rambam
--The note quoted above about what they did in Spain does not address WHY (they
stopped). Therefore, logic dictates that we *assume* the Jews of Spain WERE following Torah--and
abstained from wearing tafillin for one of the reasons mentioned in the Yad --that allows us to be
'patar'--such as sewage in the street, stomach problems--or perhaps even fear of Muslimim.
As all of those are temporary in nature, one must conclude that wearing tafilin
would have been reestablished in Spain had the reasons for not wearing them
ceased to be relevant. As we do not know why they stopped, I don't see how this gives us a blanket excuse to
not where them today based on what happened in Spain during that time period.