Maimonides Reaches Out to Yemen Jewry
Sefer Shoftim from the Mishneh Torah. The manuscript was copied in Yemen in 1433. The manuscript is currently housed at the National Library of Israel.
The relationship between Maimonides and Yemenite Jewry is well documented even from the time of the Rambam himself. In his mid-thirties, the Jewish governor of Yemen, Rabbi Ya'akov ben Netanel, contacted the Rambam in the wake of the severe, ongoing persecution suffered by Yemenite Jews for twenty years. Well aware of the possibly dangerous implications, Maimonides dispatched the “Yemen Letter” in 1172, offering his religious, moral and humanitarian support.
The frequent incidences in Maimonides' writings are a testament to the complex relationship between himself and Yemen Jewry: Among the texts of Yemenite Jewry, the writings of the Rambam are considered a genre of their own and are treated with extraordinary attention.The manuscript of Sefer Shoftim from the Mishneh Torah, which is kept in the National Library, is a living example.
