===Mainstream
Baladi Jews=== As previously explained, the Baladi/Shami distinction does not always coincide with the Dor Daim/Iqshim distinction. That is, while a Dor Dai is necessarily a
Baladi, and a Shami is necessarily an Iqshi (Kabbalist), most Baladim occupy an intermediate point on the spectrum and may or may not accord some validity to Kabbalah. The distinguishing mark of a Baladi individual or community is the use of the traditional liturgy, regardless of the underlying theological or intellectual orientation. Some Baladim may sympathize to a greater or lesser extent with the Dor Dai distrust of Zoharic and Lurianic Kabbalah. Others may accept the Lurianic version of Kabbalah but retain the ancestral liturgy on the ground that, even according to Luria, this is the Kabbalistically correct thing to do. Others again may have no particular views one way or the other. However, Baladim of all shades uniformly accept the Mishneh Torah rather than the Shulchan Aruch as their authority on Jewish law. Outwardly the practices of Baladi Jews and Dor Daim are almost identical, apart from some Kabbalistic insertions to be found in the Baladi prayer book. However most Baladim, while holding that the Mishneh Torah is the best interpretation of Jewish law, are content to preserve it as the particular custom of their group and do not seek to delegitimize the customs of other Jewish communities. (How far the Dor Daim seek to do this is a matter of debate.) Several of the
above-listed distinctions between Dor Daim and the majority of world Jewry are shared by all traditional Baladi
Yemenite Jews, and not just by Dor Daim. On matters of law and practice as opposed to theology, the only difference between Dor Daim and the rest of Baladi
Yemenite Jews appears to be the level of zeal in preserving the above listed practices, although exceptions do exist.
Talmide ha-Rambam Today's
talmide ha-Rambam differ from the original Dor Daim in two ways. •
Talmide ha-Rambam do not necessarily reject the
Zohar. However, their interpretation may differ more or less drastically from the
Lurianic school or the currents of thought popularly referred to as "Kabbalah" today. •
Talmide ha-Rambam tend to hold that the
Mishneh Torahis the best restatement of
Talmudic law, and that every custom that diverges from it is logically inferior if not actually illegitimate. On points not explicitly covered by Maimonides, such as the exact mode of prostration during prayers, there is considerable competition to unearth the most authentic mode from among the various Yemenite practices found in recorded history. Dor Daim, by contrast, do retain some current Yemenite practices, even when (according to the
talmide ha-Rambam) these diverge from the views of Maimonides (see under
Jewish law above). For example, they do not follow Maimonides' recommendation to eliminate all prayers prior to the Kaddish and Shema in order to avoid 'unnecessarily burdening the congregation'. In short,
talmide ha-Rambam are less extreme than Dor Daim about the Zohar and more extreme about "Maimonides-only" jurisprudence. Nevertheless, the similarities between the two groups, as expressed in the list of beliefs and practices above, overwhelmingly outnumber the differences. Many members of the small and slowly growing Dor Dai community claim a fear of persecution and therefore maintain an almost secret existence. It is very likely that the entire movement of Dor Daim, together with some of their well-known leaders, has helped, and continues to help, fuel the rapidly growing community of
talmide ha-Rambam. It is undeniable that, while there are sometimes differences between Dor Daim and
talmide ha-Rambam as a whole—over certain details of practical Jewish law and the issue of the Zohar—the two communities continue to have strong links. As stated,
talmide ha-Rambam differ from Dor Daim in that they are not confined to the Yemenite community and need not be committed to specifically Yemenite customs. Nonetheless, Yemenite scholarship and practice are still a major resource for them. Two good examples of this are seen in the works of
Yosef Qafiḥ and of Mechon-Mamre.org. • Yosef Qafiḥ has made various contributions to Dor Daim,
talmide ha-Rambam and the Jewish world as a whole. Examples of his contributions include his encyclopedic commentary to the entire
Mishneh Torahset to the renowned Yemenite text of the
Mishneh Torah, his translation of all of Maimonides' Commentary on the
Mishnah from Arabic into modern Hebrew, as well as translations of the
Guide for the Perplexed,
Duties of the Heart, Sefer
Kuzari, and a number of other works. • Mechon-Mamre.org has produced
software for learning the
Ḥumash,
Tanakh,
Mishnah, the
Talmudic texts, as well as the
Mishneh Torahaccording to Qafiḥ and its own accurate and scholarly text, intended to be beneficial to all. The Mechon-mamre.org website's "About" section states that most participants in the work of Mechon-Mamre are Baladi
Yemenite Jews, although some of the more impacting individuals of Mechon-Mamre.org are not Yemenite or Dor Daim at all, but merely promote observance of
Talmudic law as codified in the
Mishneh Torah. Dor Daim and "Rambamists" are most easily recognized by the manner in which their
Tzitzit are tied (according to the Rambam, despite slight variations in understanding). Temani/Rambam Tzitzit can be distinguished from those of the many 'knitted kippa' youths who have adopted the same style, but have added
Tekhelet. Rambamists and Baladim are also noticeable by the fact that they wear their
Tallit in a different manner from non-Yemenite Jews, and even wear it on Friday nights/Erev Shabbath, which is almost unheard of in non-Yemenite synagogues (apart from a handful of
Hasidim in Jerusalem, referred to as
Yerushalmis, who wear it very discreetly so as to not look arrogant).
Gaonists Dor Daim as well as non-Yemenite or non-Dor Dai students of the
Rambam all find a certain level of commonality with individuals who sometimes call themselves
Gaonists.
Gaonists aim at applying Jewish law in everyday life according to the writings of the
Geonim as a whole without singling out any one particular Gaon or codification of Jewish law over another. The commonality between all of these groups is sourced in their shared pursuit of living according to the original understanding of Talmudic law as much as possible with as little influence from the effects of almost 2,000 years of exile as possible. These groups together are sometimes referred to as
Meqoriim (originalists/followers of the originals).
Mitnaggedim and followers of the Vilna Gaon The dispute between Dor Daim and
Aqashim has some similarities to that between
Mitnaggedim and
Hasidim, with the
Vilna Gaon and his heirs standing for Talmudic intellectualism and a Halachic worldview like Yiḥyah Qafiḥ. However, unlike Dor Daim, mainstream Mitnagdim/
Litvish Jews venerate the Zohar and Luria, and like the Hasidim their elite write Kabbalistic commentaries.
Joseph Dan writes that there is no truth to the popular notion that the Mitnaggedim were more
rationalist than the Hasidim;
Lurianic notions dominate in the theologies of both camps. Different interpretations of Luria arose among his followers regarding whether
tzimtzum (withdrawal of Divinity from Creation) should be taken literally or metaphorically. Hasidism read it metaphorically and
immanently, leading to
Panentheism. Mitnaggedism read it
transcendentally in relation to Man, leading to
Theism, though allowing validity to Panentheism solely from the Divine perspective.
Shneur Zalman of Liadi accused the Vilna Gaon of taking tzimtzum literally and not following Luria fully, though Mitnaggedic Kabbalists rejected this. It seems that the Vilna Gaon, who wrote extensive Kabbalistic works, followed the Lurianic system, but diverged from Luria when he felt the Zohar lent itself to another approach. The issue is the subject of forewords to the main texts of Lithuanian Kabbalah: the introduction, by
Ḥayyim of Volozhin, to the Vilna Gaon's commentary to the
Sifra di-Tsniuta and Yitzchak Eizik Chaver's
Pitchei Shearim. Paradoxically, the
Chabad philosophical school of
Hasidic thought created by Shneur Zalman of Liadi, an offshoot movement of its own from Hasidic emotionalist faith, routinely embraced perspectives from Maimonidean and other medieval
Jewish philosophy within its textual system. To an extent Shneur Zalman personally modelled himself after Maimonides, and his
Tanya after the
Guide of the Perplexed. The 7th
Lubavitcher Rebbe likewise extolled Maimonides as a history shaping leader, and created a daily study program in Mishneh Torah. Chabad leaders read the human wisdom of Maimonides'
Guide and the Divine wisdom of Lurianic Kabbalah as partial theological aspects of their inclusive essence
mystical study of Divinity. In contrast the Vilna Gaon, a Kabbalist of a traditionalist type, had no use for philosophy, declaring he only learned 3 things from it.
Haskalah attempts to claim him as one of their own were entirely misplaced. Although proficient in, and recommending the necessity for mathematics and sciences to understand the Talmud, and highly astute in lower textual critical emendation of Judaic texts, while revering Maimonides for his holiness and legal greatness, the Gaon berated Rambam for being "misled by the accursed philosophy" in rejecting demons, incantations and amulets. Both Hasidic and Mitnagdic Kabbalists entirely rejected the physical literalist interpretations of Kabbalah by
Sabbatean movements as idolatrous. The
Baal Shem Tov himself declared that esoteric study of Kabbalah symbolism outside his Hasidic inner soul holiness experiential psychologisation of it, by those not purified, was forbidden and lead to the Sabbatean false physical
anthropomorphism of it by their impure desires, the cardinal conceptual sin in Kabbalistic understanding. He said this at a time and in the same vicinity where
Frankism had taken Kabbalah into antinomian and nihilist desecration of Torah. In his
Nefesh HaHayyim,
Chaim of Volozhin, founder of the Litvish
Yeshiva movement and main theorist of Mitnaggedism, responds to the theology of Schneur Zalman's
Tanya based on different interpretation of the same Kabbalistic sources. Their difference revolves around alternate identifications between Divine Immanence/Transcendence and Divine Monism/Pluralism. For Hayyim Volozhin and Mitnaggedic-Litvish Judaism:
Spanish and Portuguese Jews Dor Daim and other Yemenite
talmide ha-Rambam like to compare themselves to the
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, and think of them as "the other Rambam Jews". This is largely because of their shared scepticism about the Zohar. The resemblance has however been exaggerated. Spanish and Portuguese Jews preserve an early form of the Sephardic liturgy from before the expulsion from Spain, which reflected some, but only very limited, influence from the Kabbalah and the Zohar. In the 16th and early 17th centuries they adopted a certain number of Lurianic observances in a piecemeal fashion, for example the
Tu Bishvat seder. After the
Sabbatai Zevi debacle these observances were largely dropped, because it was felt that Lurianic Kabbalah had contributed to the disaster. The arguments against the authenticity of the Zohar advanced by
Jacob Emden and
Leone di Modena were also influential. At the present day the general Spanish and Portuguese attitude to the Kabbalah is one of indifference rather than hostility. As Spanish and Portuguese communities act as hosts for
Sephardi Jews of many other backgrounds, there would be no bar on individuals regarding Kabbalah more positively. In particular, the Lurianic Kabbalah had a following in the
Jewish community of Livorno, which falls within the Spanish and Portuguese group but was the main point of contact between it and the Levantine Sephardim. The Spanish and Portuguese group's closest resemblance would therefore be not to Dor Daim but to mainstream Baladi Yemenites. Spanish and Portuguese Jews admire Maimonides and identify with the
Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain. However, they cannot be classified as "Rambamists" in the sense required, as their religious law is based squarely on the
Bet Yosef of
Joseph Caro, subject to certain liturgical customs peculiar to themselves. It could even be argued that they follow Caro more closely than any other group, as many other Sephardim, especially the eastern communities influenced by the
Ben Ish Chai, regard
Isaac Luria as having equal or even greater authority than Caro. The above describes the attitude of traditional communities such as London and Amsterdam. In some newer communities, in particular among the followers of
José Faur and Yaakov Oliveira, a more purist and principled attitude has evolved, which does place considerable emphasis on the
Mishneh Torah; however they also utilize the
Shulchan Aruch in their lectures in order to help promote the study of practical Jewish law amongst the greater Jewish community. ==Criticisms==