I'm sorry to ask a source-seeking question (because I don't like seeing them myself), but I'm at a loss here in trying to find what I think is a theologically important Hassidic story. The story goes something along the lines of, "the Rambam paskened that no Jew is allowed to believe that God has a physical form, and hundreds of pious people were evicted from Heaven, until the Raavad came along and paskened that they were allowed back in". I remember seeing this somewhere (perhaps a scholarly publication on theology) but cannot, after many attempts, find it anywhere.
And, no, I'm not confusing it with the story of the Kotzker, who said that the Rambam paskened the sheidim out of existence.
Answer
This is quoted in the Afrakasta D'anya (4: 370) of R. David ben R. Baruch Kalonymus Sperber (leader of pre-war Romania) in the name of R. Moshe Stern in the name of the author of Imrei Yosef in turn quoting his teachers.
שו"ת אפרקסתא דעניא חלק ד - עניינים שונים סימן שע ועל דרך - זה שמעתי מפי מו"ח הגה"צ ז"ל [רבי משה שטרן, גאב"ד פאליאן] בשם הה"ק בעל אמרי יוסף זצ"ל ששמע מרבותיו נ"ע דבשעה שפסק הרמב"ם ז"ל בפ"ג מה' תשובה ה"ז דהאומר שיש שם רבון אחד אבל שהוא בעל תמונה הוא מין, ע"ש, נתגרשו אלפי נשמות מתוך הג"ע. ונתעורר הראב"ד ז"ל מן השמים להשיג על הרמב"ם ז"ל וכ' עליו ז"ל: ולמה קרא לזה מין, וכמה גדולים וטובים ממנו הלכו בזו המחשבה לפ"מ שראו במקראות ויותר ממה שראו בדברי האגדות המשבשות את הדעות עכ"ל, ומיד שכ' הראב"ד כך החזירו הנשמות לגן עדנם".
"I heard the following from my teacher my father in law in the name of the author of the Imrei Yosef who heard from his teachers of blessed memory that when Maimonides ruled (Hil. Teshuva 3:7) that one who concedes that there is one God, but claims that he is corporeal, is considered a heretic, thousands of souls were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Thereupon Raavad was inspired from heaven to argue with Maimonides, and wrote regarding him: 'why has he called such a person a heretic, while several greater and more righteous than he followed this belief, based on what they saw in verses of Scripture, and more so from what they saw in the Aggadot that corrupt [proper] views'. Immediately when Raavad wrote this, the souls were returned to the Garden of Eden." (my trans.)
It is also cited in the name of R. Israel ben Shabetai Hapstein (1733-1814) the Magid of Kozienice, in Marc Shapiro's Limits of Orthodox Theology page 65.
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