Moses Maimonides (1136-1204)

Works and Bibliography

Major literary works

• Despite his amazing schedule and the demands on his time, Maimonides was a prolific writer of important works in the fields of Jewish law, medicine and philosophy.

During his lifetime, Maimonides wrote prolifically but his three best known

works are:

1.Commentary on the Mishnah (written in Arabic in his youth)

2. Mishneh Torah (a Code of Law written in Hebrew in middle age)

3. Guide for the Perplexed (written in Arabic in old age)

In addition to his three best known works

• Maimonides also composed various teshuvot (responsa), which is essentially a collection of correspondence between Maimonides' and various other Jewish authorities around that time.

• In addition to these texts, Maimonides also composed some medical texts, during his time as physician in the court of the Sultan.

Maimonides the Talmudist

• In his capacity as a renowned Talmudist, Maimonides made three major contributions to Jewish law.

• These works earned Maimonides' the reputation of being a highly learned Talmudist with an extremely thorough knowledge of Scripture, Talmud, Jewish law and traditions.

Maimonides' reputation

• for his scholarly wisdom meant that he was frequently called upon to resolve religious disputes and corresponded with other Jewish authorities in relation to the deconstruction of difficult halakhic passages.

In 1178, when Maimonides was 42

• he was appointed as the Chief Rabbi of the Egyptian Jewish community.

• This was indeed a vote of enormous confidence from his Jewish peers since the office of Chief Rabbi was one of the highest offices in the Jewish world at that time.

Literary work 1:

Commentary on the Mishnah

Significance of the Commentary on the Mishnah

• In his "Commentary on the Mishnah" (Sefer HaMaor) Maimonides provides a comprehensive commentary on each of the tractates (short pieces of writing also known as tracts) of the Mishnah.

Significance of the Commentary on the Mishnah

• He does this through providing a history of the Oral Torah and explaining the link between learning the Torah and putting it into practice.

Significance of the Commentary on the Mishnah

• The Commentary was written in Arabic, the vernacular language of the masses. Later, successive parts were rendered into Hebrew by various scholars.

The Commentary focused directly on the halakhic decision

• In this commentary Maimonides focused directly on the final halakhic decision found within the rabbinic discourse.

• This is done clearly and concisely before offering a detailed commentary explaining the meaning of the text.

• This method allowed Maimonides to deal directly with the mishnaic text outside of the layers of rabbinic discussion.

Thirteen Principles of Faith

Significance of the 13 Principles

• According to Maimonides these principles of faith were the foundations on which Judaism was based.

• Today, these principles are accepted as the foundation of many credal statements.

(as found in the Commentary on the Mishnah)

• These 13 principles also form the basis of the Shulchan Aruch the authoritative code of Rabbi Yosef Karo, formulated in the 16th century and remaining as a text of great significance throughout the different strands of Judaism today.

Literary work 2:

Mishneh Torah:

Codification of Jewish law

Sefer HaMitzvot

• The Sefer HaMitzvot (The Book of the Commandments) is essentially an introduction to his great work, the Mishneh Torah.

• The Sefer HaMitzvot seeks to list the 613 commandments (mitzvot) found in the Torah.

Maimonides divides these 613 mitzvot into two categories:

positive mitzvot

negative mitzvot

and

248 365

• Positive mitzvot

• are commands to perform an act (affirmative precepts), for example to love one's neighbour.

• Negative mitzvot • are commands to refrain from doing

something (prohibitory injunctions), for example do not murder.

Process of determining the 613 mitzvot

• But before Maimonides lists these 613 mitzvot, he gives an explanation of how he determined which commandments were the 613 commandments,

• remembering that a simple counting of Biblical mitzvot would yield a much greater number of commandments than 613.

Process of determining the 613 mitzvot

• Maimonides sets out fourteen rules by which one comes to include and exclude particular commandments to form the 613 commandments.

Mishneh Torah

• It is generally agreed that Maimonides' greatest contribution to Jewish life was this code of law, the Mishneh Torah.

Maimonides' Mishneh Torah

• provided an exhaustive topical codification of the Talmud which facilitated much quicker and easier access to the Jewish precepts.

The Mishneh Torah

• comprised 14 books and was written in Hebrew in a style which was easy to read and understand.

Significance of the Mishneh Torah

• It seems that Maimonides' intention in compiling the Mishneh Torah was to provide Jews with a comprehensible guide to Jewish Law without having to spend long hours studying the Talmud.

• By referring to the Torah and his code, Jews should be able to work out how to behave in any given situation.

Prior to Maimonides• there was no systematic presentation of

the Jewish law (Torah and Talmud) thus a Talmudist would need to make an exhaustive study of the entire text in order to explain the Talmudic perspective on an issue. The Mishneh Torah was the result of ten years of meticulous study.

General contents of the Mishneh Torah

• In terms of the specific contents of the Mishneh Torah, the first book, the Book of Knowledge (Sefer HaMada in Hebrew) contains laws concerning

• belief in God,

• idolatry,

• repentance and

• the study of Torah.

General contents of the Mishneh Torah

• The other thirteen books detail Jewish ritual and civil laws such as

• blessings,

• circumcision,

• holy days,

• relationships between males and females,

• dietary laws and

• ethics.

The conclusion of the Mishneh Torah

• deals with Maimonides' interpretation of the notion of the Messiah.

• Unlike some views of Messiah as the one who would come and make Jews a dominant people over their enemies,

• Maimonides saw the coming of the Messiah as a time of peace and prosperity in which Jews would not have to worry about wars and oppression but would be free to study the Torah and become familiar with the wisdom of the Law so that they would be worthy of the life that was to come.

Literary work 3:

Maimonides the Philosopher

Following the completion of his momentous work, the Mishneh

Torah,

• Maimonides set about to write his great philosophical tractate, the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevuchim). This text essentially deals with the key doctrines of Judaism from a philosophical standpoint.

For example

• It deals with issues such as the nature of God, what it means for God to be omnipotent, free will, what is evil and what goodness means, justice and divine revelation.

Innovative nature of Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed

• Among the Sephardim there had been some previous interest in the secular sciences, however, Maimonides brought this to a new level with his Guide for the Perplexed.

• Among the Ashkenazim there had not been any attempt to study anything beyond the Torah, thus for the Ashkenazim, Maimonides' approach was radically new.

Significance of the Guide for the Perplexed

• Essentially, Maimonides was breaking down the tendency in the Jewish tradition to separate the sacred and the secular in a way which compartmentalised life by attending to the study of religious truths on the one hand and the living of life in a secular community on the other.

Significance of the Guide for the Perplexed

• In doing so, what Maimonides tried to resolve genuine philosophical concerns over some apparent contradictions in Jewish understanding. Ideas such as the spiritual nature of God and the anthropomorphic depictions of God in the Tenach were at the centre of these concerns.

Effect of the Guide for the Perplexed

• Maimonides succeeded in providing a clear and sound philosophical explanation of these issues. In doing so he was also able to successfully defend Judaism against philosophical challenges that the beliefs of Judaism could not be rationally sustained.

Contents of the Guide

• In the first part of the Guide, for example, Maimonides deals with the question of anthropomorphisms (describing God in human terms). He criticised Jews who accepted literally such Biblical expressions as "the finger of God".

• Although the Bible described God in human terms, they were not supposed to be taken literally. According to Maimonides, if taking the Bible literally contravened reason, then it should not be taken literally. Religious belief should be logical and open to intellectual debate.

He also felt that

• one could acquire knowledge of God through the mind and that studying the Torah helped Jews to attain a greater knowledge of God in the philosophical sense.

However

• he also stated that there was a limit to the kind of knowledge of God that a human could attain. One could know what God was like through God's actions and knowing what God was like meant that one must then act as God did.

For example

• one could learn that God was compassionate and therefore Jews must be compassionate. They must "walk in God's ways".

• They must "walk in God's ways".• The Guide is also devoted to providing

reasons for the commandments in the Torah which may be seen as unreasonable such as the dietary laws (kashrut).