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Maimonides



 
 
Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon , the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maymun , was born in Cordoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
, Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 on December 13, 1204..

One of the greatest Torah scholars of all time, he was a rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
, physician
Physician

A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
, and philosopher in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 and Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. He was the preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher
Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. In a broad sense, it refers to all philosophical activity carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism....
 whose ideas also influenced the non-Jewish world.

One of the central tenets of Maimonides's philosophy is that it is impossible for the truths arrived at by human intellect to contradict those revealed by God.






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Quotations


A sensible man should not demand of me, or hope that when we mention a subject, we shall make a complete exposition of it.

It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death.

Moses Maimonides, The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290, at 269-271 (Charles B. Chavel trans., 1967).

The key to the understanding and to the full comprehension of all that the Prophets have said is found in the knowledge of the figures, their general ideas, and the meaning of each word they contain.






Encyclopedia


Moses Maimonides, also known as Rabbi Moses ben Maimon , the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maymun , was born in Cordoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
, Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 on March 30, 1135, and died in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 on December 13, 1204..

One of the greatest Torah scholars of all time, he was a rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
, physician
Physician

A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
, and philosopher in Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 and Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
. He was the preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher
Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. In a broad sense, it refers to all philosophical activity carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism....
 whose ideas also influenced the non-Jewish world.

One of the central tenets of Maimonides's philosophy is that it is impossible for the truths arrived at by human intellect to contradict those revealed by God. Maimonides held to a strictly apophatic theology in which only negative statements toward a description of God may be considered correct. Thus, one does not say "God is One", but rather, "God is not multiple". Although many of his ideas met with the opposition of his contemporaries, Maimonides was embraced by later Jewish and many non-Jewish thinkers. St. Thomas Aquinas held him in high esteem, and the fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah
Mishneh Torah

The Mishneh Torah , subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka , is a Legal code of Judaism religious law by one of the important Jewish authority Maimonides ....
 today retains canonical authority as a codification of Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
ic law.

Although his copious works on Jewish law and ethics were initially met with opposition during his lifetime, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters
Posek

Posek is the term in Halakha for "decider"?a legal scholar who decides the Halakha in cases of law where previous authorities are inconclusive....
 and philosophers in Jewish history
Jewish history

Jewish history is the history of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Jewish culture. Since Jewish history encompasses nearly four thousand years and hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes....
. Today, his works and his views are considered a cornerstone of Jewish thought and study.

Name

Maimonides's full Hebrew name was Moshe ben Maimon and his Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 name was Abu Imran Mussa bin Maimun ibn Abdallah al-Qurtubi al-Israili (??? ????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??????????). However, he is most commonly known by his Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 name, Moses Maimonides (???s?? ?a?µ???d??). All of these names literally mean "Moses, son of Maimon." Several Jewish works call him Maimoni. However, most Jewish works refer to him by the Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 acronym of his title and name — ??? ??? ?? ????? (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon?) — thus, among Jews he is known as ???"? (the Rambam)

Biography

Maimonides was born in 1135 in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
, Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
. His year of birth is disputed, with Shlomo Pines
Shlomo Pines

Shlomo Pines was a scholar of Jewish philosophy and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English language translation of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed....
 suggesting that he was born in 1138. He was born during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, after the first centuries of the Moorish
Moors

In the Spanish language, the term for Moors is Moro; in Portuguese language the word is mouro. There seems to have been some confusion about the relationship of the word moro/mouro to the word moreno , both from Greek language ma?ros, i.e....
 rule. At an early age, he developed an interest in the exact sciences and philosophy. In addition to reading the works of Muslim scholars, he also read those of the Greek philosophers made accessible through Arabic translations. Maimonides was not known as a supporter of mysticism
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
. He voiced opposition to poetry, the best of which he declared as false, since it was founded on pure invention - and this too in a land which had produced such noble expressions of the Hebrew and Arabic muse. This Sage, who was revered for his saintly personality as well as for his writings, led an unquiet life, and penned his classic works with the staff of the wanderer in his hand. Maimonides studied Torah
Torah study

Torah study is the study by Jewish people of the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, responsa, rabbinic literature and similar works, all of which are Judaism's religious texts....
 under his father Maimon, who had in turn studied under Rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
 Joseph ibn Migash
Joseph ibn Migash

Joseph ben Meir ibn Migash or Migas was a Rabbi, Posek, and Rosh Yeshiva in Lucena. He is also known as Ri Migash , the Hebrew language acronym for "Rabbi Joseph Migash"....
.

The Almohades from Africa conquered Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
 in 1148, and threatened the Jewish community
Kehilla

A kehilla or kehillah is a Jewish community. In pre-World War II Europe, all towns or cities with a Jewish population had one communal organisation, or occasionally more....
 with the choice of conversion to Islam
Forced conversion

A forced conversion is the conversion to a religion or philosophy under duress, with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from Unemployment and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death....
, death, or exile
Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return....
. Maimonides's family, along with most other Jews, chose exile. For the next ten years they moved about in southern Spain, avoiding the conquering Almohades, but eventually settled in Fez
Fes, Morocco

Fes or Fez is the fourth largest city in Morocco, after Casablanca, Rabat and Marrakech with a population of 946,815 . It is the capital of the F?s-Boulemane Region....
 in Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
, where Maimonides acquired most of his secular knowledge, studying at the University of Al Karaouine
University of Al Karaouine

The University of Al-Karaouine or Al-Qarawiyyin is a university located in Fes, Morocco. Founded in 859, as a religous school, the university is one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the Muslim world....
. During this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah
Mishnah

The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
 in the years 1166-1168.

Following this sojourn in Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
, he lived briefly in the Holy Land, before settling in Fostat, Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, where he was physician
Physician

A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
 of the Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier

Grand Vizier, in Turkish language Sadr-i Azam or Serdar-i Ekrem , deriving from the Arabic language word wazir 'vizier' , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself....
 Alfadhil and Sultan
Sultan

Sultan is an Islamic honorifics, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ???? sulah, meaning "authority" or "power"....
 Saladin
Saladin

ala ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub , better known as Saladin in medieval Europe, was the Sultan of Egypt and Greater Syria. He led the Islamic opposition to the Second Crusade and Third Crusade....
 of Egypt, and also treated Richard the Lionheart
Richard I of England

Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Ireland, Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Nantes and Brittany at various times during the same period....
 while on the Crusades
Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious war waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents. Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, though campaigns were also directed against Paganism Slavic peoples, Jews, Eastern Orthodox Church, Mongols, Catharism, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemi...
. He was considered to be the greatest physician of his time, being influenced by renowned Islamic thinkers such as Ibn Rushd and Al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali

Abu ?amid Mu?ammad ibn Mu?ammad al-Ghazali was born and died in Tus, in the Khorasan province of Persia. He was an Islamic theology, Fiqh, Islamic philosophy, Islamic astronomy, Islamic psychology and Sufism of Persian people origin, and remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Sunni Islamic thought....
. He composed most of his œuvre in this last locale, including the Mishneh Torah
Mishneh Torah

The Mishneh Torah , subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka , is a Legal code of Judaism religious law by one of the important Jewish authority Maimonides ....
. He died in Fostat, and was buried in Tiberias
Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius....
 (today in Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
). His son Avraham
Avraham son of Rambam

Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon the son of Maimonides was the leader or Nagid of the Egyptian Jewish community following his father....
, recognized as a great scholar, succeeded Maimonides as Nagid
Nagid

Nagid, , is a Hebrew term meaning a prince or leader. This title was often applied to the religious leader in Sephardic communities of the Middle Ages, generally in Egypt....
 (head of the Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
ian Jewish community
Kehilla

A kehilla or kehillah is a Jewish community. In pre-World War II Europe, all towns or cities with a Jewish population had one communal organisation, or occasionally more....
); he also took up his father's role as court physician
Physician

A physician, medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, or medical doctor practices medicine, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury....
, at the age of eighteen. He greatly honored the memory of his father, and throughout his career defended his father's writings against all critics. The office of Nagid was held by the Maimonides family for four successive generations until the end of the 14th century.

Maimonides was a devoted physician. In a famous letter, he describes his daily routine: After visiting the Sultan’s palace, he would arrive home exhausted and hungry, where "I would find the antechambers filled with gentiles and Jews ... I would go to heal them, and write prescriptions for their illnesses ... until the evening ... and I would be extremely weak."

He is widely respected in Spain and a statue of him was erected in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
 by the only synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
 in that city which escaped destruction, and which is no longer functioning as a Jewish house of worship but is open to the public.

Influence

Guide for the Perplexed By Maimonides
Maimonides was one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy
Jewish philosophy

Jewish philosophy refers to the conjunction between serious study of philosophy and Jewish theology. In a broad sense, it refers to all philosophical activity carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism....
. A popular medieval saying that also served as his epitaph
Epitaph

An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively....
 states, From Moshe
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
 (of the Torah) to Moshe (Maimonides) there was none like Moshe.


Radical Jewish scholars in the centuries that followed can be characterised as "Maimonideans" or "anti-Maimonideans." Moderate scholars were eclectics who largely accepted Maimonides's Aristotelian
Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism is a Tradition#Philosophical tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. Sometimes contrasted by critics with the rationalism and Platonic idealism of Plato, Aristotelianism is understood by its proponents as critically developing Plato?s theories....
 world-view, but rejected those elements of it which they considered to contradict the religious tradition. Such eclecticism reached its height in the 14th-15th centuries.

The most rigorous medieval critique of Maimonides is Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai Crescas

Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas was a Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist . Along with Rambam, Ralbag, and Joseph Albo, he is known as one of the major practitioners of the rationalism approach to Jewish philosophy, and his positions on issues of natural law and free will in Or Hashem can be seen as precursors to those of Spinoza....
' Or Hashem
Or Hashem

Or Hashem, The Light of the Lord, is the primary work of Rabbi Hasdai Crescas , a Jewish philosopher. As Adonai is one of the names of God in Judaism, the book is usually called Or Hashem in verbal usage to avoid mentioning God's name directly....
. Crescas bucked the eclectic trend, by demolishing the certainty of the Aristotelian world-view, not only in religious matters, but even in the most basic areas of medieval science
Science

In its broadest sense, science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In its more usual restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method, as well as to the organized body of knowledge gained through such research....
 (such as physics and geometry). Crescas's critique provoked a number of 15th century scholars to write defenses of Maimonides. A translation of Crescas was produced by Harry Austryn Wolfson
Harry Austryn Wolfson

Harry Austryn Wolfson was a scholar, philosopher, and historian at Harvard University, the first chairman of a Judaic Studies Department in the United States....
 of Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
, in 1929.

The 13 principles of faith


In his commentary on the Mishna (tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10), Maimonides formulates his 13 principles of faith. They summarized what he viewed as the required beliefs of Judaism with regards to:
  1. The existence of God
    Existence of God

    Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by scientists, philosophers, theologians, and others. In Philosophy terminology, "existence-of-God" arguments concern schools of thought on the epistemology of the ontology of God....
  2. God's unity
    Divine simplicity

    In theology, the doctrine of divine simplicity says that God is without parts. The general idea of divine simplicity can be stated in this way: the being of God is identical to the attributes of God....
  3. God's spirituality
    Spirituality

    Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religion and faith, transcendence , or one or more Deity....
     and incorporeal
    Incorporeal

    Incorporeal or uncarnate means without the nature of a body or substance. The idea of incorporeality refers to the notion that there is an incorporeal realm or place, that is distinct from the corporeal or material world....
    ity
  4. God's eternity
    Eternity

    While in the popular mind, eternity often simply means existing for a limitless amount of time, many have used it to refer to a timeless existence altogether outside of time....
  5. God alone should be the object of worship
    Worship

    Worship usually refers to acts of religion devotion typically directed to one or more deity. It is the informal term in English for what sociology of religion call cult —traditional beliefs and practices, the individual study of which is one of the chief concerns of theology....
  6. Revelation
    Revelation

    Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing, or making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication with the divinity....
     through God's prophet
    Prophet

    In religion, a prophet is a person who has claimed to have encountered the supernatural or the Divinity, often one who serves as an intermediary with humanity....
    s
  7. The preeminence of Moses
    Moses

    Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
     among the prophets
  8. God's law given on Mount Sinai
    Mount Sinai

    Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gebel Musa or Jabal Musa by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula....
  9. The immutability of the Torah
    Torah

    The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
     as God's Law
  10. God's foreknowledge
    Divine Providence

    In theology, Divine Providence, or simply Providence, is the sovereignty, superintendence, or agency of God over events in people's lives and throughout history....
     of human actions
  11. Reward of good and retribution
    Retributive justice

    Retributive justice is a theory of justice that considers that punishment, if Eye for an eye, is a morally acceptable response to crime, with an eye to the satisfaction and psychological benefits it can bestow to the aggrieved party, its intimates and society....
     of evil
  12. The coming of the Jewish Messiah
    Jewish Messiah

    Messiah In Jewish eschatology, the term came to refer to a future Jewish monarch from the Davidic line, who will be "anointed" with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age....
  13. The resurrection
    Resurrection

    Miraculous resurrection of one sort or another has been a recurrent theme or central doctrine of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and other Abrahamic religions....
     of the dead


These principles were controversial when first proposed, evoking criticism by Rabbi Hasdai Crescas
Hasdai Crescas

Hasdai ben Abraham Crescas was a Jewish philosopher and a renowned halakhist . Along with Rambam, Ralbag, and Joseph Albo, he is known as one of the major practitioners of the rationalism approach to Jewish philosophy, and his positions on issues of natural law and free will in Or Hashem can be seen as precursors to those of Spinoza....
 and Rabbi Joseph Albo
Joseph Albo

Joseph Albo was a Jew philosophy and rabbi who lived in Spain during the fifteenth century, known chiefly as the author of Sefer ha-Ikkarim , the classic work on the Jewish principles of faith....
, and were effectively ignored by much of the Jewish community for the next few centuries. ("Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought," Menachem Kellner). However, these principles became widely held; today, Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 holds these beliefs to be obligatory. Two poetic restatements of these principles (Ani Ma'amin
Ani Ma'amin

Ani Ma'amin "I believe" is a prosaic rendition of Maimonides' thirteen-point version of the Jewish principles of faith. It is based on his Mishnah commentary to tractate Sanhedrin....
 and Yigdal
Yigdal

Yigdal is a Jewish hymn which in various rituals shares with Adon 'Olam the place of honor at the opening of the morning and the close of the evening service....
) eventually became canonized in the "siddur
Siddur

A siddur is a Judaism prayer book, containing a set order of List of Jewish prayers and blessings. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as we know it today has developed....
" (Jewish prayer book).

Legal works

Mishna Tora44
With Mishneh Torah, Maimonides composed a code of Jewish law with the widest-possible scope and depth. The work gathers all the binding laws from the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, and incorporates the positions of the Geonim
Geonim

Geonim were the presidents of the two great Talmudic Academies in Babylonia of Sura and Pumbedita, in Babylonia, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority over the Jews in Islamic lands....
 (post-Talmudic early Medieval scholars, mainly from Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
).

While Mishneh Torah is now considered the fore-runner of the Arbaah Turim and the Shulchan Aruch
Shulchan Aruch

The Shulchan Aruch is a codification, or written manual, of halacha , composed by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 16th century. Together with its commentaries, it is considered the most authoritative compilation of halakha since the Talmud....
 (two later codes), it met initially with much opposition. There were two main reasons for this opposition. Firstly, Maimonides had refrained from adding references to his work for the sake of brevity; secondly, in the introduction, he gave the impression of wanting to "cut out" study of the Talmud, to arrive at a conclusion in Jewish law. His most forceful opponents were the rabbis of Provence
Provence

Provence is a region of southeastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative regions of France of Provence-Alpes-C?te d'Azur....
 (Southern France), and a running critique by Rabbi Abraham ben David
Abraham ben David

Rabbeinu Abraham ben David was a Proven?al rabbi, a great commentator on the Talmud, Sefer Halachot of rabbi Yitzhak Alfasi and Mishne Torah of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father of Kabbalah and one of the key and important links in the chain of Jewish mystics....
 (Raavad III) is printed in virtually all editions of Mishneh Torah. However, it was recognized as a monumental contribution to the systemized writing of Halakha
Halakha

Halakha ? also Hebrew transliteration Halocho and Halacha ? is the collective body of Judaism religious law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions....
. Throughout the centuries, it has been widely studied and its halakhic decisions have weighed heavily in later rulings.

An oft-cited legal maxim from his pen is: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." Maimonides argued that executing a defendant on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until we would be convicting merely "according to the judge's caprice."

Philosophy


Through the Guide for the Perplexed
Guide for the Perplexed

The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam". It was written in the 12th Century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam's philosophical views, as opposed t...
 and the philosophical introductions to sections of his commentaries on the Mishna, Maimonides exerted an important influence on the Scholastic
Scholasticism

Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Western Europe in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries....
 philosophers, especially on Albert the Great
Albertus Magnus

Saint Albertus Magnus, Ordo Praedicatorum , also known as Saint Albert the Great and Albert of Cologne, was a Dominican Order Dominican friar and bishop who achieved fame for his comprehensive knowledge of and advocacy for the peaceful Relationship between religion and science....
, Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
, and Duns Scotus
Duns Scotus

The Beatification John Duns Scotus, Order of Friars Minor was one of the most important theology and philosopher of the High Middle Ages. He was nicknamed Doctor Subtilis for his penetrating and subtle manner of thought....
. He was himself a Jewish Scholastic. Educated more by reading the works of Arab Muslim philosophers than by personal contact with Arabian teachers, he acquired an intimate acquaintance not only with Arab Muslim philosophy, but with the doctrines of Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
. Maimonides strove to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy
Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
 and science with the teachings of the Torah
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
.

Negative theology

The principle which inspired his philosophical activity was identical with the fundamental tenet of Scholasticism: there can be no contradiction between the truths which God
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
 has revealed, and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy. Maimonides primarily relied upon the science of Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 and the teachings of the Talmud
Talmud

The Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Halakha, Jewish ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, commonly finding basis in the former for the latter. In some important points, however, he departed from the teaching of Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
; for instance, he rejected the Aristotelian
Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism is a Tradition#Philosophical tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. Sometimes contrasted by critics with the rationalism and Platonic idealism of Plato, Aristotelianism is understood by its proponents as critically developing Plato?s theories....
 doctrine that God's provident care extends only to humanity, and not to the individual.

Maimonides was led by his admiration for the neo-Platonic commentators to maintain many doctrines which the Scholastics could not accept. For instance, Maimonides was an adherent of "negative theology
Negative theology

Negative theology?also known as the Via Negativa and Apophatic theology?is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God....
" (also known as "Apophatic theology".) In this theology, one attempts to describe God through negative attributes. For instance, one should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; all we can safely say is that God is not non-existent. We should not say that "God is wise"; but we can say that "God is not ignorant," i.e. in some way, God has some properties of knowledge. We should not say that "God is One," but we can state that "there is no multiplicity in God's being." In brief, the attempt is to gain and express knowledge of God by describing what God is not; rather than by describing what God "is."

The Scholastics agreed with him that no predicate is adequate to express the nature of God; but they did not go so far as to say that no term can be applied to God in the affirmative sense. They admitted that while "eternal," "omnipotent," etc., as we apply them to God, are inadequate, at the same time we may say "God is eternal" etc., and need not stop, as Moses did, with the negative "God is not not-eternal," etc. In essence what Maimonides wanted to express is that when people give God anthropomorphic qualities they do not explain anything more of what God is, because we cannot know anything of the essence of God.

Maimonides' use of apophatic theology is not unique to this time period or to Judaism. For example, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th century to early 6th century whose Corpus Areopagiticum was pseudepigraphy ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of Paul of Tarsus mentioned in ....
 and Maximus the Confessor
Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor was a Christian monk, theologian, and scholar. In his early life, he was a civil servant, and an aide to the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius....
, Eastern Christian theologians, developed apophatic theology for Christianity nearly 900 years earlier. See Negative theology
Negative theology

Negative theology?also known as the Via Negativa and Apophatic theology?is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God....
 for uses in other religions.

Prophecy

He agrees with "the philosophers" in teaching that, man's intelligence being one in the series of intelligences emanating from God, the prophet
Prophet

In religion, a prophet is a person who has claimed to have encountered the supernatural or the Divinity, often one who serves as an intermediary with humanity....
 must, by study and meditation, lift himself up to the degree of perfection required in the prophet
Prophet

In religion, a prophet is a person who has claimed to have encountered the supernatural or the Divinity, often one who serves as an intermediary with humanity....
ic state. But here, he invokes the authority of "the Law," which teaches that, after that perfection is reached, there is required the "free acts of God," before the man actually becomes a prophet
Prophet

In religion, a prophet is a person who has claimed to have encountered the supernatural or the Divinity, often one who serves as an intermediary with humanity....
.

The problem of evil

Maimonides wrote on theodicy (the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil in the world). He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists. He adopts the Aristotelian
Aristotelianism

Aristotelianism is a Tradition#Philosophical tradition of philosophy that takes its defining inspiration from the work of Aristotle. Sometimes contrasted by critics with the rationalism and Platonic idealism of Plato, Aristotelianism is understood by its proponents as critically developing Plato?s theories....
 view that defines evil as the lack of, or the reduced presence of a God, as exhibited by those who exercise the free choice of rejecting belief.

Astrology

Maimonides answered an inquiry concerning astrology
Astrology

Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of astronomical object and related details can provide useful information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters....
, addressed to him from Marseille
Marseille

"Marseille" is the second-largest city of France and forms the third-largest aire urbaine, after those of Paris and Lyon, with a population recorded to be 1,516,340 at the 1999 census and estimated to be 1,605,000 in 2007....
. He responded that man should believe only what can be supported either by rational proof, by the evidence of the senses, or by trustworthy authority. He affirms that he had studied astrology, and that it does not deserve to be described as a science. The supposition that the fate of a man could be dependent upon the constellations is ridiculed by him; he argues that such a theory would rob life of purpose, and would make man a slave of destiny. (See also fatalism
Fatalism

Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to destiny or inevitable predetermination.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
, predestination
Predestination

Predestination is a religion concept, which involves the relationship between God and His creation. The religious character of predestination distinguishes it from other ideas about determinism and free will....
.)

True beliefs versus necessary beliefs

In "Guide for the Perplexed
Guide for the Perplexed

The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam". It was written in the 12th Century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam's philosophical views, as opposed t...
" Book III, Chapter 28, Maimonides explicitly draws a distinction between "true beliefs," which were beliefs about God which produced intellectual perfection, and "necessary beliefs," which were conducive to improving social order. Maimonides places anthropomorphic personification statements about God in the latter class. He uses as an example the notion that God becomes "angry" with people who do wrong. In the view of Maimonides (taken from Avicenna
Avicenna

, known as Abu Ali Sina Balkhi or Ibn Sina and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian people polymath and the foremost Islamic medicine and Early Islamic philosophy of his time....
) God does not actually become angry with people, as God has no human passions; but it is important for them to believe God does, so that they desist from sinning.

Resurrection, acquired immortality, and the afterlife

Maimonides distinguishes two kinds of intelligence in man, the one material in the sense of being dependent on, and influenced by, the body, and the other immaterial, that is, independent of the bodily organism. The latter is a direct emanation from the universal active intellect
Active intellect

Active intellect or agent intellect is a term used in both psychology and philosophy....
; this is his interpretation of the noûs poietikós of Aristotelian
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 philosophy. It is acquired as the result of the efforts of the soul to attain a correct knowledge of the absolute, pure intelligence of God.

The knowledge of God is a form of knowledge which develops in us the immaterial intelligence, and thus confers on man an immaterial, spiritual nature. This confers on the soul that perfection in which human happiness consists, and endows the soul with immortality. One who has attained a correct knowledge of God has reached a condition of existence which renders him immune from all the accidents of fortune, from all the allurements of sin, and even from death itself. Man, therefore is in a position not only to work out his own salvation and immortality.

The resemblance between this doctrine and Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza

Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza was a Netherlands Philosophy of Iberian Jews origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death....
's doctrine of immortality is so striking as to warrant the hypothesis that there is a causal dependence of the latter on the earlier doctrine. The differences between the two Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 thinkers are, however, as remarkable as the resemblance. While Spinoza teaches that the way to attain the knowledge which confers immortality is the progress from sense-knowledge through scientific knowledge to philosophical intuition of all things sub specie æternitatis, Maimonides holds that the road to perfection and immortality is the path of duty as described in the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
 and the rabbinic understanding of the oral law
Oral law

An oral law is a code of conduct in use in a given culture, religion or community application, by which a body of rules of human behaviour is transmitted by oral tradition and effectively respected, or the single rule that is orally transmitted....
.

Religious Jews not only believed in immortality in some spiritual sense, but most believed that there would at some point in the future be a messianic era, and a resurrection of the dead. This is the subject of Jewish eschatology
Jewish eschatology

Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish messianism, afterlife, and the Resurrection of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts....
. Maimonides wrote much on this topic, but in most cases he wrote about the immortality of the soul for people of perfected intellect; his writings were usually not about the resurrection of dead bodies. This prompted hostile criticism from the rabbis of his day, and sparked a controversy over his true views.

Rabbinic works usually refer to this afterlife as "Olam Haba
Jewish eschatology

Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish messianism, afterlife, and the Resurrection of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts....
" (the World to Come). Some rabbinic works
Rabbinic literature

Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Judaism history. But the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew language term Sifrut Hazal ....
 use this phrase to refer to a messianic era, an era of history right here on Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
; in other rabbinic works this phrase refers to a purely spiritual realm. It was during Maimonides's lifetime that this lack of agreement flared into a full blown controversy, with Maimonides charged as a heretic
Heresy

Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief....
 by some Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 leaders.

Some Jews at this time taught that Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 did not require a belief in the physical resurrection of the dead, as the afterlife would be a purely spiritual realm. They used Maimonides's works on this subject to back up their position. In return, their opponents claimed that this was outright heresy; for them the afterlife was right here on Earth, where God would raise dead bodies from the grave so that the resurrected could live eternally. Maimonides was brought into this dispute by both sides, as the first group stated that his writings agreed with them, and the second group portrayed him as a heretic for writing that the afterlife is for the immaterial spirit alone. Eventually, Maimonides felt pressured to write a treatise on the subject, the "Ma'amar Tehiyyat Hametim" "The Treatise on Resurrection."

Chapter two of the treatise on resurrection refers to those who believe that the world to come involves physically resurrected bodies. Maimonides refers to one with such beliefs as being an "utter fool" whose belief is "folly".

If one of the multitude refuses to believe [that angels are incorporeal] and prefers to believe that angels have bodies and even that they eat, since it is written (Genesis 18:8) 'they ate', or that those who exist in the World to Come will also have bodies—we won't hold it against him or consider him a heretic, and we will not distance ourselves from him. May there not be many who profess this folly, and let us hope that he will go no farther than this in his folly and believe that the Creator is corporeal.


However, Maimonides also writes that those who claimed that he altogether believed the verses of the Hebrew Bible
Tanakh

The Tanakh is the Bible used in Judaism. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew language Acronym and initialism formed from the initial Hebrew alphabet of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim - hence TaNaKh....
 referring to the resurrection were only allegorical were spreading falsehoods and "revolting" statements. Maimonides asserts that belief in resurrection is a fundamental truth of Judaism about which there is no disagreement, and that it is not permissible for a Jew to support anyone who believes differently. He cites Daniel
Book of Daniel

The Book of Daniel is a book in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Originally written in Hebrew language and Aramaic language, it is set during the Babylonian Captivity, a period when Jews were deported and exiled to Babylon following the Siege of Jerusalem of 597 BC....
 12:2 and 12:13 as definitive proofs of physical resurrection of the dead when they state "many of them that sleep in the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to reproaches and everlasting abhorrence" and "But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days."

While these two positions may be seen as in contradiction (non-corporeal eternal life, versus a bodily resurrection), Maimonides resolves them with a then unique solution: Maimonides believed that the resurrection was not permanent or general. In his view, God never violates the laws of nature. Rather, divine interaction is by way of angel
Ángel

?ngel is the third single from Belinda Peregr?n's debut album: Belinda. It was a massive hit in Mexico and an international hit for Belinda....
s, which Maimonides holds to be metaphors for the laws of nature, the principles by which the physical universe operates, or Platonic eternal forms. Thus, if a unique event actually occurs, even if it is perceived as a miracle, it is not a violation of the world's order.

In this view, any dead who are resurrected must eventually die again. In his discussion of the 13 principles of faith
Jewish principles of faith

Although Jews and religious leaders share a core of monotheism principles, Judaism has no formal statement of principles of faith such as a creed that is recognized or accepted by all....
, the first five deal with knowledge of God, the next four deal with prophecy and the Torah, while the last four deal with reward, punishment and the ultimate redemption. In this discussion Maimonides says nothing of a universal resurrection. All he says it is that whatever resurrection does take place, it will occur at an indeterminate time before the world to come, which he repeatedly states will be purely spiritual.

He writes "It appears to us on the basis of these verses (Daniel 12:2,13) that those people who will return to those bodies will eat, drink, copulate, beget, and die after a very long life, like the lives of those who will live in the Days of the Messiah." Maimonides thus disassociated the resurrection of the dead from both the World to Come and the Messianic era.

In his time, many Jews believed that the physical resurrection was identical to the world to come; thus denial of a permanent and universal resurrection was considered tantamount to denying the words of the Talmudic sages. However, instead of denying the resurrection, or maintaining the current dogma, Maimonides posited a third way: That resurrection had nothing to do with the messianic era (here in this world) nor to do with Olam Haba
Jewish eschatology

Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish messianism, afterlife, and the Resurrection of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts....
 (???? ???) (the purely spiritual afterlife). Rather, he considered resurrection to be a miracle that the book of Daniel predicted; thus at some point in time we could expect some instances of resurrection to occur temporarily, which would have no place in the final eternal life of the righteous.

Maimonides, the physician

Maimonides was trained as a physician in Cordoba and in Fez. He later practiced his profession in Egypt, probably in 1166 or 1167, after the death of his brother who had supported him, and did so for the remainder of his life. He gained wide-spread recognition and became a court physician to the Grand Vezier Alfadil, then to Sultan Saladin
Saladin

ala ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub , better known as Saladin in medieval Europe, was the Sultan of Egypt and Greater Syria. He led the Islamic opposition to the Second Crusade and Third Crusade....
, after whose death he remained a physician to the royal family.. In his writings he described many conditions including asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia, and emphasized moderation and a healthy life style. His treatises became influential for generations of physicians. He was knowledgable about Greek and Persian medicine, and followed the principles of humorism
Humorism

Humourism, or humouralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by Ancient Greek medicine and Medicine in ancient Rome and Greek philosophy....
 in the tradition of Galen
Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Ancient Rome physician and philosopher of Greek origin, and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period....
, however, did not blindly accept authority but used his own observation and experience. Frank, however, indicates that in his medical writings he sought not to explore new ideas but to interpret works of authorities so that they could become acceptable. Maimonides displays in his interactions with patients attributes that today would be called intercultural awareness and respect for the patient's autonomy.

The Oath of Maimonides

The Oath of Maimonides is a document about the medical calling and recited as a substitute for the Oath of Hippocrates. The Oath is not to be confused with a more lengthy Prayer of Maimonides. These documents may not have been written by Maimonides, but later. The Prayer appeared first in print in 1793 and has been attributed to Marcus Herz, a German physician, pupil of Immanual Kant.

Maimonides and the Modernists

Maimonides remains the most widely debated Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 thinker among modern scholars. He has been adopted as a symbol and an intellectual hero by almost all major movements in modern Judaism, and has proven immensely important to philosophers such as Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss

Leo Strauss was a Germany-born Jewish-American Political philosophy who specialized in classical political philosophy. He spent most of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students and published 15 books....
; and his views on the importance of humility
Humility

Humility, or being humble, is the defining characteristic of an unpretentious and modesty person, someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others....
 have been taken up by modern humanist
Humanism

Humanism is a broad category of ethics that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationalism, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts....
 philosophers, like Peter Singer
Peter Singer

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian Philosophy. He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics , University of Melbourne....
 and Iain King
Iain King

Iain King is a contemporary United Kingdom moral philosopher. He studied at Pembroke College, Oxford, and was latterly a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge....
. In academia, particularly within the area of Jewish Studies, the teaching of Maimonides has been dominated by traditional, generally Orthodox scholars, who place a very strong emphasis on Maimonides as a rationalist. The result of this is many sides of Maimonides's thought, for example his opposition to anthropocentrism, have been obviated. There is some movement in postmodern circles, e.g. within the discourse of ecotheology, to claim Maimonides for other purposes. Maimonides's importance to diverse systems of thought lies in the philosopher's embrace of paradoxical and often contradictory ideas. Maimonides's reconciliation of the philosophical and the traditional has given his legacy an extremely diverse and dynamic quality.

Cultural legacy

Maimonides has been memorialized in numerous ways. For example, one of the Learning Communities at the Tufts University School of Medicine bears his name. There is also Maimonides School
Maimonides School

Maimonides School is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox Judaism, Jewish day school located in Brookline, Massachusetts. The school was founded in 1937 by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and is named after Rabbi Maimonides....
 in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts

Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston, Massachusetts and Newton, Massachusetts....
, the Brauser Maimonides Academy in Hollywood, Florida
Hollywood, Florida

Hollywood is a city in Broward County, Florida, Florida, United States. As of 1 July 2007, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 142,473....
, and Maimonides Medical Center
Maimonides Medical Center

The Maimonides Medical Center is non-profit academic medical center in Brooklyn, New York, United States....
 in Brooklyn
Brooklyn

Brooklyn is one of the five Borough of New York City, located at the western end of Long Island. An independent city until its consolidation with New York in 1898, Brooklyn is New York City's most populous borough, with 2.5 million residents, and second largest in area....
, New York. In 2004, conferences were held at Yale
YALE

RapidMiner is an environment for machine learning and data mining experiments. It allows experiments to be made up of a large number of arbitrarily nestable operators, described in XML files which can easily be created with RapidMiner's graphical user interface....
, Florida International University
Florida International University

Florida International University, commonly referred to as FIU or Florida International, is a public university research university located in Miami, Florida, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus at University Park, Florida....
, Penn State, and the Rambam hospital in Haifa. To commemorate the 800th anniversary of his death, Harvard University
Harvard University

Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, United States, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher learning in the United States....
 issued a memorial volume. In 1953, the Israel Postal Authority issued a postage stamp
Postage stamp

A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for Mail services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery....
 of Maimonides, pictured. In March 2008, during the Euromed
Euromed

Euromed may refer to:*Euromed *Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference*Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly...
 Conference of Ministers of Tourism, The Tourism Ministries of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
, Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 and Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
 agreed to work together on a joint project that will trace the footsteps of the Rambam and thus boost religious tourism in the cities of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain

viktor chucchuc he sucsuck my dick||-||-|File:Cordoba Water Wheel.jpg|}Cordova is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the C?rdoba ....
, Fez
Fez

Fez may refer to:*Fez , a brimless felt hat, once widespread in the Ottoman Empire*Fes, Morocco , a city in Morocco*The IATA code of Sa?ss Airport in Fes, Morocco...
 and Tiberias
Tiberias

Tiberias is a town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, Lower Galilee, Israel. It was named in honour of the emperor Tiberius....
 .

Works and bibliography

Manuscript Page By Maimonides Arabic in Hebrew Letters

Judaic and philosophical works

Maimonides composed works of Jewish scholarship, rabbinic law, philosophy, and medical texts. Most of Maimonides's works were written in Judeo-Arabic
Judeo-Arabic languages

The Jud?o-Arabic languages are a collection of Varieties of Arabic spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew alphabet, particularly in the Middle Ages....
. However, the Mishneh Torah was written in Hebrew. His Judaism texts were:
  • Commentary on the Mishna
    Mishnah

    The Mishnah or Mishna is a major work of Rabbinic literature, and the first major redaction into written form of Jewish oral traditions, called the Oral Torah....
     (Hebrew
    Hebrew language

    Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
     Pirush Hamishnayot), written in Judeo-Arabic. This text was one of the first commentaries of its kind; its introductory sections are widely quoted.
  • Sefer Hamitzvot
    Sefer Hamitzvot

    Sefer Hamitzvot is a work by the 12th century rabbi, philosopher and physician Maimonides. While there are various other works titled similarly, the title "Sefer Hamitzvot" without a modifier refers to Maimonides' work....
     (trans.
    Translation

    Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
     The Book of Commandments).
  • Sefer Ha'shamad (letter of Martydom)
  • Mishneh Torah
    Mishneh Torah

    The Mishneh Torah , subtitled Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka , is a Legal code of Judaism religious law by one of the important Jewish authority Maimonides ....
    , also known as Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka, a comprehensive code of Jewish law;
  • Guide for the Perplexed
    Guide for the Perplexed

    The Guide for the Perplexed is one of the major works of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides or "the Rambam". It was written in the 12th Century in the form of a three-volume letter to his student, Rabbi Joseph ben Judah of Ceuta, the son of Rabbi Judah, and is the main source of the Rambam's philosophical views, as opposed t...
    , a philosophical work harmonising and differentiating Aristotle
    Aristotle

    Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
    's philosophy and Jewish theology. Written in Judeo-Arabic. The first translation of this work into Hebrew was done by Samuel ibn Tibbon
  • Teshuvot, collected correspondence and responsa
    Responsa

    Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them....
    , including a number of public letters (on resurrection and the after-life, on conversion to other faiths, and Iggereth Teiman
    The Yemen Epistle

    The Epistle to Yemen or Yemen Epistle was an important communication written by Maimonides and sent to the Yemenite Jews.It arose because of religious persecution and heresy in 12th-century Yemen....
     - addressed to the oppressed Jewry of Yemen
    Yemen

    Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
    ).
  • Treatise on Logic
    Logic

    Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
      (Arabic: Makala Fi-Sinat Al-Mantik) has been printed 17 times, including editions in Latin
    Latin

    Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
     (1527), German
    German language

    German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
     (1805, 1822, 1833, 1828), French
    French language

    French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
     (1935), and English
    English language

    English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
     (1938), and in an abridged Hebrew form.


Medical works

Maimonides wrote ten known medical works in Arabic that have been translated by the Jewish medical ethicist
Jewish medical ethics

Jewish medical ethics is a modern scholarly and clinical approach to medical ethics that draws upon Jewish thought and teachings. Pioneered by Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits in the 1950s, Jewish medical ethics centers mainly around an applied ethics drawing upon traditional halakhah....
 Fred Rosner
Fred Rosner

Fred Rosner M.D., American College of Physicians is Assistant Dean and professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine,...
 into contemporary English.

  • Extracts from Galen, or The Art of Cure, is essentially an extract of Galen
    Galen

    Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Ancient Rome physician and philosopher of Greek origin, and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period....
    's extensive writings.
  • Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates is interspersed with his own views.
  • Medical Aphorisms of Moses titled Fusul Musa in Arabic
    Arabic language

    Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
     ("Chapters of Moses," Pirkei Moshe in Hebrew) contains 1500 aphorisms and many medical conditions are described.
  • Treatise on Hemorrhoids discusses also digestion and food.
  • Treatise on Cohabitation contains recipes as aphrodisiac
    Aphrodisiac

    An aphrodisiac is a substance which is used in the belief that it increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek mythology of sensuality....
    s and anti-aphrodisiacs.
  • Treatise on Asthma discusses climates and diets and their effect on asthma and emphasizes the need for clean air.
  • Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes is an early toxicology
    Toxicology

    Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms. It is the study of symptoms, mechanisms, treatments and detection of poisoning, especially the poisoning of people....
     textbook that remained popular for centuries.
  • Regimen of Health is a discourse on healthy living and the mind-body connection.
  • Discourse on the Explanation of Fits advocates healthy living and the avoidance of overabundance.
  • Glossary of Drug Names represents a pharmacopeia with 405 paragraphs with the names of drugs in Arabic, Greek, Syrian, Persian, Berber, and Spanish.


See also

  • Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
  • Thomas Aquinas
    Thomas Aquinas

    Saint Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Dominican Order from Italy, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis....
  • Averroes
    Averroes

    Abu 'l-Walid Mu?ammad ibn A?mad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Al-Andalus-Arab Muslim polymath: a master of early Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki Sharia and Fiqh, Logic in Islamic philosophy, Psychology in medieval Islam, Arabic music theory, and the Scien...


Further reading

  • Abraham Joshua Heschel
    Abraham Joshua Heschel

    Abraham Joshua Heschel was a Warsaw-born American rabbi and one of the leading Jewish theologians of the 20th century....
    , Maimonides (a biography)
  • Marvin Fox Interpreting Maimonides, Univ. of Chicago Press 1990.
  • Julius Guttman, Philosophies of Judaism Translated by David Silverman, JPS, 1964
  • Maimonides' Principles: The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith, in "The Aryeh Kaplan
    Aryeh Kaplan

    Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a noted United States Orthodox Judaism rabbi and author with a background in both physics and Judaism. He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and Jewish philosophy aimed at non-religious and Baal teshuva Jews....
     Anthology, Volume I," Mesorah Publications 1994
  • Dogma in Medieval Jewish Thought, Menachem Kellner, Oxford University press, 1986
  • Maimonides Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology? Marc. B. Shapiro, The Torah U-Maddah Journal, Vol. 4, 1993, Yeshiva University
    Yeshiva University

    Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a leading research institution, ranked 50th in the United States among national universities in 2008.....
  • A History of Jewish Philosophy Isaac Husik
    Isaac Husik

    Isaac Husik was a Jewish historian, translator, and student of philosophy, one of the first three individuals to serve as official faculty at Gratz College in Philadelphia....
    , Dover Publications, Inc., 2002. Originally published in 1941 by the Jewish Publication of America, Philadelphia, pp. 236-311
  • Persecution and the Art of Writing, Leo Strauss
    Leo Strauss

    Leo Strauss was a Germany-born Jewish-American Political philosophy who specialized in classical political philosophy. He spent most of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students and published 15 books....
    , University of Chicago Press, 1988 reprint
  • "How to Begin to Study the Guide," Leo Strauss
    Leo Strauss

    Leo Strauss was a Germany-born Jewish-American Political philosophy who specialized in classical political philosophy. He spent most of his career as a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, where he taught several generations of students and published 15 books....
    , from The Guide of the Perplexed, Vol. 1, Maimonides, translated from the Arabic
    Arabic language

    Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
     by Shlomo Pines, University of Chicago Press, 1974
  • Shemonah Perakim: The Eight Chapters of the Rambam, Rabbi Yaakov Feldman, Targum Press
    Targum Press

    Targum Press is an Orthodox Jewish English-language publishing company based in Jerusalem. It claims to be the third largest Judaica publisher after Artscroll and Feldheim....
    , 2008.


External links


About Maimonides
  • Article from Policy Review
  • – reprint on neohasid.org from the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ecology
  • by Jose Faur, describing the controversy surrounding Maimonides's works


Maimonides's Works
  • Free listening and Download, site also had classes in Maimonides's Iggereth Teiman
    The Yemen Epistle

    The Epistle to Yemen or Yemen Epistle was an important communication written by Maimonides and sent to the Yemenite Jews.It arose because of religious persecution and heresy in 12th-century Yemen....


Texts by Maimonides
  • , a prayerbook based on the early Jewish liturgy as found in Maimonides's Mishne Tora
  • )