Moses Maimonides

About Moses Maimonides

Moses Maimonides (1138–1204), known by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon), was born in Córdoba, then part of Al-Andalus. When the Almohad dynasty conquered Córdoba and imposed forced conversion on the Jewish community around 1148, his family left — eventually traveling through Morocco to Fustat (Old Cairo), where he spent most of his adult life as a community leader, physician, and scholar.

He trained in Talmud, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. His medical career brought him to serve as a physician at the court of Saladin's vizier al-Fadil, and his medical writings in Arabic — on asthma, on poisons, on health regimens — were practical rather than theoretical and drew on Greek and Islamic medical sources.

His legal masterwork, the Mishneh Torah (written in Hebrew, completed around 1180), organized the entire body of Jewish law as derived from the Talmud and post-Talmudic authorities into fourteen systematic books — an unprecedented organizational achievement that aimed to make the law accessible without constant reference to the Talmud's discursive reasoning. The Guide for the Perplexed (Dalalat al-Ha'irin, written in Judeo-Arabic, 1190) addressed the educated Jew caught between Aristotelian philosophy and traditional religious belief, arguing that apparent conflicts between reason and revelation dissolve under careful interpretation.

Contributions

The Mishneh Torah — a 14-book systematic codification of all of Jewish law, organized topically and written in clear Mishnaic Hebrew, the first such comprehensive code; the Guide for the Perplexed — a systematic reconciliation of Aristotelian philosophy with Jewish theology, including negative theology, allegorical biblical interpretation, and a philosophical account of prophecy; the Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith; medical treatises on asthma, poisons, sexual hygiene, and regimen of health.

Works

Commentary on the Mishnah (including the introduction to Tractate Avot, "Eight Chapters," and the Thirteen Principles), completed c. 1168; Mishneh Torah (Yad ha-Hazakah), c. 1170–1180, in 14 books; Guide for the Perplexed (Dalalat al-Ha'irin), 1190, in 3 parts; Epistle to Yemen; Epistle on Martyrdom; Book on Logic (Maqala fi-Sina'at al-Mantiq); medical works including Regimen of Health, Treatise on Asthma, and Treatise on Poisons.

Controversies

The Guide for the Perplexed was controversial from its first appearance: some traditional rabbis saw its philosophical allegory as corrosive of literal faith, and there were attempts to ban its study in the 13th century (the Maimonidean Controversy). The question of whether Maimonides held an "esoteric" doctrine different from his exoteric teaching — particularly on creation, providence, and the afterlife — was raised by Leo Strauss in the 20th century and remains debated. His Thirteen Principles were challenged by other medieval authorities including Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo, who argued the list was philosophically motivated rather than derived from scripture.

Notable Quotes

"Teach your tongue to say 'I do not know,' lest you invent something and be caught." — attributed

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision." — widely attributed to Maimonides but not traced to any verified text; treat with caution

Legacy

Maimonides is the most influential Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and one of the most significant Jewish thinkers of any era. His Mishneh Torah remains a live reference in traditional Jewish legal study. The Guide for the Perplexed was the central text of medieval Jewish philosophy and exerted documented influence on Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and Meister Eckhart. The phrase "From Moses to Moses there arose none like Moses," comparing him to Moses the lawgiver, reflects the esteem in which he was held. In the modern period, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and Isadore Twersky represent major strands of scholarly engagement with his work that continue today.

Significance

Maimonides established the terms in which the relationship between reason and revelation was debated in medieval Jewish philosophy, and his influence extended far beyond Judaism. Thomas Aquinas cited "Rabbi Moses" repeatedly in the Summa Theologiae, engaging his arguments about divine attributes, creation, and prophecy. The Guide for the Perplexed was the most important medieval Jewish philosophical text for Christian Scholastic thinkers.

His negative theology — the doctrine that God can only be correctly described by negating attributes rather than asserting them positively (God is not finite, not composite, not changing) — provided a rigorous philosophical account of divine transcendence that influenced Jewish, Christian, and Islamic theology alike.

The Mishneh Torah remains a standard legal reference in Orthodox Jewish communities. His Thirteen Principles of Jewish Faith, though controversial when first proposed, became the most widely accepted summary of Jewish doctrinal commitments, embedded in the Yigdal hymn sung in many synagogues.

Connections

Aristotle — Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed attempts a sustained synthesis of Aristotelian metaphysics and natural philosophy with Jewish biblical and rabbinic tradition; he referred to Aristotle as "the chief of the philosophers"

Al-Farabi — Maimonides's philosophical method was shaped by the Islamic Aristotelian tradition, particularly Al-Farabi's account of prophecy and intellect, which he adapted for a Jewish audience

Avicenna — Avicenna's Neoplatonized Aristotelianism influenced Maimonides's cosmology and his account of the Active Intellect as the source of prophecy

Thomas Aquinas — Aquinas cited "Rabbi Moses" (Maimonides) more than any other non-Christian thinker; his treatment of divine names, creation, and prophecy in the Summa directly engages the Guide

Further Reading