Maimonides

For other uses, see Maimonides (disambiguation).

For the Haifa hospital, see Rambam Health Care Campus.

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon
18th-century portrait of Maimonides
Born	30 March or 6 April 1135 Possibly born 28 March or 4 April 1138 Córdoba, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain)
Died	12 December 1204 (aged 69) Fostat or Cairo, Egypt
Era	Medieval Philosophy
Region	Jewish philosophy
School	Jewish law, Jewish ethics
Influences Talmud, Aristotle, al-Farabi, Avicenna, Avempace, Averroes, Algazel
Influenced Jeremiah Stamler, Spinoza, Aquinas, Joyce, Bodin, Leibniz, Newton, Strauss, Friedländer, Levinas
Signature

Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (מֹשֶׁה בֶּן־מַימוֹן‎ Mōšeh bēn-Maymōn; Arabic: موسى بن ميمون‎‎ Mūsā bin Maymūn), commonly known as Maimonides /maɪˈmɒnᵻ.diːz/ (my-MON-i-deez; Greek: Μαϊμωνίδης Maïmōnídēs), and also referred to by the acronym Rambam /ˌrɑːmˈbɑːm/ (רמב״ם‎, for Rabbeinu Mōšeh bēn Maimon, "Our Rabbi Moses son of Maimon"), was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. In his time, he was also a preeminent astronomer and physician. Born in Cordova, Almoravid Empire (present-day Spain) on Passover Eve, 1135 or 1138, he worked as a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. He died in Egypt on December 12, 1204, whence his body was taken to the lower Galilee and buried in Tiberias.

During his lifetime, most Jews greeted Maimonides' writings on Jewish law and ethics with acclaim and gratitude, even as far away as Iraq and Yemen, and although Maimonides rose to become the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, there were also vociferous critics of some of his writings, particularly in Spain. Nonetheless, he was posthumously acknowledged as among the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, and his copious work comprises a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship. His fourteen-volume Mishneh Torah still carries significant canonical authority as a codification of Talmudic law. He is sometimes known as "ha Nesher ha Gadol" (the great eagle) in recognition of his outstanding status as a bona fide exponent of the Oral Torah.

Aside from being revered by Jewish historians, Maimonides also figures very prominently in the history of Islamic and Arab sciences and is mentioned extensively in studies. Influenced by Al-Farabi (ca. 872–950/951), Avicenna (c. 980 – 1037), and his contemporary Averroes (1126–1198), he in his turn influenced other prominent Arab and Muslim philosophers and scientists. He became a prominent philosopher and polymath in both the Jewish and Islamic worlds.

Name

His full Hebrew name is Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (Hebrew: רבי משה בן מימון‎), whose acronym forms "Rambam" (רמב"ם). His full Arabic name is Abū ʿImrān Mūsā bin Maimūn bin ʿUbaidallāh al-Qurtabī (ابو عمران موسى بن ميمون بن عبيد الله القرطبي) or Mūsā bin Maymūn (Arabic: موسى بن ميمون‎‎) for short. In Latin, the Hebrew "ben" (son of) becomes the Greek−style suffix "-ides" to form "Moses Maimonides".

Biography

The dominion of the Almohad Caliphate at its greatest extent, c. 1200 CE

Further information: History of the Jews in Egypt § Arab rule (641 to 1250)

Maimonides was born in Córdoba during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, after the first centuries of the Moorish rule. At an early age, he developed an interest in sciences and philosophy. He read those Greek philosophers accessible in Arabic translations, and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture. Though the Gaonic tradition, especially in its North African version, formed the basis of his legal thought, some scholars have argued in the 21st century that Muslim law, including Almohad legal thought, also had a substantial influence. Maimonides was not known as a supporter of mysticism, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy. He expressed disapproval of poetry, the best of which he declared to be false, since it was founded on pure invention. This sage, who was revered for his personality as well as for his writings, led a busy life, and wrote many of his works while travelling or in temporary accommodation. Maimonides studied Torah under his father Maimon, who had in turn studied under Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, a student of Isaac Alfasi.

Maimonides' house in Fez, Morocco

Monument in Córdoba

A Berber dynasty, the Almohads, conquered Córdoba in 1148, and abolished dhimmi status (i.e., state protection of life and wealth) in some of their territories. The loss of this protected status threatened the Jewish and Christian communities with conversion to Islam, death, or exile. The historical records of abuses against Jews in the immediate post-1148 period are subject to different interpretations. Many Jews were forced to convert, but due to suspicion by the authorities of fake conversions, the new converts had to wear identifying clothing that set them apart and made them subject to public scrutiny.

Maimonides's family, along with most other Jews, chose exile. Some say, though, that it is likely that Maimonides feigned a conversion to Islam before escaping. This forced conversion was ruled legally invalid under Islamic law when brought up by a rival in Egypt. For the next ten years, Maimonides moved about in southern Spain, eventually settling in Fez in Morocco. During this time, he composed his acclaimed commentary on the Mishnah in the years 1166–1168.

Following this sojourn in Morocco, together with two sons, he sojourned in the Holy Land, before settling in Fustat, Egypt around 1168. While in Cairo, he studied in a yeshiva attached to a small synagogue (which now bears his name). In the Holy Land, he prayed at the Temple Mount. He wrote that this day of visiting the Temple Mount was a day of holiness for him and his descendants.

Maimonides shortly thereafter was instrumental in helping rescue Jews taken captive during the Christian King Amalric's siege of the Egyptian town of Bilbays. He sent five letters to the Jewish communities of Lower Egypt asking them to pool money together to pay the ransom. The money was collected and then given to two judges sent to Palestine to negotiate with the Crusaders. The captives were eventually released.

Following this triumph, the Maimonides family, hoping to increase their wealth, gave their savings to his brother, the youngest son David ben Maimon, a merchant. Maimonides directed his brother to procure goods only at the Sudanese port of ‘Aydhab. After a long arduous trip through the desert, however, David was unimpressed by the goods on offer there. Against his brother's wishes, David boarded a ship for India, since great wealth was to be found in the East. Before he could reach his destination, David drowned at sea sometime between 1169–1170. The death of his brother caused Maimonides to become sick with grief.

In a letter (discovered later in the Cairo Geniza), he wrote:

The greatest misfortune that has befallen me during my entire life—worse than anything else—was the demise of the saint, may his memory be blessed, who drowned in the Indian sea, carrying much money belonging to me, him, and to others, and left with me a little daughter and a widow. On the day I received that terrible news I fell ill and remained in bed for about a year, suffering from a sore boil, fever, and depression, and was almost given up. About eight years have passed, but I am still mourning and unable to accept consolation. And how should I console myself? He grew up on my knees, he was my brother, [and] he was my student.

Sculpture of Maimonides in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Around 1171, Maimonides was appointed the Nagid of the Egyptian Jewish community. Arabist S.D. Goitein believes the leadership he displayed during the ransoming of the Crusader captives led to this appointment. With the loss of the family funds tied up in David's business venture, Maimonides assumed the vocation of physician, for which he was to become famous. He had trained in medicine in both Córdoba and in Fez. Gaining widespread recognition, he was appointed court physician to the Grand Vizier Al Qadi al Fadil, then to Sultan Saladin, after whose death he remained a physician to the royal family.

In his medical writings, Maimonides described many conditions, including asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia, and he emphasized moderation and a healthy lifestyle. His treatises became influential for generations of physicians. He was knowledgeable about Greek and Arabic medicine, and followed the principles of humorism in the tradition of Galen. He did not blindly accept authority but used his own observation and experience. Julia Bess Frank indicates that Maimonides in his medical writings sought to interpret works of authorities so that they could become acceptable. Maimonides displayed in his interactions with patients attributes that today would be called intercultural awareness and respect for the patient's autonomy. Although he frequently wrote of his longing for solitude in order to come closer to God and to extend his reflections – elements considered essential in his philosophy to the prophetic experience -he gave over most of his time to caring for others. In a famous letter, Maimonides 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." As he goes on to say in this letter, even on the Sabbath he would receive members of the community. It is remarkable that he managed to write extended treatises, including not only medical and other scientific studies but some of the most systematically thought-through and influential treatises on halakha (rabbinic law) and Jewish philosophy of the Middle Ages. In 1173/4, Maimonides wrote his famous Iggeret Teman (Epistle to Yemen). It has been suggested that his "incessant travail" undermined his own health and brought about his death at 69 (although this is a normal lifespan). His rabbinic writings are valued as fundamental and unparalleled resources for religious Jews today.

The Tomb of Maimonides in Tiberias

Maimonides died on December 12, 1204 (20th of Tevet 4965) in Fustat. It is widely believed that he was briefly buried in the study room (beit hamidrash) of the synagogue courtyard, and that, soon after, in accordance with his wishes, his remains were exhumed and taken to Tiberias, where he was re-interred. The Tomb of Maimonides on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel marks his grave. This location for his final resting-place has been debated, for in the Jewish Cairene community, a tradition holds that he remained buried in Egypt.

Maimonides and his wife, the daughter of Mishael ben Yeshayahu Halevi, had one child who survived into adulthood, Avraham, who became recognized as a great scholar. He succeeded Maimonides as Nagid and as court physician at the age of eighteen. Throughout his career, he 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.

The philosopher/doctor is widely respected in Spain and a statue of him was erected in Córdoba near to the only synagogue in that city to escape destruction during years of persecution. Although it no longer functions as a Jewish house of worship, it is open to the public.

Maimonides is sometimes said to be a descendant of King David, although he never made such a claim.

Influence

The title page of The Guide for the Perplexed

Maimonides's Mishneh Torah is considered by Jews even today as one of the chief authoritative codifications of Jewish law and ethics. It is exceptional for its logical construction, concise and clear expression and extraordinary learning, so that it became a standard against which other later codifications were often measured. It is still closely studied in rabbinic yeshivot (academies). A popular medieval saying that also served as his epitaph states, From Mosheh (of the Torah) to Mosheh (Maimonides) there was none like Mosheh. It chiefly referred to his rabbinic writings.

But Maimonides was also one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy. His brilliant adaptation of Aristotelian thought to Biblical faith deeply impressed later Jewish thinkers, and had an unexpected immediate historical impact. Some more acculturated Jews in the century that followed his death, particularly in Spain, sought to apply Maimonides's Aristotelianism in ways that undercut traditionalist belief and observance, giving rise to an intellectual controversy in Spanish and southern French Jewish circles. The intensity of debate spurred Catholic Church interventions against "heresy" and a general confiscation of rabbinic texts. In reaction, the more radical interpretations of Maimonides were defeated. At least amongst Ashkenazi Jews, there was a tendency to ignore his specifically philosophical writings and to stress instead the rabbinic and halakhic writings. These writings often included considerable philosophical chapters or discussions in support of halakhic observance; David Hartman observes that Maimonides clearly expressed "the traditional support for a philosophical understanding of God both in the Aggadah of Talmud and in the behavior of the hasid [the pious Jew]." Maimonidean thought continues to influence traditionally observant Jews.

The most rigorous medieval critique of Maimonides is Hasdai Crescas's Or Adonai. Crescas bucked the eclectic trend, by demolishing the certainty of the Aristotelian world-view, not only in religious matters but also in the most basic areas of medieval science (such as physics and geometry). Crescas's critique provoked a number of 15th-century scholars to write defenses of Maimonides. A partial translation of Crescas was produced by Harry Austryn Wolfson of Harvard University in 1929.

Because of his path-finding synthesis of Aristotle and Biblical faith, Maimonides had a fundamental influence on the great Christian theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas refers specifically to Maimonides in several of his works, including the Commentary on the Sentences.

Maimonides's combined abilities in the fields of theology, philosophy and medicine make his work attractive today as a source during discussions of evolving norms in these fields, particularly medicine. An example is the modern citation of his method of determining death of the body in the controversy regarding declaration of death to permit organ donation for transplantation.

13 principles of faith

Main article: Jewish principles of faith

In his commentary on the Mishnah (tractate Sanhedrin, chapter 10), Maimonides formulates his "13 principles of faith". They summarized what he viewed as the required beliefs of Judaism:

1. The existence of God.
2. God's unity and indivisibility into elements.
3. God's spirituality and incorporeality.
4. God's eternity.
5. God alone should be the object of worship.
6. Revelation through God's prophets.
7. The preeminence of Moses among the prophets.
8. The Torah that we have today is the one dictated to Moses by God.
9. The Torah given by Moses will not be replaced and that nothing may be added or removed from it.
10. God's awareness of all human actions and thoughts.
11. Reward of good and punishment of evil.
12. The coming of the Jewish Messiah.
13. The resurrection of the dead.

Maimonides compiled the principles from various Talmudic sources. These principles were controversial when first proposed, evoking criticism by Rabbis Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo, 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 have become widely held and are considered to be the cardonial principals of faith for Orthodox Jews. Two poetic restatements of these principles (Ani Ma'amin and Yigdal) eventually became canonized in many editions of the "Siddur" (Jewish prayer book).

Legal works

Main article: Mishneh Torah

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, and incorporates the positions of the Geonim (post-Talmudic early Medieval scholars, mainly from Mesopotamia).

While Mishneh Torah is now considered the fore-runner of the Arbaah Turim and the Shulchan Aruch (two later codes), it met initially with much opposition. There were two main reasons for this opposition. First, Maimonides had refrained from adding references to his work for the sake of brevity; second, in the introduction, he gave the impression of wanting to "cut out" study of the Talmud, to arrive at a conclusion in Jewish law, although Maimonides later wrote that this was not his intent. His most forceful opponents were the rabbis of Provence (Southern France), and a running critique by Rabbi Abraham ben David (Raavad III) is printed in virtually all editions of Mishneh Torah. It was still recognized as a monumental contribution to the systemized writing of halakha. Throughout the centuries, it has been widely studied and its halakhic decisions have weighed heavily in later rulings.

In response to those who would attempt to force followers of Maimonides and his Mishneh Torah to abide by the rulings of his own Shulchan Aruch or other later works, Rabbi Yosef Karo wrote: "Who would dare force communities who follow the Rambam to follow any other decisor, early or late? ... The Rambam is the greatest of the decisors, and all the communities of the Land of Israel and the Arabistan and the Maghreb practice according to his word, and accepted him as their rabbi."

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." He 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.

Scholars specializing in the study of the history and subculture of Judaism in premodern China (Sino-Judaica) have noted surprising similarities between this work and the liturgy of the Kaifeng Jews, descendants of Persian merchants who settled in the Middle Kingdom during the early Song dynasty. Beyond scriptural similarities, Michael Pollak comments the Jews' Pentateuch was divided into 53 sections according to the Persian style. He also points out:

There is no proof, to be sure, that Kaifeng Jewry ever had direct access to the works of "the Great Eagle," but it would have had ample time and opportunity to acquire or become acquainted with them well before its reservoir of Jewish learning began to run out. Nor do the Maimonidean leanings of the kehillah contradict the historical evidence that has the Jews arriving in Kaifeng no later than 1126, the year in which the Sung fled the city—and nine years before Maimonides was born. In 1163, when the kehillah built the first of its synagogues, Maimonides was only twenty-eight years old, so that it is highly unlikely that even his earliest authoritative teachings could by then have reached China.

Charity (tzedakah)

One of the most widely referred to sections of the Mishneh Torah is the section dealing with tzedakah. In Hilkhot Matanot Aniyim (Laws about Giving to Poor People), Chapter 10:7–14, Maimonides lists his famous Eight Levels of Giving (where the first level is most preferable, and the eighth the least):

1. Giving an interest-free loan to a person in need; forming a partnership with a person in need; giving a grant to a person in need; finding a job for a person in need; so long as that loan, grant, partnership, or job results in the person no longer living by relying upon others.
2. Giving tzedakah anonymously to an unknown recipient via a person (or public fund) which is trustworthy, wise, and can perform acts of tzedakah with your money in a most impeccable fashion.
3. Giving tzedakah anonymously to a known recipient.
4. Giving tzedakah publicly to an unknown recipient.
5. Giving tzedakah before being asked.
6. Giving adequately after being asked.
7. Giving willingly, but inadequately.
8. Giving "in sadness" (giving out of pity): It is thought that Maimonides was referring to giving because of the sad feelings one might have in seeing people in need (as opposed to giving because it is a religious obligation). Other translations say "Giving unwillingly."

Philosophy

Depiction of Maimonides teaching students about the 'measure of man' in an illuminated manuscript.

Through the Guide for the Perplexed (which was initially written in Arabic as Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn) and the philosophical introductions to sections of his commentaries on the Mishna, Maimonides exerted an important influence on the Scholastic philosophers, especially on Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. He was 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. Maimonides strove to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy and science with the teachings of the Torah. In his Guide for the Perplexed, he often explains the function and purpose of the statutory provisions contained in the Torah against the backdrop of the historical conditions. Maimonides is said to have been influenced by Asaph ha-Jehoudi, who was the first Hebrew medical writer.

Negative theology

The principle that inspired his philosophical activity was identical to a fundamental tenet of Scholasticism: there can be no contradiction between the truths which God has revealed and the findings of the human mind in science and philosophy. Maimonides primarily relied upon the science of Aristotle and the teachings of the Talmud, commonly finding basis in the former for the latter. In some important points, he departed from the teaching of Aristotle; for instance, he rejected the Aristotelian doctrine that God's provident care extends only to humanity, and not to the individual.

Maimonides' admiration for the neo-Platonic commentators led him to doctrines which the later Scholastics did not accept. For instance, Maimonides was an adherent of "negative theology" (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; it can be said 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 that no predicate is adequate to express the nature of God, but they did not say that no affirmative term could be applied to God. They acknowledged that while the terms "eternal," "omnipotent," etc., as we apply them to God are inadequate, at the same time we may say "God is eternal" etc. We need not stop, as Maimonides did, with the negative "God is not not-eternal," etc. Maimonides suggested that when people give God anthropomorphic qualities, they do not explain anything more of what God is, because people cannot know the essence.

Maimonides's use of apophatic theology is not unique to this time period or to Judaism. For example, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, Eastern Christian theologians, had developed apophatic theology for Christianity nearly 900 years earlier. See Negative theology for uses in other religions.

Prophecy

He agrees with "the Philosopher" (Aristotle) in teaching that the use of logic is the "right" way of thinking. In order to build an inner understanding of how to know God, every human being must, by study, meditation and uncompromising strong will, attain the degree of complete logical, spiritual and physical perfection required in the prophetic state. Here he rejects previous ideas (especially portrayed by Rabbi Yehuda Halevi in "Hakuzari") that in order to become a prophet, God must intervene. Maimonides claims that any man has the potential to become a prophet (not just Jews) and that in fact it is the purpose of the human race.

The problem of evil

Maimonides wrote on theodicy (the philosophical attempt to reconcile the existence of a God with the existence of evil). He took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists. In his Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides writes that all the evil that exists within human beings stems from their individual attributes, while all good comes from a universally shared humanity (Guide 3:8). He says that there are people who are guided by higher purpose, and there are those who are guided by physicality and must strive to find the higher purpose with which to guide their actions.

To justify the existence of evil, assuming God is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent, Maimonides postulates that one who created something by causing its opposite not to exist is not the same as creating something that exists; so evil is merely the absence of good. God did not create evil, rather God created good, and evil exists where good is absent (Guide 3:10). Therefore, all good is divine invention, and evil both is not and comes secondarily.

Maimonides contests the common view that evil outweighs good in the world. He says that if one were to examine existence only in terms of humanity, then that person may observe evil to dominate good, but if one looks at the whole of the universe, then he sees good is significantly more common than evil (Guide 3:12). Man, he reasons, is too insignificant a figure in God's myriad works to be their primary characterizing force, and so when people see mostly evil in their lives, they are not taking into account the extent of positive Creation outside of themselves.

Maimonides believes that there are three types of evil in the world: evil caused by nature, evil that people bring upon others, and evil man brings upon himself (Guide 3:12). The first type of evil Maimonides states is the rarest form, but arguably of the most necessary—the balance of life and death in both the human and animal worlds itself, he recognizes, is essential to God's plan. Maimonides writes that the second type of evil is relatively rare, and that humanity brings it upon itself. The third type of evil humans bring upon themselves and is the source of most of the ills of the world. These are the result of people falling victim to their physical desires. To prevent the majority of evil which stems from harm we do to ourselves, we must learn how to ignore our bodily urges.

Astrology

Further information: Jewish views on astrology

Maimonides answered an inquiry concerning astrology, addressed to him from Marseille. 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. He ridicules the concept that the fate of a man could be dependent upon the constellations; he argues that such a theory would rob life of purpose, and would make man a slave of destiny.

True beliefs versus necessary beliefs

In Guide for the Perplexed Book III, Chapter 28, Maimonides draws a distinction between "true beliefs," which were beliefs about God that 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), God does not 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 doing wrong.

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; this is his interpretation of the noûs poietikós of Aristotelian 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 from death itself. Man is in a position to work out his own salvation and his immortality.

Spinoza's doctrine of immortality was strikingly similar. But 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, while Maimonides holds that the road to perfection and immortality is the path of duty as described in the Torah and the rabbinic understanding of the oral law.

Religious Jews believed in immortality in a spiritual sense, and most believed that the future would include a messianic era and a resurrection of the dead. This is the subject of Jewish eschatology. 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. Rabbis of his day were critical of this aspect of this thought, and there was controversy over his true views.

Rabbinic works usually refer to this afterlife as Olam Haba (the World to Come). Some rabbinic works use this phrase to refer to a messianic era, an era of history here on Earth; in other rabbinic works this phrase refers to a purely spiritual realm. During Maimonides's lifetime the debate expanded into a full-blown controversy, with Maimonides charged as a heretic by some Jewish leaders.

Some Jews at this time taught that Judaism 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 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.

Maimonides also writes, that those who claimed that he believed the verses of the Hebrew Bible 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 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 angels, whom Maimonides often regards to be metaphors for the laws of nature, the principles by which the physical universe operates, or Platonic eternal forms. [This is not always the case. In Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah Chaps. 2–4, Maimonides describes angels that are actually created beings.] 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, 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) or with Olam Haba (עולם הבא) (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.

Messianic era

Perhaps one of Maimonides's most highly acclaimed and renowned writings is his treatise on the Messianic era, written originally in Judeo-Arabic and which he elaborates on in great detail in his Commentary on the Mishnah (Introduction to the 10th chapter of tractate Sanhedrin, also known as Pereḳ Ḥeleḳ).

Maimonides on the Messianic Era

Mishnah Commentary Tractate Sanhedrin Pereḳ Ḥeleḳ (Chapter 10) "… 'The days of the Messiah' (i.e., the Messianic Era) is a timeframe in which the kingdom shall return to Israel, and they (i.e., the people of Israel) will return to the Land of Israel, and the king who shall stand-up will establish the place of his kingdom in Zion, whose name shall be extolled and it will reach unto the ends of the earth, being [even] greater than Solomon's kingdom, and the nations will enter a covenant of peace with him, and all lands shall serve him on account of the abundance of his righteousness, and for the wondrous things that shall be revealed through him; whosoever shall rise-up against him, the Lord will cut him off and deliver him into his hands. All of the Scriptural verses bear witness of him, and of us with him, but there is nothing which exists now that will change, excepting that the kingdom will be given over to Israel; thus have we heard it in the language used by the Sages: 'There is no difference between this world and the days of the Messiah, excepting only the subjugation of kingdoms' (San. 91b). There shall remain in his days, both, the strong and the weak, in comparison to others, only that in those days the people's livelihood will be made much easier for them, insofar that if a man should work any work no matter how short-lived, he will gain much thereby. This is that which they have spoken about, saying: 'In the future, the Land of Israel shall produce sweet-rolls of bread and clothes made of white woollen fabric' (Shab. 30b), seeing that people will say whenever a man finds something ready [and prepared for use] in abundance that so-and-so has found baked bread and a cooked dish, the proof of which being what is written: 'And the sons of the stranger shall be your field workers and vine dressers' (Isa. 61:5). Meaning, a time of ploughing and a time of reaping will be there; Wherefore, it was for this reason that that erudite man who said these things was angered at his disciple when he failed to understand their import and had thought rather that these things should be understood in their plain sense, and he was compelled to answer him in a way that he'd understand, even though that wasn't the proper response [to give him]. The evidence for this, viz., that he didn't give him a truthful answer in accordance with what he learned of the verse, is this: 'Don't answer a foolish man in accordance with his folly' (Proverbs 26:4). Now the greatest advantage at that time will be that we'll have rest from the subjugation of the wicked kingdom, which prevents us from performing that which God has enjoined unto us to do, while knowledge will be vastly increased, as it says: 'For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lo-rd' (Isa. 11:9). Meanwhile, battles and wars will come to an end, as it says: 'Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation' (Micha 4:3), while all those who will be in those days will attain to great perfection, by which he will merit the world to come. The Messiah will then die [as all men], and his son, and his son's son will rule after him. Now God has already described his death; he says: 'He shall not tire nor be weary, till he establish judgment in the earth: and the isles shall hope for his law' (Isa. 42:4). His kingdom shall continue for a very long time, while the lives of men will also be prolonged; for by the absence of worries and troubles they shall prolong their lives. Neither should it seem strange that his kingdom will continue for thousands of years, inasmuch as the Sages have already said that no matter how noble the things that are collected together, when they are but few that are amassed together, they will fall apart. Nevertheless, we do not desire the days of the Messiah so that our grain and possessions might increase, or so that we can mount horses, or be engaged in revelry of drink and musical instruments, as those who are confused may think. Rather, the prophets fervently desired them and the pious men longed for them because of what shall be there of the ingathering of righteous men, and of proper conduct, and wisdom, and the uprightness of the king and his great wisdom and his drawing nigh unto the Creator, just as it was said of him: 'Thou art my son, [etc.]' (Psalm 2:7), as well as the observance of the entire Law of Moses, without worries and without fear, and without constraint, just as He has promised 'And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD. For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them' (Jer. 31:33 [34]); 'and I shall put my Law in their heart,' 'and I shall remove the heart of stone from your flesh' (Ezek. 36:26), and there are many similar verses that speak of such matters. It is in this manner [that a man] will acquire the next world with a firm acquisition, while the desired end [of every man] is the world to come, and all that comes before it is [merely] human effort. Wherefore, he that can perceive the truth has looked at the ultimate purpose of life and has forsaken all other things, whereby He says: 'All of Israel has a portion in the world to come.' Moreover, seeing that this is the desired end and purpose of one's life, it is not fitting that he who wishes to serve [his Maker] out of love should serve Him for the sole intent of attaining the next world, as we have premised earlier, but rather that he may serve Him in the manner that I shall prescribe, viz., that if he has already come to believe that knowledge has been imparted unto the prophets from God, and that by it (i.e., that knowledge) He has revealed to them that the [coveted] virtues are such and such, and the faults are such and such, it behooves him, therefore, by reason of his being a moderate man of reason, to draw near to the virtues and to shun that which is deficient. If he has done this, Lo! He would have completed the mortal chapter [related to his existence], and he is then distinguished from the [brute] beasts; and since he would have become a [more] perfect man, one of the virtues of man is that no hindrance be found that will hinder him from attaining life for his soul in what is his remaining [spiritual] existence through her (i.e., the soul's) [continued] consciousness, and which is the world to come as we have explained. Moreover, it is that which is said: 'Be ye not like a horse, [or] like a mule, which has no understanding; [who must be held back by bit and bridle]' (Psalm 32:9), meaning, the thing that prevents them from idleness and uncontrollable conduct is an external thing like a bit and a bridle. May a man never be like this, but rather, let his soul be what stops him from acting in such a manner, that is to say, his [inner] human form [given to man by God at the hour of Creation] – if it were perfected, it will prevent him from whatever thing that withholds from him perfection (i.e., the betterment of his condition), which things are called deficiencies, but it will spurn him on in whatever is considered wholesome, which things are the virtues. This then is what has become clear unto me from all of their words relating to this noble matter, but things that can be easily misconstrued." Notes:

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 Immanuel Kant.

Maimonides and the Modernists

Maimonides remains one of the most widely debated Jewish thinkers 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; and his views on the importance of humility have been taken up by modern humanist philosophers, including Peter Singer.

In academia, particularly within the area of Jewish Studies, the teaching of Maimonides has been dominated by traditional scholars, generally Orthodox, who place a very strong emphasis on Maimonides as a rationalist; one result is that certain sides of Maimonides's thought, including his opposition to anthropocentrism, have been obviated. There are movements in some postmodern circles to claim Maimonides for other purposes, as within the discourse of ecotheology. Maimonides's reconciliation of the philosophical and the traditional has given his legacy an extremely diverse and dynamic quality.

Chabad and The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute focus on Maimonides's teaching that each Jew should understand his unique importance in the world.

Tributes and memorials

Plaque of Maimonides at Rambam Medical Center, Haifa

Manuscript page by Maimonides. Judeo-Arabic language in Hebrew letters.

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 in Brookline, Massachusetts, Maimonides Academy School in Los Angeles, California, the Brauser Maimonides Academy in Hollywood, Florida, and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. In 2004, conferences were held at Yale, Florida International University, Penn State, and the Rambam hospital in Haifa, Israel, which is named after him. To commemorate the 800th anniversary of his death, Harvard University issued a memorial volume. In 1953, the Israel Postal Authority issued a postage stamp of Maimonides, pictured. In March 2008, during the Euromed Conference of Ministers of Tourism, The Tourism Ministries of Israel, Morocco and Spain 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, Fes and Tiberias.

Works and bibliography

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. However, the Mishneh Torah was written in Hebrew. His Jewish texts were:

• Commentary on the Mishna (Hebrew Pirush Hamishnayot, Arabic Kitab al-Siraj), written in Judeo-Arabic. This was the first full commentary ever written on the entire Mishnah, and it enjoyed great popularity both in its Arabic original and its medieval Hebrew translation. The commentary includes three philosophical introductions which were also highly influential:
  • The Introduction to the Mishnah deals with the nature of the oral law, the distinction between the prophet and the sage, and the organizational structure of the Mishnah.
  • The Introduction to Mishnah Sanhedrin, chapter ten (Perek Helek), is an eschatological essay that concludes with Maimonides's famous creed ("the thirteen principles of the Torah").
  • The Introduction to Tractate Avot (popularly called The Eight Chapters) is an ethical treatise.
• Sefer Hamitzvot (trans. The Book of Commandments). In this work, Maimonides lists all the 613 mitzvot traditionally contained in the Torah (Pentateuch). He describes fourteen shorashim (roots or principles) to guide his selection.
• Sefer Ha'shamad (letter of Martydom)
• Mishneh Torah, also known as Sefer Yad ha-Chazaka, a comprehensive code of Jewish law;
• Guide for the Perplexed, a philosophical work harmonising and differentiating Aristotle's philosophy and Jewish theology. Written in Judeo-Arabic, and completed between 1186 and 1190. The first translation of this work into Hebrew was done by Samuel ibn Tibbon in 1204.
• Teshuvot, collected correspondence and responsa, including a number of public letters (on resurrection and the afterlife, on conversion to other faiths, and Iggereth Teiman – addressed to the oppressed Jewry of Yemen).
• Hilkhot ha-Yerushalmi, a fragment of a commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud, identified and published by Saul Lieberman in 1947.

Medical works

Maimonides wrote ten known medical works in Arabic that have been translated by the Jewish medical ethicist Fred Rosner into contemporary English.

• The Art of Cure – Extracts from Galen (Barzel, 1992, Vol. 5) is essentially an extract of Galen's extensive writings.
• Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates (Rosner, 1987, Vol. 2; Hebrew: פירוש לפרקי אבוקראט) is interspersed with his own views.
• Medical Aphorisms of Moses (Rosner, 1989, Vol. 3) titled Fusul Musa in Arabic ("Chapters of Moses," Hebrew: פרקי משה) contains 1500 aphorisms and many medical conditions are described.
• Treatise on Hemorrhoids (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1; Hebrew: ברפואת הטחורים) discusses also digestion and food.
• Treatise on Cohabitation (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1) contains recipes as aphrodisiacs and anti-aphrodisiacs.
• Treatise on Asthma (Rosner, 1994, Vol. 6) discusses climates and diets and their effect on asthma and emphasizes the need for clean air.
• Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes (in Rosner, 1984, Vol. 1) is an early toxicology textbook that remained popular for centuries.
• Regimen of Health (in Rosner, 1990, Vol. 4; Hebrew: הנהגת הבריאות) 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 (Rosner, 1992, Vol. 7) represents a pharmacopeia with 405 paragraphs with the names of drugs in Arabic, Greek, Syrian, Persian, Berber, and Spanish.

Treatise on logic

The Treatise on Logic (Arabic: Maqala Fi-Sinat Al-Mantiq) has been printed 17 times, including editions in Latin (1527), German (1805, 1822, 1833, 1828), French (1935), and English (1938), and in an abridged Hebrew form. The work illustrates the essentials of Aristotelian logic to be found in the teachings of the great Arabic philosophers such as Avicenna and, above all, Al-Farabi, "the Second Master," the "First Master" being Aristotle. In his work devoted to the Treatise, Rémi Brague stresses the fact that Al-Farabi is the only philosopher mentioned therein. This indicates a line of conduct for the reader, who must read the text keeping in mind Al-Farabi's works on logic. In the Hebrew versions, the Treatise is called The words of Logic which describes the bulk of the work. The author explains the technical meaning of the words used by logicians. The Treatise duly inventories the terms used by the logician and indicates what they refer to. The work proceeds rationally through a lexicon of philosophical terms to a summary of higher philosophical topics, in 14 chapters corresponding to Maimonides's birthdate of 14 Nissan. The number 14 recurs in many of Maimonides's works. Each chapter offers a cluster of associated notions. The meaning of the words is explained and illustrated with examples. At the end of each chapter, the author carefully draws up the list of words studied.

Until very recently, it was accepted that Maimonides wrote the Treatise on logic in his twenties or even in his teen years. Herbert Davidson has raised questions about Maimonides's authorship of this short work (and of other short works traditionally attributed to Maimonides). He maintains that Maimonides was not the author at all, based on a report of two Arabic-language manuscripts, unavailable to Western investigators in Asia Minor. Rabbi Yosef Kafih maintained that it is by Maimonides and newly translated it to Hebrew (as Beiur M'lekhet HaHiggayon) from the Judeo-Arabic.

See also

• Iggeret Teman (Epistle to Yemen)
• Al-Farabi
• Thomas Aquinas
• Averroes
• Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain
• Maimonides Foundation
• Mishne Torah

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Bibliography

• *
• Originally published by the Jewish Publication of America, Philadelphia.
• See especially chapters 10 through 15.
• (Volume 5 translated by Uriel Barzel; foreword by Fred Rosner.)
• See chapters 5 through 8.
• reprint

External links

About Maimonides

• Video lecture on Maimonides by Dr. Henry Abramson
• Maimonides entry in Jewish Encyclopedia
• Maimonides entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Maimonides entry in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd edition
• "Maimonides entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy"
• Maimonides, a biography — book by David Yellin and Israel Abrahams
• Maimonides as a Philosopher
• The Influence of Islamic Thought on Maimonides
• "The Moses of Cairo," Article from Policy Review
• Rambam and the Earth: Maimonides as a Proto-Ecological Thinker – reprint on neohasid.org from The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ecology
• Anti-Maimonidean Demons by Jose Faur, describing the controversy surrounding Maimonides's works
• David Yellin and Israel Abrahams, Maimonides (1903) (full text of a biography)
• (PDF version)
• Maimonides at intellectualencounters.org

Maimonides's works

• Complete Mishneh Torah online, halakhic work of Maimonides
• Oral Readings of Mishne Torah — Free listening and Download, site also had classes in Maimonides's Iggereth Teiman
• Maimonides 13 Principles
• Intellectual Encounters – Main Thinkers – Moses Maimonides, in http://www.intellectualencounters.org/
• Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Autograph Draft, Egypt, c. 1180
• Maimonides, Commentary on the Mishnah, Autograph Manuscript, Egypt, c. 1167–68

Texts by Maimonides

• Siddur Mesorath Moshe, a prayerbook based on the early Jewish liturgy as found in Maimonides's Mishne Tora
• Rambam's introduction to the Mishneh Torah (English translation)
• Rambam's introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah (Hebrew language|Hebrew Fulltext)
• The Guide For the Perplexed by Moses Maimonides translated into English by Michael Friedländer
• Writings of Maimonides; manuscripts and early print editions. Jewish National and University Library
• Facsimile edition of Moreh Nevukhim/The Guide for the Perplexed (illuminated Hebrew manuscript, Barcelona, 1347–48). The Royal Library, Copenhagen
• University of Cambridge Library collection of Judeo-Arabic letters and manuscripts written by or to Maimonides. It includes the last letter his brother David sent him before drowning at sea.
• A. Ashur, A newly discovered medical recipe written by Maimonides
• M.A Friedman and A. Ashur, A newly-discovered autograph responsum of Maimonides