Essay On Moses Maimonides

Historians and scholars of Judaism have interpreted Maimonides in countless, sometimes contradictory ways: as a philosopher and as an anti-philosopher, as an upholder of Talmudic authority and as a subverter of Talmudic authority, as a religious zealot and as a herald of religious tolerance, and as a model of clarity and as a model of opacity.

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He was born in Spain, but spent most of his life in Egypt.

His works ranged from a commentary on the Mishnah to his Code of Law (summarising the whole of Jewish law) and the philosophical work, the Guide for the Perplexed. knew that all were mistaken and that what caused them to err was worship of the images which drove the Truth out of their minds.

Ever since it was “rediscovered” by Muslim, Jewish, and Christian thinkers in the Middle Ages, Aristotelian thinking has posed a fundamental challenge to the monotheistic traditions by, among other things, questioning the notion of a theistic God who manages nature and intervenes in human affairs.

Maimonides’ readings of the Bible turned that document into a remarkably flexible text, capable of bearing interpretations that incorporate the insights of Aristotle, among others.

In Hebrew he is called by the name Rambam which is an acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (with vowels added in to make it possible to pronounce the word).

Essay On Moses Maimonides

Rambam’s impact on Judaism was (and is) immense, and he probably affected Judaism more than any other individual Jew during the last 2,000 years.

It was said that if the moon came to him as a patient, he could cure her of her spots!

He wrote with extraordinary foresight about how cleanliness could prevent disease; gave advice on sexual hygiene; and compiled lists of cures for illnesses and fevers. While himself a scholar of the Kabbalah, he warned against its abuse by less-knowledgeable people.

A true Renaissance man, albeit one who lived long before the Renaissance, and who lived in Muslim lands rather than Christian ones, his insights into philosophy, medicine and Torah remain remarkably prescient today. Spain at that time was largely under Muslim rule, but at the time of Maimonides’ birth even in Muslim-ruled areas there were flourishing Jewish communities due to the ‘protected’ status which Islam accorded to Jews and Christians (the ‘protection’ was extended to ‘Peoples of the Book’, i.e.

Jews and Christians, who would not be compelled to convert to Islam).