Who was Maimonides?
There are excellent answers here already. I’d like to just present a summary, for those who don’t get around to reading all the articles. Maimonides was known as Moses, son of Maimon (or Rambam in the Jewish world). He was a physician and philosopher who lived in Spain and the Middle East in the Middle Ages. His contribution to Jewish thinking is immense, to the extent that people would say “From Moses (of the Bible) until Moses (Maimonides), there has been none like Moses”. He condensed classical Jewish law into a topic-based encyclopedia, known as the “Mishnah Torah”. This is arguably the most important Jewish law reference book-set that exists. His methodical approach is revolutionary and is far easier to navigate than the Talmud. Maimonides also addressed fundamental philosophical questions in his “Guide to the Perplexed”, which is studied in many philosophy courses at universities today. He also summarized Judaism’s fundamental beliefs into what he termed the “13 Principles of Fai
by Rabbi Mendy Hecht addthis_pub = ‘rabbisimcha’; –> function gomprint(Hierarchy, ixObject){ var vwidth = 680; var vheight = 520; var url = ‘/en/article_print.html?h=’ + Hierarchy + ‘&o=’ + ixObject; window.open(url,’print’,’toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,menubar=no,status=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,width=’+vwidth+’,height=’+vheight+’,top=’+((window.screen.height/2)-(vheight/2))+’,left=’+((window.screen.width/2)-(vwidth/2))); } Library » History » Rishonim | Subscribe | What is RSS? PRINT EMAIL COMMENT (continued) A. Maimonides was one of the greatest scholars in Diaspora Jewish history. He was born in Cordoba, Spain in 1135 and fled Islamic persecution with his family in 1148. After fleeing, he spent some time traveling before settling in Fez, Morocco for five years. Due to forced Islamic conversions, he fled Fez with his family and sailed to the Holy Land, where he remained for less then a year. Eventually settling in Fostat (Old Cairo), he built a stout reputation as a s
