digest
Jewish History Dot Org presents Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, number 33.
Maimonides, the great sage and great figure of the Jewish Middle Ages, was born in 1135 in Cordoba, Spain. Maimonides suffered exile when the fanatical Almohads, an extremist Islamic sect, took over the country and forced all Jews either to leave or to convert to Islam. Maimonides fled to North Africa, to Fez, but there too he was tracked by the Almohads. He came to the Land of Israel, but there he was warned that the Crusaders were out to kidnap him. Finally he escaped to Egypt, to the city of Fustat, which is Old Cairo, and there he established himself.
Maimonides was a person almost beyond description. He was an astronomer, a mathematician, a philosopher, a doctor, and someone who knew pharmacology, and he was the greatest scholar of his age. He set out to formally codify all of Torah in volumes that would be accessible to all. He wrote a commentary on the Mishnah in Arabic. He then wrote the monumental Yad Hachazakah, the Strong Hand, also called the Mishneh Torah, the Repetition of the Torah, in fourteen volumes, which codifies everything that exists within Jewish law and tradition. It was written in an unbelievably beautiful Hebrew, with a clarity and organization that almost defies belief.
He also wrote another book in Arabic called the Guide to the Perplexed, which is a philosophical treatment of Judaism. There is a lot of Aristotle in it, with which he agreed in some places and disagreed in others. It was a book written literally to guide people who were troubled and who wanted to know how to regain their faith through philosophy. It must be remembered that in that time philosophy played an important role. In our time it does not, but if you wanted an advanced degree, a PhD, you would be a doctor of philosophy in computers, medicine, or whatever the field is. That usage has retained the idea that philosophy means general knowledge, intensive knowledge, great knowledge. Maimonides was representative of all of that.
He was also the head of the Jewish community in Egypt, and he had influence everywhere in the Jewish world. He was called the Great Eagle, because upon his wings the Jewish people flew.
Thank you for watching. My name is Baruch Wine. For more on Jewish history, go to jewishhistorydotorg.