Mishneh Torah

The Mishneh Torah (Repetition of the Law) is a monumental legal compendium, and the most influential rabbinic work of the medieval period. Written in the 1170s in Egypt, the Mishneh Torah was Maimonides’ only Hebrew-language work. In it, he abandoned the Judeo-Arabic of his other writings in favor of an accessible, elegant, mishnaic style of Hebrew. The work is organized into fourteen topical sections and many subsections, displaying a degree of conceptualization that is found neither in the Mishnah nor in later rabbinic writings. It covers all of Jewish law, both laws that are relevant during the period of the exile and laws that apply only when the Temple stands in Jerusalem. Maimonides referred to the Mishneh Torah as his “great compilation,” and he saw it as his final statement of Jewish law. The Mishneh Torah achieved great acclaim but was also subject to searing criticisms for failing to document its sources in earlier rabbinic texts. The first copy shown below is a draft written by Maimonides. The second, on the right-hand side, is an authorized clean copy, made by Maimonides’ favored scribe, Yefet ben Solomon, with a responsum of Maimonides copied into the margins. Maimonides wrote his drafts in what scholars label “quick cursive,” an informal hand used for less public documents. In the draft, Maimonides’ own corrections are immediately visible, as is the Arabic writing in the top corner of the page. Elsewhere, Maimonides wrote notations to himself in Arabic script, and this might also be the case here.