Creator Bio
Moses Maimonides
1138–1204
Born in Córdoba, Spain, Moses ben Maymūn (Abū ʿImran Mūsā ibn Maymūn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh; Moses Maimonides, also known as Rambam, an acronym of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon) was a scion of a rabbinic family and the proud heir to the Sephardic tradition of learning. After fleeing to Fez around the age of ten to escape Almohad persecutions in his homeland, he moved to Fustāt (Old Cairo), where he came to head the Jewish community and to serve as physician to the royal family. An active communal leader, Maimonides’ multifaceted contributions to Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew literature include the following: his Commentary on the Mishnah (1168), Book of the Commandments and the Mishneh Torah (both completed around 1178), Guide of the Perplexed (completed around 1190), numerous responsa, important topical essays, and a voluminous corpus of medical texts. His profound influence on virtually every subsequent Jewish thinker finds expression in the popular adage that compares Moses Maimonides to the biblical Moses himself: “From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses.”
Content by Moses Maimonides
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Mishneh Torah, The Book of Knowledge: On the Rise of Idolatry
Mishneh Torah, Book of Knowledge, Laws Concerning Idolatry and the Ordinances of the Heathens, Chapter 1 (selections)
In the days of Enosh, the people fell into gross error, and the counsel of the wise men of the generation became foolish. Enosh himself was among those who erred. Their error was as follows: “Since…
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Epistle on the Resurrection of the Dead
It is not rare that a person aims to expound the intent of some conclusions clearly and explicitly, makes an effort to reject doubts and eliminate far-fetched interpretations, and yet the unbalanced…
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Prescription for Lemon Drinks
One ounce of sticky sugar melted in hot water. He should squeeze juice from two lemons onto it and drink it lukewarm in order to vomit. One hour after vomiting, he should sip two ounces of a lemon and…
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Treatise on the Art of Logic
Maqāla fī ṣinā‘at al-manṭiq, Introduction, Chapters 6, 8 (selections)
In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate! An eminent person, one of the masters of the juridical sciences and the possessors of clarity and eloquence in the Arabic language…
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Commentary on the Mishnah: Introduction
Introduction (selections)
When you find an animal or plant that, in your opinion, does not provide any benefit or sustenance, this is due to our deficient knowledge. Instead, it must be the case that every herb, every fruit…
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Commentary on the Mishnah: Chapter 10 of Sanhedrin (Perek ḥelek)
Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction to Ch. 10 of m. Sanhedrin (selections)
His final end then will be to achieve the honor, the exaltation, and the praise which others might confer upon him.
Now, all this is deplorable. However, it is unavoidable because of man’s limited…
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Commentary on the Mishnah: Eight Chapters
Commentary on the Mishnah, Introduction to m. Pirke Avot, Chapter 6 (selections)
Philosophers maintain that though the man of self-restraint…
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Mishneh Torah, The Book of Knowledge: Principles of the Torah
Laws Concerning the Basic Principles of the Torah, Chapters 1-2 (selections); Laws Relating to Moral Dispositions and to Ethical Conduct, Chapters 1-4 (selections)
The basic principle of all basic principles and the pillar of all sciences is to realize that there is a First Being who brought every…
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Epistle on Hemorrhoids
Risāla fī ’l-bawāsīr, Introduction, Chapters 2, 6 (selections)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Says Mūsā ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh, the Israelite from Córdoba: There was a young man from a prominent and renowned family, from a noble house and of great…
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An Early Manuscript Copy of the Book on Coitus
Kitāb fī l-jimā‘
Moses Maimonides composed his Book on Coitus for a leading government official who was facing difficulties with sexual potency. Maimonides’ medical advice focuses on psychological factors, but he also…
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Book on Coitus
Kitāb fī l-jimā‘
Says Musa b. ‘Ubayd-Allāh the Israelite from Cordoba:
The most honored Lord—may God perpetuate his glory—has ordered me to relate to him the regimen which is helpful in increasing sexual potency…
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Guide of the Perplexed: On Knowing God
Guide of the Perplexed III:51 (selections)
Know that all the practices of the worship, such as reading the Torah, prayer, and performance of the other commandments, have only the end of training you to occupy yourself with…
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On the Regimen of Health
Fī tadbīr al-siḥḥa
This Servant says: If man were to conduct himself as he manages the animal he rides, he would be safeguarded from many ailments. That is, you find no one who throws fodder to his animal haphazardly…
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Letter to the Sages of Provence: On Astrology
I perceive in this inquiry that although its boughs are many, they are all branches of a single tree that is their common root: namely, all the statements of the astrologers, the stargazers [see Isa…
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A Treatise in Elucidation of Some Symptoms and the Response to Them
Maqāla fī bayān ba‘ḍ al-a‘rāḍ wa-’l-jawāb ‘anhā
In the name of God, Merciful and Compassionate!
A letter has reached this minor Servant containing a list of all those accidents that have befallen our Master, may God perpetuate his days, along…
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On Poisons and the Protection Against Lethal Drugs
Kitāb al-sumūm wa-’l-mutaḥarriz min al-adwiya al-qitāla
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate:
Oh, God, make [my task] easy by Your grace
(1) Says Mūsā b. ‘Ubayd Allāh from Cordoba: The conduct of our Master, the most honorable and eminent…
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Medical Aphorisms
Fuṣūl Mūsā, Introduction, Book Two, On the Humors
Says Mūsā ibn ‘Ubayd Allāh, the Israelite, from Córdoba: People have often composed works in the form of aphorisms on [different] kinds of sciences. The science most in need of this is the science of…
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Responsum: On a Set Lifetime
The answer, in our opinion, is that there is no predetermined time [of death] and that animals live so long as a replacement for their essential moisture, which disintegrates, is replenished, such…
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Treatise on Asthma
Maqāla fī’l-rabw
(2) I know from what I have witnessed with my own eyes and from what my Master has described to me that the cause of this asthma [from which he suffers] is a defluxion that descends from the brain at…
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Book on Rules Regarding the Practical Part of the Medical Art
Kitāb qawānīn al-juzʼ al-‘amalī min ṣināʻat al-ṭibb
He said: My honorable master, the Pillar of Faith (may God protect him), enjoined me to compose a treatise on rules regarding the practical part of medicine using concise aphorisms. I carried out his…
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Mishneh Torah, Book of Love: On Writing Scrolls
Laws of Tefillin, Mezuzah, and Sefer Torah, 8:4–5
As in all the scrolls I have seen, I noticed serious incorrectness in these regards, while authorities on the Masorah, who write treatises and…
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Mishneh Torah, Book of Love: Laws of Prayer
Mishneh Torah, The Book of Love: Laws of Prayer and of the Priestly Blessing 1:1-6
These comprise two affirmative duties: first, to serve the Lord daily in prayer; secondly, that the priests should bless Israel daily. These two precepts…
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Autograph Draft of the Guide of the Perplexed (Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn)
Guide of the Perplexed (Dalālat al-ḥā’irīn). Moses Maimonides. Autograph draft.
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Guide of the Perplexed: On Prayer
Guide of the Perplexed III:32 (selections)
Similarly the deity made a wily and gracious arrangement with regard to all the individuals of the living beings that suck. For when born, such individuals are extremely soft and cannot feed on dry…
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Responsum: On the Blessing over the Signs of Virginity
Question: And would His Honor also instruct us in the matter of the blessing called the birkat betulim, which is “who placed a walnut in the Garden of Eden.” [This ceremony takes place] when the…
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Two Responsa: On the Repetition of the ‘Amidah
If one of the congregation says the ‘amidah quietly while the prayer-leader is offering his prayer, he has done his religious duty. Equally, if one does not recite the ‘amidah personally…
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Images of the Temple
These pages from Maimonides’ personal copy of his Judeo-Arabic Commentary on the Mishnah include what may be his own drawings of the Temple in Jerusalem. Maimonides, or his scribe, orients west at the…
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The Epistle on Forced Conversion
A contemporary of mine inquired regarding this persecution in which he is forced to confess that that man [Muhammad] is God’s messenger and that he is a true prophet. He addressed his query to one…
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Commentary on the Mishnah
Moses Maimonides composed and revised his commentary on the Mishnah over many years. Writing in Judeo-Arabic (aside from the Hebrew poem with which he began the work), he clarified each mishnah in…
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Commentary on the Mishnah: Prefatory Poem
This book is composed about the Law of Moses,
clarifying its rules and its just law,
in accordance with the law that our elders transmitted,
its builders, who strengthened its construction.
It is the…
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Decree on Menstrual Purity
Build up, build up, clear the way! Remove a stumbling block from my people’s way (Isaiah 57:14).
We, the scholars living in Egypt at this time, say: When we were brought together in this region from…
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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…
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The Book of Commandments
Sefer ha-mitsvot (The Book of Commandments), Introduction (selections)
The first principle of these, that it is not appropriate to count in this sum commandments which are rabbinic.
Know that this matter should not require noting due to its obviousness, for…
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Responsum: On a Blind Teacher of Girls
Responsum 276
Question: What will you say [followed by very long string of honorary names and flattery] our teacher and our rabbi, our lord and our gaon, the great Moses, the strong gavel [of the law]…
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Responsum: On a Husband Who Objects to His Wife Teaching (I)
Responsum 45
Our rabbi will teach us concerning [an incident whereby] a Jew had a wife who had been with him for a number of years. And in one of these years, he happened to take a trip in connection…
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Responsum: On a Husband Who Objects to His Wife Teaching (II)
Responsum 34
Question: Concerning a man who married a nine-year-old and she had a portion in common property with her mother-in-law and her [own] sister, and they all live in one courtyard. The mother…
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Responsum: On an Accusation of Sexual Harassment
[Question: What says our honorable, exalted master, Moses, the great rabbi among God’s people, the prince of all Israel—may his name endure forever!—about the case of an upstanding Jewish man, a…
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Responsum: On Listening to Music
It is well known that the playing of wind instruments and [musical] rhythms are forbidden in and of themselves, regardless of whether they are accompanied by words, as [the sages], of blessed memory…
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Epistle to Yemen
Verily, I am one of the humblest of scholars from Spain whose prestige was lowered in exile. Although I always study the ordinances of the Lord, I did not attain to the learning of my forebears, for…
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Letter to Yefet ben Elijah
To the distinguished and erudite dayyan [judge] Japhet, son of the esteemed and pious scholar Eliahu, from his solicitous friend, Moses ben Maimon. Your gracious epistle reached me but its content…
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Letter to Samuel Ibn Tibbon
In accordance with his intelligence is a man praised (Proverbs 12:8). I received all the correspondence of the esteemed, learned, and perceptive student who is the crown of disciples, the glory of the…
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Letter to Jonathan ha-Kohen of Lunel
I, Moses, declare to you, priest and rabbi, R. Jonathan, that when your letter and questions reached me, I greatly rejoiced over them and said to myself, “Blessed be God, who has not left you without…
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Letter to the Jewish Community of Minyat Zifta
In this Judeo-Arabic letter, Moses Maimonides appeals to the community of Minyat Zifta, Egypt, in the Nile Delta, to assist an individual named Isaac al-Dar‘ī in paying the poll tax, an annual tax…
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Letter to the Jewish Community of Minyat Zifta
In this Judeo-Arabic letter, Moses Maimonides appeals to the community of Minyat Zifta, Egypt, in the Nile Delta, to assist an individual named Isaac al-Dar‘ī in paying the poll tax, an annual tax…
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Letter to the Jewish Leaders of Lunel
Who is this that shineth forth like a morning dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as armies encamped around their banners? (Song of Songs 6:10)
This Biblical imagery is reminiscent…
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Moses Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed
This edition of Moses Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed was printed in Sabbioneta, Italy by Cornelio Adelkind for Tobias Foà. The twelfth-century work was an attempt to reconcile Aristotelianism with…
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