MOSES MAIMONIDES
Maimon, Rambam = R. Moses, the son of Maimon, Maimonides.--His
Yad Hachazaka and Moreh Nebuchim.--Gersonides.--Crescas.--Albo.
The greatest Jew of the Middle Ages, Moses, the son of Maimon, was born
in Cordova, in 1135, and died in Fostat in 1204. His father Maimon was
himself an accomplished scientist and an enlightened thinker, and the
son was trained in the many arts and sciences then included in a liberal
education. When Moses was thirteen years old, Cordova fell into the
hands of the Almohades, a sect of Mohammedans, whose creed was as pure
as their conduct was fanatical. Jews and Christians were forced to
choose conversion to Islam, exile, or death. Maimon fled with his
family, and, after an interval of troubled wanderings and painful
privations, they settled in Fez, where they found the Almohades equally
powerful and equally vindictive. Maimon and his son were compelled to
assume the outward garb of Mohammedanism for a period of five years.
From Fez the family emigrated in 1165 to Palestine, and, after a long
period of anxiety, Moses Maimonides settled in Egypt, in Fostat, or Old
Cairo.
In Egypt, another son of Maimon, David, traded in precious stones, and
supported his learned brother. When David was lost at sea, Maimonides
earned a living as a physician. His whole day was occupied in his
profession, yet he contrived to work at his books during the greater
part of the night. His minor works would alone have brought their author
fame. His first great work was completed in 1168. It was a Commentary on
the Mishnah, and was written in Arabic. But Maimonides' reputation rests
mainly on two books, the one written for the many, the other for the
few. The former is his "Strong Hand" (_Yad Hachazaka_), the latter his
"Guide of the Perplexed" (_Moreh Nebuchim_).
The "Strong Hand" was a gigantic undertaking. In its fourteen books
Maimonides presented a clearly-arranged and clearly-worded summary of
the Rabbinical Halachah, or Law. In one sense it is an encyclopedia, but
it is an encyclopedia written with style. For its power to grapple with
vast materials, this code has few rivals and no superiors in other
literatures. Maimonides completed its compilation in 1180, having spent
ten years over it. During the whole of that time, he was not only a
popular doctor, but also official Rabbi of Cairo. He received no salary
from the community, for he said, "Better one penny earned by the work of
one's hands, than all the revenues of the Prince of the Captivity, if
derived from fees for teaching or acting as Rabbi." The "Strong Hand,"
called also "Deuteronomy" (_Mishneh Torah_), sealed the reputation of
Maimonides for all time. Maimonides was indeed attacked, first, because
he asserted that his work was intended to make a study of the Talmud
less necessary, and secondly, because he gave no authorities for his
statements, but decided for himself which Talmudical opinions to accept,
which to reject. But the severest scrutiny found few real blemishes and
fewer actual mistakes. "From Moses to Moses there arose none like
Moses," was a saying that expressed the general reverence for
Maimonides. Copies of the book were made everywhere; the Jewish mind
became absorbed in it; his fame and his name "rang from Spain to India,
from the sources of the Tigris to South Arabia." Eulogies were showered
on him from all parts of the earth. And no praise can say more for this
marvellous man than the fact that the incense burned at his shrine did
not intoxicate him. His touch became firmer, his step more resolute.
But he went on his way as before, living simply and laboring
incessantly, unmoved by the thunders of applause, unaffected by the
feebler echoes of calumny. He corresponded with his brethren far and
near, answered questions as Rabbi, explained passages in his Commentary
on the Mishnah or his other writings, entered heartily into the
controversies of the day, discussed the claims of a new aspirant to the
dignity of Messiah, encouraged the weaker brethren who fell under
disfavor because they had been compelled to become pretended converts to
Islam, showed common-sense and strong intellectual grasp in every line
he wrote, and combined in his dealings with all questions the rarely
associated qualities, toleration and devotion to the truth. Yet he felt
that his life's work was still incomplete. He loved truth, but truth for
him had two aspects: there was truth as revealed by God, there was truth
which God left man to discover for himself. In the mind of Maimonides,
Moses and Aristotle occupied pedestals side by side. In the "Strong
Hand," he had codified and given orderly arrangement to Judaism as
revealed in Bible and tradition; he would now examine its relations to
reason, would compare its results with the data of philosophy. This he
did in his "Guide of the Perplexed" (_Moreh Nebuchim_). Maimonides here
differed fundamentally from his immediate predecessors. Jehuda Halevi,
in his _Cuzari_, was poet more than philosopher. The _Cuzari_ was a
dialogue based on the three principles, that God is revealed in history,
that Jerusalem is the centre of the world, and that Israel is to the
nations as the heart to the limbs. Jehuda Halevi supported these ideas
with arguments deduced from the philosophy of his day, he used reason as
the handmaid of theology. Maimonides, however, like Saadiah, recognized
a higher function for reason. He placed reason on the same level as
revelation, and then demonstrated that his faith and his reason taught
identical truths. His work, the "Guide of the Perplexed," written in
Arabic in about the year 1190, is based, on the one hand, on the
Aristotelian system as expounded by Arabian thinkers, and, on the other
hand, on a firm belief in Scripture and tradition. With a masterly hand,
Maimonides summarized the teachings of Aristotle and the doctrines of
Moses and the Rabbis. Between these two independent bodies of truths he
found, not contradiction, but agreement, and he reconciled them in a way
that satisfied so many minds that the "Guide" was translated into Hebrew
twice during his life-time, and was studied by Mohammedans and by
Christians such as Thomas Aquinas. With general readers, the third part
was the most popular. In this part Maimonides offered rational
explanations of the ceremonial and legislative details of the Bible.
For a long time after the death of Maimonides, which took place in 1204,
Jewish thought found in the "Guide" a strong attraction or a violent
repulsion. Commentaries on the _Moreh_, or "Guide," multiplied apace.
Among the most original of the philosophical successors of Maimonides
there were few Jews but were greatly influenced by him. Even the famous
author of "The Wars of the Lord," Ralbag, Levi, the son of Gershon
(Gersonides), who was born in 1288, and died in 1344, was more or less
at the same stand-point as Maimonides. On the other hand, Chasdai
Crescas, in his "Light of God," written between 1405 and 1410, made a
determined attack on Aristotle, and dealt a serious blow at Maimonides.
Crescas' work influenced the thought of Spinoza, who was also a close
student of Maimonides. A pupil of Crescas, Joseph Albo (1380-1444) was
likewise a critic of Maimonides. Albo's treatise, "The Book of
Principles" (_Ikkarim_), became a popular text-book. It was impossible
that the reconciliation of Aristotle and Moses should continue to
satisfy Jewish readers, when Aristotle had been dethroned from his
position of dictator in European thought. But the "Guide" of Maimonides
was a great achievement for its spirit more than for its contents. If it
inevitably became obsolete as a system of theology, it permanently acted
as an antidote to the mysticism which in the thirteenth century began to
gain a hold on Judaism, and which, but for Maimonides, might have
completely undermined the beliefs of the Synagogue. Maimonides remained
the exemplar of reasoning faith long after his particular form of
reasoning had become unacceptable to the faithful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MAIMONIDES.
Graetz.--III, 14.
Karpeles.--_Jewish Literature and other Essays_, p. 145.
Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, pp. 70, 82 _seq._,
94 _seq._
Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. XV, p. 295.
HIS WORKS:
_Eight Chapters_.--B. Spiers in _Threefold Cord_ (1893).
English translation in _Hebrew Review_, Vols. I and II.
_Strong Hand_, selections translated by Soloweycik (London, 1863).
_Letter to Jehuda Ibn Tibbon_, translated by H. Adler
(_Miscellany of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. I).
_Guide of the Perplexed_, translated by M. Friedländer (1885).
CRITICAL ESSAYS ON MAIMONIDES:
I.H. Weiss.--_Study of the Talmud in the Thirteenth Century_,
_J.Q.R._, I, p. 290.
J. Owen.--_J.Q.R._, III, p. 203.
S. Schechter.--_Studies in Judaism_, p. 161 [197], etc.
On MAIMON (father of Maimonides), see L.M. Simmons, _Letter of
Consolation of Maimon ben Joseph_, _J.Q.R._, II, p. 62.
CRESCAS.
Graetz.--IV, pp. 146 [157], 191 [206].
ALBO.
Graetz.--IV, 7.
English translation of _Ikkarim, Hebrew Review_, Vols. I, II, III.