Moses Maimonides (Rambam)

Background

Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204) "is the greatest Jewish philosopher of the medieval period and is still widely read today. The Mishneh Torah, his 14-volume compendium of Jewish law, established him as the leading rabbinic authority of his time and quite possibly of all time" (SEP 'Maimonides', preamble). Born in Cordova under Muslim rule, his family fled the Almohad invasion and reached Fez by 1160; he arrived in Egypt in 1166 and settled in Fustat, where he died in 1204 (SEP §1). His Commentary on the Mishnah (1168) lists 13 principles binding on every Jew — among them the absolute unity and incorporeality of God, "that there will be a Messiah, that the dead will be resurrected" — "the first attempt to introduce articles of faith to Judaism" (SEP §1). The Guide of the Perplexed (1190) mounts "an uncompromising defense of negative theology, an extended critique of the kalam," and a systematic treatment of creation and prophecy; for Maimonides, a material conception of God "amounts to idolatry" (SEP §1).

Positions held in this wiki

• Isaiah 53: Christian vs Jewish Readings — the national-restorationist Messiah doctrine that anchors the Jewish collective-servant reading. In Guide II.29, Isaiah's cosmic imagery describes "the restoration of the kingdom of Israel, its stability and permanence... that the kingdom of the Messiah will be permanent, and that the kingdom of Israel will not be destroyed any more" (Maimonides 1190, Guide II.29). His halakhic criteria are now in corpus: the Messiah will "renew the Davidic dynasty... build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel"; one should not presume he "must work miracles and wonders... or resurrect the dead"; and "if he did not succeed to this degree or was killed, he surely is not the redeemer promised by the Torah" (Mishneh Torah, Melakhim 11:1, 3-5). Halakhah 11:6 applies the test explicitly to "Jesus of Nazareth who aspired to be the Mashiach and was executed by the court" (Melakhim 11:6) — the insider rejection of a suffering, dying Messiah stated in its strongest canonical form.

Key works in our corpus

• Guide for the Perplexed (Friedländer trans.) — full text with Friedländer's biographical introduction, which also summarizes the Letter to Yemen (1172): Jews "should remain firm in the belief that God will send the Messiah to deliver their nation," while abandoning "futile calculations of the Messianic period" and rejecting impostors (Friedländer, introduction).
• Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars 11 (Touger trans., via Sefaria) — the codified messianic criteria; newly acquired.
• SEP 'Maimonides' — the comprehensive secondary anchor.

Principal critics

• Origen of Alexandria — his "my people" objection in Contra Celsum I.55 presses the exegetical lineage to which Maimonides' national messianism belongs.
• Justin Martyr — the two-advents scheme is the standing Christian reply to the objection that a crucified claimant fails the triumphant-king criteria Maimonides codifies.
• Internal Jewish controversy: the Guide "has long been considered a controversial work and in some rabbinic circles was originally banned" (SEP §1).

See also

• Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) — the exegetical partner of Maimonides' doctrinal position on Isa 53.
• Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī — the near-contemporary insider systematizer in Islam; Maimonides critiques the kalam the Ashʿarites defended.
• Thomas Aquinas — among the thinkers the Guide influenced, with "Spinoza, Leibniz, and Newton" (SEP preamble).