54 Facts About Moses Maimonides

Moses ben Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides and referred to by the acronym Rambam, was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.

Yet, while Moses Maimonides rose to become the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, his writings had vociferous critics, particularly in Spain.

Moses Maimonides is sometimes known as in recognition of his outstanding status as a bona fide exponent of the Oral Torah.

Moses Maimonides was born 1138 in Cordoba, Andalusia, in the Muslim-ruled Almoravid Empire, during what some scholars consider to be the end of the golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula, after the first centuries of the Moorish rule.

Moses Maimonides's father Maimon ben Joseph, was a Spanish dayyan, whose family claimed direct paternal descent from Simeon ben Judah ha-Nasi, and thus from the Davidic line.

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Moses Maimonides later stated that there are 38 generations between him and Judah ha-Nasi.

Moses Maimonides's ancestry, going back four generations, is given in his, as Moses son of Maimon the Judge, son of Joseph the Wise, son of Isaac the Rabbi, son of Obadiah the Judge.

Moses Maimonides read those Greek philosophers accessible in Arabic translations, and was deeply immersed in the sciences and learning of Islamic culture.

Moses Maimonides was not known as a supporter of Kabbalah, although a strong intellectual type of mysticism has been discerned in his philosophy.

Moses Maimonides expressed disapproval of poetry, the best of which he declared to be false, since it was founded on pure invention.

Moses Maimonides studied Torah under his father, who had in turn studied under Rabbi Joseph ibn Migash, a student of Isaac Alfasi.

The question whether Moses Maimonides himself was among those who had to convert to Islam in order to save his life prior to fleeing the area, has been the subject of scholarly debate.

Moses Maimonides wrote that this day of visiting the Temple Mount was a day of holiness for him and his descendants.

Moses Maimonides sent five letters to the Jewish communities of Lower Egypt asking them to pool money together to pay the ransom.

Moses Maimonides directed his brother to procure goods only at the Sudanese port of ?Aydhab.

Around 1171, Moses Maimonides was appointed the of the Egyptian Jewish community.

Moses Maimonides had trained in medicine in both Cordoba and in Fez.

Moses Maimonides was knowledgeable about Greek and Arabic medicine, and followed the principles of humorism in the tradition of Galen.

Moses Maimonides did not blindly accept authority but used his own observation and experience.

Moses Maimonides displayed in his interactions with patients attributes that today would be called intercultural awareness and respect for the patient's Autonomy.

Moses Maimonides succeeded Maimonides as Nagid and as court physician at the age of eighteen.

Moses Maimonides is widely respected in Spain, and a statue of him was erected near the Cordoba Synagogue.

Moses Maimonides is sometimes said to be a descendant of King David, although he never made such a claim.

In 1163, when the built the first of its synagogues, Moses Maimonides was only twenty-eight years old, so that it is highly unlikely that even his earliest authoritative teachings could by then have reached China.

Moses Maimonides strove to reconcile Aristotelianism and science with the teachings of the Torah.

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Moses Maimonides is said to have been influenced by Asaph the Jew, who was the first Hebrew medical writer.

Moses Maimonides is said to have compiled the principles from various Talmudic sources.

Moses Maimonides equated the God of Abraham to what philosophers refer to as the Necessary Being.

Moses Maimonides primarily relied upon the science of Aristotle and the teachings of the Talmud, commonly finding basis in the former for the latter.

Moses Maimonides insisted that all of the anthropomorphic phrases pertaining to God in sacred texts are to be interpreted metaphorically.

Moses Maimonides agreed with "the Philosopher" in teaching that the use of logic is the "right" way of thinking.

Moses Maimonides took the premise that an omnipotent and good God exists.

Moses Maimonides says that there are people who are guided by higher purpose, and there are those who are guided by physicality and must strive to find the higher purpose with which to guide their actions.

Moses Maimonides believes that there are three types of evil in the world: evil caused by nature, evil that people bring upon others, and evil man brings upon himself .

The first type of evil Moses Maimonides states is the rarest form, but arguably of the most necessary—the balance of life and death in both the human and animal worlds itself, he recognizes, is essential to God's plan.

Moses Maimonides writes that the second type of evil is relatively rare, and that humanity brings it upon itself.

Moses Maimonides answered an inquiry concerning astrology, addressed to him from Marseille.

Moses Maimonides responded that man should believe only what can be supported either by rational proof, by the evidence of the senses, or by trustworthy authority.

Moses Maimonides affirms that he had studied astrology, and that it does not deserve to be described as a science.

Moses Maimonides uses as an example the notion that God becomes "angry" with people who do wrong.

Moses Maimonides wrote much on this topic, but in most cases he wrote about the immortality of the soul for people of perfected intellect; his writings were usually not about the resurrection of dead bodies.

Moses Maimonides asserts that belief in resurrection is a fundamental truth of Judaism about which there is no disagreement.

However, Spinoza teaches that the way to attain the knowledge which confers immortality is the progress from sense-knowledge through scientific knowledge to philosophical intuition of all things, while Moses Maimonides holds that the road to perfection and immortality is the path of duty as described in the Torah and the rabbinic understanding of the oral law.

Moses Maimonides describes the world to come as the stage after a person lives their life in this world as well as the final state of existence after the Messianic Era.

Some academics hold that Moses Maimonides' project fought against the Proto-Kabbalah of his time.

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Oath of Moses Maimonides is a document about the medical calling and recited as a substitute for the Hippocratic Oath.

Moses Maimonides' is considered by Jews even today as one of the chief authoritative codifications of Jewish law and ethics.

However, Moses Maimonides was one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy.

Moses Maimonides's combined abilities in the fields of theology, philosophy and medicine make his work attractive today as a source during discussions of evolving norms in these fields, particularly medicine.

Moses Maimonides remains one of the most widely debated Jewish thinkers among modern scholars.

Moses Maimonides has been adopted as a symbol and an intellectual hero by almost all major movements in modern Judaism, and has proven important to philosophers such as Leo Strauss; and his views on the importance of humility have been taken up by modern humanist philosophers.

Moses Maimonides composed works of Jewish scholarship, rabbinic law, philosophy, and medical texts.

Until very recently, it was accepted that Moses Maimonides wrote the Treatise on Logic in his twenties or even in his teen years.

Moses Maimonides maintains that Maimonides was not the author at all, based on a report of two Arabic-language manuscripts, unavailable to Western investigators in Asia Minor.