Moses Maimonides

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon — the Rambam — 1138–1204. Born in Córdoba into the Jewish golden age of Muslim Spain; forced into exile as a child when the Almohad invasion ended Andalusian religious tolerance. The family wandered for years and settled finally in Cairo, where he became the personal physician to Saladin's vizier and the *Nagid* (head) of Egyptian Jewry. He did three monumental things at once. He codified all of Jewish law into the *Mishneh Torah* — fourteen books, in clear Hebrew, organized by subject, so a Jew anywhere could find the law without consulting a rabbi. He wrote the *Guide for the Perplexed* — a philosophical treatise reconciling Aristotelian reason with Torah, addressed to readers torn between the two. And he practiced medicine eighteen hours a day, writing his books at night. Core teaching: there are eight levels of *tzedakah* (righteous giving), and the highest is helping a person become self-sufficient so they no longer need to receive. God has no body. The Torah speaks the language of human beings — read it accordingly. Reason and faith are not enemies; treat any tradition that asks you to deny the obvious with suspicion. Key works: *Mishneh Torah*, *Guide for the Perplexed*, *Commentary on the Mishnah*, the *Thirteen Principles of Faith*, his medical writings.