Angel teaches about Maimonides

Maimonides: Essential Teachings on Jewish Faith & Ethics, the Book of Knowledge & the Thirteen Principles of Faith Annotated & Explained by Rabbi Marc D. Angel, PhD, Skylight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, VT; ISBN 978-1-59473-311-6 ©2012, $18.99, p. 172, plus notes and selected bibliography

By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.

WINCHESTER, California — By the mid-twelfth century, conditions for the Jews of Spain, particularly in the Andalusia Provence, deteriorated into chaos owing to the rise of the Almohads, a fanatical Islamic sect, leaving little recourse beyond death, conversion or escape. Among those fleeing was a young Moses Maimonides who would grow into a polymath considered to be the greatest medieval Jewish philosopher, and for many, including Maimonides scholar Shlomo Pines, the most influential Jewish thinker of all time.

Maimonides wrote books on secular subjects, such as logic and medicine, but he is best remembered for his Jewish theological and philosophical works. Among these are his Commentary on the Mishneh, Mishneh Torah, Guide of the Perplexed and The Book of Knowledge. These latter two works angered many Jews, particularly in Spain and southern France, because they combined Judaism with Aristotelian philosophy and Greek science and ethics. Today, science and religion seem to be diametrically opposed, however not for Maimonides, who perceived the two to be mutually supportive and intertwined.

In 1232, twenty-eight years after his death, three leading French rabbis denounced Maimonides to the Dominicans, the religious order conducting the country’s Inquisition, demanding that the Inquisition rid the Jews of these books. Now, for the first time, Christian clerics intervened in the internal affairs of the Jewish people. Subsequently, the Church began flexing its political muscles against the Talmud, leading to the 1242 burning of thousands of copies at a communal bonfire in Paris, and such events continued periodically in Western Europe until at least 1533 when the Inquisition confiscated every copy of the Talmud in Italy and publically burnt them in Rome, with the last open conflagration of the Talmud taking place in Poland in late 1757.

Marc Angel, rabbi emeritus of the New York Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel, provides his own translation and comments on two of Maimonides well-known books, The Book of Knowledge and Thirteen Principles of Faith.

The Book of Knowledge might rightly be called a “Treatise on Functional Knowledge” because it is filled with practical advice on living a Jewish life, including some of the fundamental underpinnings of Judaism, moral and ethical character development, the need to study Torah, laws concerning idolatry and repentance.

If Judaism needed a catechism, Maimonides’ book Thirteen Principles of Faith would certainly be a contender. The prophet Habakkuk distilled Judaism into a single sentence (2:4), “The righteous shall live by his faith.”  In the Thirteen Principles of Faith, Maimonides draws on a number of Talmudic conclusions to arrive at what he believes to be the essential kernel of the Jewish faith. Some of these, such as the belief in the coming of a flesh-and-blood messiah and resurrection of the dead have been rejected by some modern forms of Judaism. Nonetheless, Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith reflects historic Judaism and still informs contemporary orthodox beliefs.

In Maimonides: Essential Teachings on Jewish Faith & Ethics, Angel provides easy-to-read, modern translations of the Book of Knowledge and Thirteen Principles of Faith, and his comments show a remarkable depth of Judaism and his comfort with Maimonides’ philosophical propositions. Maimonides: Essential Teachings on Jewish Faith & Ethics is highly recommended for those who which to take a meaningful step toward understanding the mind of this remarkable Jewish sage.

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Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. He is the author of The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars; Ancient Secrets of Creation: Sepher Yetzira, the Book that Started Kabbalah, Revealed; and Reclaiming the Messiah. The author can be reached via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com.