Moses Maimonides Influence On Judaism

Moses Maimonides (RaMBaM) was one of the most influential figures in Judaism. He believed that religious beliefs should be logical and able to be challenged, through this Moses believed that faith and reason were to be integrated and that people were expected to find God through knowledge and wisdom. Moses explored and challenged the religious beliefs and concepts of Judaism in his three major works; the ‘Commentary on the Mishnah’, the ‘Mishneh Torah’ and ‘Guide for the Perplexed’.

Moses was born in Cordoba in Spain in 1138; at this time Spain was a peaceful country where Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together. This time was a period of significant intellectual growth and each religion in the area was adapting concepts from the religions around them. In 1148 the Almohads, an extremist Muslim group, conquered Spain and the once peaceful community was in disarray. The Jews were forced to choose between exile, death or conversion to Islam; Moses family fled to Morocco and settled in Fez this was where Moses acquired most of his secular knowledge.
The ‘Mishneh Torah’ consisted of fourteen books written in Hebrew in a style easily accessible to lay Jews. The ‘Mishneh Torah’ made Jewish law more relevant to the average Jew without extensive study of the Talmud. Many people from the rabbinic world felt threatened by the ‘Mishneh Torah’ because for the first time lay Jews would be able to understand the laws of Judaism without the assistance of the Rabbis. The fourteen books deal with belief in one God, Jewish ritual and civil laws for example blessings, circumcision, holy days, relationships, dietary laws and ethics. The ‘Mishneh Torah’ also deals with the interpretation of the notion of the Messiah. Although the ‘Mishneh Torah’ was an excellent source of spiritual knowledge and understanding for the Jewish community it also received a great deal of