Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam]

Rabbeinu Moshe ben Maimon, "The Great Eagle," one of the greatest halakhic authorities and commentators of all generations, a philosopher and physician without equal. His primary and great work, "Mishneh Torah" (Yad HaChazakah), in which all the commandments of the Torah are compiled, with all the halakhot and rulings from the Talmud, all organized by topic; his work "Moreh Nevuchim," which deals with issues of faith in God and more. He was born in the year 4894 from creation (1138 CE), approximately 690 years after the end of the Amoraic period, on the eve of Passover, which fell on Shabbat, in the city of Cordoba, Spain. Of him they said: "From Moses (our Teacher) until Moses (the Rambam), there arose none like Moses" (the Rambam). The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) testified in the beloved letter he composed (he lived in the generation after the Rambam): that in all the lands of Yemen, they instituted and would say in the Kaddish: "In your lives and in your days and in the life of our master the Rambam." He wrote in his commentary on the Mishnah: I gathered all the books from the commentaries of my father, my master Abi Mari, until Rabbi Yosef HaLevi ibn Migash (the Rambam's teacher), because the heart of that man was awe-inspiring, and none like him was before him, a king (Rabbi Yosef HaLevi). I began to comment on the Mishnah when I was 23, and I completed it in Egypt after 30 years. When he fled from Spain to Egypt, the king of Egypt took him as his physician, and saw that his wisdom surpassed that of all the sages in all wisdoms.

His Wisdom

When the king of Egypt fell ill, the Rambam prepared medicine for the king. The king's gentile doctors put poison in it to frame the Rambam, and went ahead to the king, secretly revealing to him that they knew for certain that the Jewish doctor had put poison in his medicine. When the Rambam came before the king, the king said: Give a little of the medicine to the dog, and immediately the dog died. The king was astonished and said to himself: Surely the doctors, in their hatred for the Rambam, did this, but nevertheless, the Rambam's arguments were silenced. The king said to the Rambam: You are condemned to death! But because I appreciate your work, you may choose the manner of death you desire. The Rambam said to his disciples: I will choose for the doctors to let my blood from all the blood vessels in my body, and through this they will think I have died, and I will prepare a medicine that will revive me! Immediately after you bring me back, give me to drink from it! For there is one artery coming from the heart whose location the doctors surely do not know and from which they will not bleed, and by means of the medicine I will be healed and live. And so it was, his disciples carried him and brought him the medicine, and he lived. He sat for a year and made 12 copies of "Yad HaChazakah." He fled and hid in a cave and composed his book there. He did not write much, but rather illuminated the halakhot with the power of the Gemara or supporting references.

The Rambam's Son Recounts What He Heard From His Father

He sat for years in the cave and did not leave until he finished. On the night he completed his composition, his father, Rabbeinu Maimon, came to him in a waking vision, and another man with him, and said to his son the Rambam: Behold, Moshe Rabbeinu has arrived with me, and the Rambam was startled! Moshe Rabbeinu said to the Rambam: I came to see what you have done, and when he saw it, he said: May your strength be firm, son of giants. The Ra'avad (Rabbi Avraham ben David), author of the critical glosses, testifies that the Rambam did a great work in assembling the words of the Babylonian Talmud, Jerusalem Talmud, and Toseftot.