According to Maimonides, an afterlife continues for the soul of every human being, a soul now separated from the body in which it was " housed " during its earthly existence.

In Montpellier, where he lived from 1303 to 1306, he was much distressed by the prevalence of Aristotelian rationalism, which in his opinion, through the medium of the works of Maimonides, threatened the authority of the Old Testament, obedience to the law, and the belief in miracles and revelation.

He mentions even with reverence the name of Maimonides, whose work he possessed and studied ; but he was more inclined toward the mysticism of Nachmanides.

In them he concentrated on the idea that prophetic inspiration was possible even in post-Talmudic times, and, indeed, had taken place at various times and in various schools, from the Geonim to Maimonides and beyond.

By the 12th century, the Mishneh Torah ( i. e., Rabbi Moses Maimonides ) was criticizing Christianity on the grounds of idol worship, in that Christians attributed divinity to Jesus who had a physical body.

Maimonides was concerned about the need for the law to guard itself in public perceptions, to preserve its majesty and retain the people's respect.

Maimonides was not the first Jewish thinker to criticise concubinage ; for example, it is severely condemned in Leviticus Rabbah.

As early as the 2nd century, however, some authorities declared this resurrection of the dead was a prophetic vision: an opinion regarded by Maimonides ( Guide for the Perplexed, II: 46 ) and his followers as the only rational explanation of the Biblical passage.

Besides the basic categories applied to the mitzvot in antiquity, during the medieval period Jewish law was classified by such works as Maimonides ' Mishneh Torah and Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch.

In Maimonides ' time, his list of tenets was criticized by Hasdai Crescas and Joseph Albo.

Anatoli was the son-in-law ( and possibly also the brother-in-law ) of Samuel ibn Tibbon, the well known translator of Maimonides.

Owing to this intimate connection with the ibn Tibbons, Anatoli was introduced to the philosophy of Maimonides, the study of which was such a great revelation to him that he, in later days, referred to it as the beginning of his intelligent and true comprehension of the Scriptures, while he frequently alluded to Ibn Tibbon as one of the two masters who had instructed and inspired him.

Mosheh ben Maimon ( משה בן מימון )‎, called Moses Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn (), or RaMBaM ( רמב " ם – Hebrew acronym for " Rabbi Mosheh Ben Maimon "), was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the most prolific and followed Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages.

Maimonides was born 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.

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

Some say, though, that it is probable Maimonides feigned a conversion to Islam before escaping, his forced conversion was ruled legally invalid per Islamic law when brought up by a rival in Egypt.

With the loss of the family funds tied up in David's business venture, Maimonides was constrained to assume the vocation of physician, for which he was to become famous, having been trained in medicine in both Córdoba and in Fes.

Maimonides died on December 12, 1204 ( 20th of Tevet 4965 ) in Fustat, and it is widely believed that he was briefly buried in the study room ( beit hamidrash ) of the synagogue courtyard, and that, soon after, in accordance with his wishes, his remains were exhumed and taken to Tiberias where he was re-interred.

Maimonides and his wife, the daughter of one Mishael ben Yeshayahu Halevi, had one child, Avraham, who was recognized as a great scholar, and who succeeded him as Nagid and as court physician at the age of eighteen.

The office of Nagid was held by the Maimonides family for four successive generations until the end of the 14th century.

A popular medieval saying that also served as his epitaph states, From Mosheh ( of the Torah ) to Mosheh ( Maimonides ) there was none like Mosheh.

But Maimonides was also one of the most influential figures in medieval Jewish philosophy.

There is a common misconception that Abravanel agreed with Maimonidean views ; while sometimes their ideas matched up, most of Abravanel ’ s thoughts strongly disagreed with those of Maimonides.

RABaD was thus an opponent to the codification of the Halakha ; but he was even more strongly opposed to the construction of a system of dogmas in Judaism, particularly according to the method followed by Maimonides, who often set up the concepts of the Aristotelian philosophy as Jewish theology.

At the same time, Maimonides and other halachic authorities forbade of strongly discouraged any unethical treatment of slaves.

The intensity of debate spurred Catholic Church interventions against " heresy " and even a general confiscation of Rabbinic texts and in reaction, the defeat of the more radical interpretations of Maimonides and at least amongst Ashkenazi Jews, a tendency not so much to repudiate as simply to ignore the specifically philosophical writings and to stress instead the Rabbinic and halachic writings ; even these writings often included considerable philosophical chapters or discussions in support of halachic observance, as David Hartman observes Maimonides made clear " the traditional support for a philosophical understanding of God both in the Aggadah of Talmud and in the behavior of the hasid pious Jew " and so Maimonidean thought continues to influence traditionally observant Jews.

By the 15th century, its authority in the Spanish Jewish community was such that Joseph ibn Shem-Tov drew from it arguments in his attacks against Maimonides, and even representatives of non-mystical Jewish thought began to assert its sacredness and invoke its authority in the decision of some ritual questions.

While defending Maimonides against Hasdai and Albo, he refused to accept dogmatic articles for Judaism, criticizing any formulation as minimizing acceptance of all 613 mitzvot.

Technically, chametz is only leaven made from the " five grains ": wheat, spelt, barley, shibbolet shu ' al ( two-rowed barley, according to Maimonides ; oats according to Rashi ) or rye ; although there are additional rabbinic prohibitions against eating these grains in any form other than matzo.

These writings are: " Milhamot HaShem ," defending Alfasi against the criticisms of Zerachiah ha-Levi of Girona ( published with the " Alfasi ," Venice, 1552 ; frequently reprinted ; separate edition, Berlin, 1759 ); " Sefer ha-Zekhut ," in defense of Alfasi against the criticisms of Abraham ben David ( RABaD ; printed with Abraham Meldola's " Shiv ' ah ' Enayim ," Leghorn, 1745 ; under the title " Machaseh u-Magen ," Venice, 1808 ); " Hassagot " ( Constantinople, 1510 ; frequently reprinted ), in defense of Simeon Kayyara against the criticisms of Maimonides ' " Sefer ha-Mitzwoth " ( Book of Precepts ).

Defending Maimonides, Hillel addressed a letter to his friend Maestro Gaio asking him to use his influence with the Jews of Rome against Maimonides ' opponents ( Solomon Petit ).

His most important work, Rosh Amanah (" The Pinnacle of Faith "), defends Maimonides ' thirteen articles of belief against attacks of Hasdai Crescas and Yosef Albo.

He consulted most of the authorities available to him, but generally arrived at a practical decision by following the majority among the three great Spanish authorities, Alfasi, Maimonides and Asher ben Yeḥiel, unless most of the other authorities were against them.

According to several authorities, a decision may not be rendered in opposition to a view of Maimonides, even where he apparently militated against the sense of a Talmudic passage, for in such cases the presumption was that the words of the Talmud were incorrectly interpreted.

Likewise: " One must follow Maimonides even when the latter opposed his teachers, since he surely knew their views, and if he decided against them he must have disapproved their interpretation.

According to several authorities (" Yad Mal ' akhi " rule 26, pg 186 ), a decision may not be rendered in opposition to a view of Maimonides, even though the latter apparently militated against the sense of a Talmudic passage, for in such cases the presumption was that the words of the Talmud were incorrectly interpreted.

Likewise: " One must follow Maimonides even when the latter opposed his teachers, since he surely knew their views, and if he decided against them he must have disapproved their interpretation ".

Even when later authorities, like Asher ben Jehiel ( the Rosh ), decided against Maimonides, it became a rule of the Oriental Jews to follow the latter, although the European Jews, especially the Ashkenazim, preferred the opinions of the Rosh in such cases.

One of the strongest arguments against it is that it would be astonishing if Maimonides, famously opposed to the Karaites, had followed the authority of a Karaite, even in the matter of open and closed sections.

The Dor Daim believe that the popular forms of Kabbalah prevalent today are contrary to the absolute and incomparable Unity of the Creator and violate various laws against idolatry and polytheism, in particular the prohibition against Ribbuy Reshuyoth ( worshipping or conceiving of a multiplicity of reigns ) referred to by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah.

As against this, many ( e. g. Yeshayahu Leibowitz ) argue that Caro and the others were operating within the rigorous rules of halachic reasoning and that their conclusions were in no way affected or invalidated by their personal theological views ( just as, from the opposite perspective, Maimonides ' status as a halachic authority is not affected by his acceptance of Greek philosophy ).

Crescas makes no concealment of his purpose to vindicate classical Jewish thinking against the rationalism of Maimonides and Gersonides.

He argues against Maimonides for the admissibility of divine attributes.

( Here he sides with Maimonides against Gersonides.

This work, devoted to the championship of the Maimonidean thirteen articles of belief against the attacks of Crescas and Albo, ends with the statement that Maimonides compiled these articles merely in accordance with the fashion of other nations, which set up axioms or fundamental principles for their science.