Maimonides

by Sherwin B. Nuland

Part of the Jewish Encounter series

Moses Maimonides was a Renaissance man before there was a Renaissance: a great physician who served a sultan, a dazzling Torah scholar, a community leader, a daring philosopher whose greatest work—The Guide for the Perplexed—attempted to reconcile scientific knowledge with faith in God. He was a Jew living in a Muslim world, a rationalist living in a time of superstition. Eight hundred years after his death, his notions about God, faith, the afterlife, and the Messiah still stir debate; his life as a physician still inspires; and the enigmas of his character still fascinate.

Sherwin B. Nuland—best-selling author of How We Die—focuses his surgeon’s eye and writer’s pen on this greatest of rabbis, most intriguing of Jewish philosophers, and most honored of Jewish doctors. He gives us a portrait of Maimonides that makes his life, his times, and his thought accessible to the general reader as they have never been before.

Genres: Biography, History, Philosophy, Jewish, Judaism, Nonfiction, Religion

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2005

About the author

Sherwin Nuland was an American surgeon and author who taught bioethics and medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. He was the author of The New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winning How We Die, and has also written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New Republic, Time, and the New York Review of Books.

His NYTimes obit: http://nyti.ms/1kxNtQC

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago, perhaps in college, I read part of the Guide of the Perplexed. In one passage, the author - Moses Maimonides (1138 - 1204) - presents the striking image of silver filigree encasing a golden apple, offering it as a metaphor for the way good writing, beautiful in its own right, cradles an even more valuable substantive message. [ed: note that this is wrong - see the comment thread below] As I read other parts of the Guide, I often felt I could perceive only the filigree, while the golden apple itself eluded me. So, it was a joy to find this short (200 pages) biography and introduction to Maimonides and his works.

For someone looking to learn about Maimonides, this book is a marvelous place to start. Sherwin Nuland is a surgeon and historian of medicine, and he approaches Maimonides - who was himself a successful practicing doctor - with a clear grasp of that side of the sage's professional life. Nuland provides context, describes Maimonides' education, and discusses his three major religious and philosophical works: his Commentary on the Mishnah, the Mishnah Torah, and the Guide of the Perplexed. Nuland presents Maimonides as a man gifted with an extraordinary power to absorb and synthesize information from widely disparate sources, fitting it all into a coherent (if deeply personal) framework. Nuland himself writes with simplicity and clarity. In his prologue, he says, "[t]o understand this little volume of mine, no previous knowledge of Moses ben Maimon or of his era is required, nor of philosophy, medicine, Judaica or academic methods." And yet, anyone reading this brisk biography will be hard pressed not to learn a useful quantity of each along the way.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maimonides was a physician, rabbi, scientist, philosopher and influential figure for the Sephardic Jewish community. The author does an excellent job of providing a comprehensive view of the historical events of that time through his extensive research. Even you are not Jewish, this is an excellent history book to read.

[Bob Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maimonides (1138-1204) is a man who wrote about everything from hemorrhoids to the Torah...and everything in between. Why is he not better known?

Paul Nuland attempts to bring Maimonides back into vogue with his brief volume. Nuland is by trade a medical doctor and I thought it odd that he would write a book on medieval Jewish philosopher...but when you read the volume it makes sense. Maimonides saw no division between caring for the body and caring for the soul. The two go hand in hand. His work as a theologian led to his work as a doctor and his work as a doctor led him back again to theology.

Nuland's small volume helps put Maimonides' life and thought into perspective and to help bridge the academic and popular audience gap. In doing so, Nuland thoughtfully brings the themes of Maimonides' thought to light in an accessible way for today's modern audience.

I read this book as I prepare to make my way through the Guide for the Perplexed but even if you are not planning to dive into 12th century Jewish thought, this little book gives insight into one other most interesting philosophers to come out of the medieval period.

I highly recommend this book for people interested in philosophy, theology, history and biography.

Grade: A

[Michale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciated Nuland's assertion that no matter how brilliant he was, Maimonides was a medieval physician bound by the knowledge of his time. While Heschel wrote of him as a man whose true passion was the life of the mind, Nuland spends more time discussing the exigencies of life that made the Rambam turn to medicine to earn a living after his brother David's death. Still, it is hard to get a sense of the real person when these biographers' basic approach to their subject is "we are not worthy."

[Esther Ben-Koheleth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Минутка еврейского просвещения.
Тот, кто хоть одной ногой бывал в гостях у сефардских евреев, наверное, замечал портрет Рамбама, украшающий своим грозным взглядом тот или иной уголок жилища. Да что там сефарды. Даже моя ашкеназская нерелигиозная тётя, едва переехав в Израиль, сделала две вещи, о которых не пожалела до сих пор: подключилась к Голан-телеком и повесила в прихожую портрет Рамбама, соседничать с мезузой. И сразу попала в тренд. Потому что, уж поверьте, ни один приличный израильский дом не обходится без портрета Рамбама.
Нет, на эти портреты не молятся. Их лишь почитают. Правда, иногда почитают до степени «разве что не молятся». Готова спорить на горсть шекелей, что Рамбам такую практику бы не одобрил. Но, к сожалению, выразить своё негодование затруднительно, когда ты уже умер. Даже если ты Рамбам.
Так что это за странный человек в причудливом восточном одеянии и модной чалме, которой обзавидовалась бы сама шейха Моза?
Вот о том книга и толкует!
В ней содержится отлично составленное жизнеописание Маймонида с параллельным историческим турне по Южной Испании и Северной Африке 12 века. История реальная, увлекательная, можно сказать, приключенческая, так и просится к прочтению!

Маймонид, он же Рамбам, он же Рабби Моше бен Маймон, он же Абу Имран Муса ибн Маймун, он же «от Моше до Моше не было подобного Моше» - фигура в высшей степени примечательная. И швец, и жнец, и на дуде игрец. Большой знаток Торы, автор фундаментальных еврейских религиозных трудов, раввин, врач, учёный, любитель рационализма и просто неординарная личность. Именно так принято величать этого человека, жившего более 800 лет назад.
В своей книге Шервин Нуланд предлагает взглянуть на историческую знаменитость под разными углами, демонстрируя многогранность Маймонида. И посмотреть действительно есть на что.

Настоящий герой своего времени, Рамбам приложил руку ко всему, что так или иначе касалось Иудаизма, Торы и, в особенности, Мишны и Гмары. Он навёл порядок в том, что уже давно нуждалось в систематизации. Просто у других раввинов и Талмид-хохамим на это как-то не находилось времени. А у Маймонида вот нашлось. Кто хочет, тот всегда найдёт. За что ему бесконечное спасибо. В итоге, на свет появились знаменитые Мишне Тора, Сефер аМицвот и много других, не менее глубокомысленных книг. Не говорю уж о 13 принципах веры, без которых Иудаизм нынче даже представить трудно. О том, как Рамбам писал свои знаменитые трактаты и другие труды, в книге рассказывается просто и доступно, без тягомотины.

Следующая тема, затрагиваемая автором - историческая.
Рамбам сыграл колоссальную роль в истории еврейской культуры. А история мировая, тем временем, не менее колоссальным образом влияла на судьбу самого Рамбама.
Жизнь швыряла его и в хвост и в гриву по самым разных ближневосточным углам, изматывая нервы клубок за клубком, нередко ставя под угрозу и саму жизнь. Всем вокруг неймется, но Рамбам оказывается стойким как стальная крыса и успешно преодолевает испытание за испытанием. Он постоянно вынужденно переселялся, волоча за собой семью и множество книг. Остальное нажитое добро приходилось, как это водится, бросать, а на новом месте начинать всё сначала. В итоге, он подзадолбался быть вечным странником и осел в Каире, где прожил бОльшую часть жизни. Тем более, там ему подогнали классное жилье, да и работа нашлась достойная: не молоком верблюжьем у пирамид торговать, а во дворце султана из династии Айюбидов почётную должность занимать.

Маймонид имел обыкновение вести переписку с евреями из соседних арабских стран, которые, как правило, о чём-то с ним советовались. Он прекрасно владел искусством краткости, той самой, которая сестра таланта. Но только не в переписках. Переписки, очевидно, ворошили потаенные уголки его души, и он часто становился безудержным. Иногда ответы Рамбама занимали по 800 страниц убористого текста, а временами так вообще превращались в многотомники. Я точно не знаю, но предполагаю, что от таких удручающе подробных ответов, собеседник болезненно втягивал голову в плечи и впредь вопросов не задавал. Себе, знаете ли, дороже.

Заключительная глава посвящена медицине.
Рамбам, не в пример многим современным ультрарелигиозным товарищам, почитал и уважал светскую науку. Неровно дышал в сторону точных и естественных дисциплин, углублённо их изучая. Особое место в его жизни и сердечке занимала медицина. В искусстве врачевания Маймониду не было равных. Большой ум и учёность довели до того, что он стал личным лечащим врачом самого султана Саладдина. Казалось бы, полный профессиональный апгрейд: человек достиг макушки медицинской карьеры, теперь можно скинуть тапки, валяться кверху пузом, вкушать лавры почёта и отдыхать. Какой там! Даже будучи врачом султана, Рамбам ни на минуту не прекращал прокачивать своё образование, постоянно повышая квалификацию, обмениваясь знаниями и умениями с другими известными докторами тех времен, как еврейскими, так и исламскими.
В этой главе приводятся разные любопытные медицинские выводы, сделанные Маймонидом, большинство из которых актуальны по сей день.
Не обошлось и без тычков в адрес Галена, которого Рамбам немножко не любил, но всё же уважал как медика. Он прям так и говорит: «Этот бесцеремонный лжец Гален, крайне невежественный в большинстве предметов, о которых он говорит, за исключением медицинского искусства».
Да, Рамбам был прямым, как спинка минтая и искренним, как сто первосвященников.

Несмотря на то, что поначалу к Маймониду было неоднозначное отношение, сегодня его авторитет признают во всех еврейских общинах.
Жаль только, что книг, посвященных этому необычному персонажу, на русском языке имеется неприлично мало. Радует, что хотя бы эта книжка переведена. Думаю, она будет интересна всем, кого цепляет историческая ближневосточная грызня, религия (в виде традиций и теории) и медицина (в виде науки). Советую, короче!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a brief look into life in the Middle Ages.

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly informative and readable introduction to Maimonides's life and times. If you want more than a vague outline of his ideas, look elsewhere.

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most interesting parts of this book focus on Maimonides the physician (as opposed to Maimonides the religious leader, where Nuland's discussion is a bit too sparse here and there). Maimonides (known to most Jews as Rambam) did not develop new medical knowledge, but wrote ten books synthesizing existing medical knowledge in a clear and concise way, and even occasionally criticizing the Greco-Roman masters whose works dominated medieval medicine. By the low standards of the Middle Ages, this passed for genius.

Nuland links Rambam's religious and medical careers by pointing out that in both areas, Rambam focused heavily on codifying existing knowledge in ways that would be easy for the public to use.

Nuland also engages in interesting speculation about a variety of other issues, including:

1. Why were Jews so likely to be doctors in the Middle Ages? Nuland asserts that (a) Christians were uninterested in medicine because they were more ascetic, (b) because priests could not take employment as doctors, the Christian talent pool for medicine was artificially diminished and (c) because Jews' wealth could easily be taken away, Jews had a strong incentive to seek portable skills (as opposed to investing in fixed assets such as land).

2. Why was Rambam so uninterested in accommodating or discussing competing religious views? Nuland speculates that because of Judaism's dire condition in those days (beset in persecution in some places and the temptation of assimilation into Islam in more tolerant places) Rambam may have felt the need to "circle the wagons" by encouraging as much uniformity as possible.

3. Why did Rambam (who generally opposed Messianic speculation) suggest in his letter to Yemenite Jews that prophecy might return in 1216? Nuland suggests that Rambam may have been trying to defang Messianic fever by setting a date so far in advance that he could not be disproven during his lifetime.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sherwin Nuland was a medical professor and surgeon at Yale when I was a medical student there. He wrote a very kind comment on a collection of short stories I wrote that won a prize for which he was the judge. I found the prose of the previous book of his that I read a tiny bit purple, but the style of this one was more restrained.

I learned a lot from the book, and it got me back in touch with my former identity as a doctor who was a Jew. I even used to have an illumination of the Maimonides Prayer (which Nuland tells us is not by Maimonides) up in my office when I was a pediatrician. I had inherited my largely Spanish-speaking practice from a retiring doctor who was a Sephardic Jew and spoke Ladino with his patients, as he found it was close enough to Spanish that he and they could understand each other. He came to meet me my first week on the job, and he said, "When I saw the Maimonides Prayer up on your wall, I knew you were the right doctor for my old patients."

[Nia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a bit put off at his asking whether one must be a scholar to be able to put oneself in the place and time of the Rambam, to really understand him without being emmersed in the totality of the tradition, and without being a scientist. I think this is to miss the point of what emphathy can be? Yet he poses important questions, and I think he has very valid points regarding the over three hundred year long tradition of Jewish boys being encouraged to become doctors in particular. Interesting points on the learning of Jewish and Islamic doctors versus the lack thereof in the Christian world at the time.

[Ben Shibe · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the prologue the author says he was overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of his subject and the scholarship surrounding him. He begged his editor to assign the task to someone else up to the challenge. After that buildup, I was surprised to find a simple little history book which touched only lightly on the vast complexity he had alluded to. I can’t decide whether the clear, simple depiction of Maimonides belies a great achievement of scholarship, having sifted a complex topic down to its essence (as he implied it must) or was just a cursory review of a man warranting a much more complex analysis.

[Bob Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks at this significant Jewish teacher primarily from the perspective of his medical contributions as opposed to the the usual perspective of a Jewish theologian. I will go back and check but I believe the last book I read about him didn't mention him medical proclivities. The people and the Book which I have recently completed talked about his contributions in helping to understand the Talmud and the relationship between Faith and reason

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short biography of Moses Maimonides was informative, but presumed a familiarity with the person and his works, which I did not have. It definitely helped me to better understand the unique situation of Jews living in Muslim ruled lands, the difficulties they faced, and the compromises they made to survive and thrive.

[Karen Stewart-Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good start for studying Maimonides.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading a biography of Maimonides. Who? WTF? (I'm rating it three stars because I'm not done yet.)

He was a tenth century Jewish scholar, perhaps the most important Talmudic scholar in history. He lived in Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Palestine, all over. In those days Jews kept on the move because a place could turn Hitlerish pretty fast. He was Sephardic, meaning swarthy, and spoke Arabic. He was a great Jewish Aristotelian scholar as well. His writing imposed rationality on belief, searching for a scientific and moral point of view in religion.

As with most things, when I read something a thousand years old I realize--"those people were as smart as us, if not smarter." We are insanely arrogant to think we know more about how to live than Buddha, or Aristotle, or Jesus, or Maimonides.

Here's a couple of cool things. When he arrived in Alexandria in 1127, the Egyptian dynasty was crumbling. Guess what happened? They had a civil war involving Sunnis and Shiites. Those crazies were doing the same thing then.

The Jews had a similar split, in Egypt at the time. (The author estimates 1% of Egypt was Jewish based on letters and commentaries that are still preserved.) There was a group of Jews called Karaites. They are still around in small numbers in Israel today. They believe the Old Testament is the only word of God. Whereas most Jews love and read the Torah--the 2500 years of scholarly commentary on the Bible.

In the same way today's Shiities deny oral tradition. They only believe the written Koran. The Sunnis observe a scholarly oral and written tradition. To kill each other over literary interpretation is nonsense. Of couse, I would say that since I'm with the oral tradition crowd. I think when you say that a religion is a book--as opposed to a community of believers in a living system of belief--you miss out on good opportunities.

So this battle, call it a battle between "strict constructionists" and "living document-ists" predates the battles over the US constitution by two thousand years. I take great comfort in problems that are long-standing and unresolvable. It means we must find balance between two extremes.

Here's Maimonides on free will-------------------------------
"Were not man master of his own life, it would be useless, absolutely in vain, for man to study, to instruct, for man to learn an art as it would be entirely impossible for him, on account of the external force compelling him to gain certain knowledge or to acquire a certain characteristic. Reward and punishment would be pure injustice, both as regards man toward man, and as between God and man. The theory that all is preordained is therefore positively unsound, contrary to reason and common sense, subversive of the fundamental principles of religion, and attributes injustice to God (far be it from Him). In reality, the undoubted truth of the matter is that man has full sway over all his actions. If he wishes to do a thing he does it, if he does not wish to do it, he need not, for there is no external compulsion controlling him. There, God properly commanded man, saying 'See I have set before thee this day life and the good, or death and evil. Therefore choose life.'"

I'm down with Maimonides. Also cool. He wrote about Palestine. He hated it.It was hot, desolate, filled with marauding bands of Christian soldiers of fortune working in private militias--kind of like Blackwater washouts. Or else rich Jewish merchants who had no taste for Biblical scholarship. And Moslem peasants. Change the names and teams and many things are still the same.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our study group at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, having completed reading the Mishnah over the past decade is embarking on a mission to read Rambam's epic work, Mishneh Torah. This biography of Maimonides by Sherwin Nuland was selected as introductory material. By a physician, about a physician, it is well written, interesting and very readable. New info: The Physician's Prayer commonly attributed to Maimonides apparently was not composed by him, after all.

[Marginalia2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at a man who invigorated, intrigued. exasperated people. A good introduction to some of his thoughts. Knowing his background and understanding the setting and time of his writings gives me a greater understanding of Jewish writings.

[Sam Berner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really handy introduction to Rambam as a physician and a human being, ahead of his time, humane and yet still very medieval. None of the humbug that you usually get about him in the other biographies. Maybe because it is written by another doctor?

[Joe Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I know why Khedron wants to be a doctor.

[jegphd · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about both Maimonides as doctor and philosopher and the time he lived in. Author writes extremely well.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction for the non-technical Jewish reader and non Jewish general to one of the greatest minds the world has ever produced.

[Micah GW · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to take a long break from this book because it dragged so bad. I finished this book to spite its author.

[Owen Margolis]

Intense work written by a physician. Fascinating

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best introductions to Maimonides as a man, a doctor, a human. Dr. Nuland is an excellent guide for those who are perplexed.