Maimonides The Mishnah Summary

Maimonides was a Jewish philosopher in medieval Judaism who wrote the Commentary on the Mishnah - explained each of its meaning in a simple and systematic way and the link between learning Torah and putting it into practice. He was respected by Jews and Muslims alike. He codified the Jewish law, Mishneh Torah, which still holds its relevance to this day in the Orthodox Jewish communities. He considered Judaism to be a revealed law and rather than faith. He has Aristotelian and Neoplatonic views but he differentiates from it as well. In his Guide of the Perplexed writing he examines the need for the law. Just like Aristotle and Augustine, he states that man is a political animal; apart from all other species man requires foresight to survive. Man

The object of nomos is imaginary happiness and true happiness is the object of the divine law. However there could be a law that could seek to promote both perfections of man and when it comes to the welfare of the soul as well as of the body, to make human kind understand the reason for the existence of everything as far as possible is the distinguishing feature of the divinely revealed law. According to him political welfare is an essential prerequisite of man’s ultimate perfection. Maimonides distinguishes between the prophets, he states that each of the prophets differed radically and so did their prophecies. The prophecy given to Moses had the form of law whereas Abraham and Noah’s prophecies did not take the form of divine legislation. Hence revealed law in this case is the divine law enacted by God and made known to man by a form of revelation in this instance Moses was the legislating prophet, who wrote the Mosaic Law. For Maimonides this is the divine law, the only perfect law that is unchanging and unchangeable. “The decisive point is that Maimonides regards the law given by the highest prophet as absolutely superior to the philosopher’s