Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, Talmudist, Halachist, physician, philosopher and communal leader, known in the Jewish world by the acronym "Rambam" and to the world at large as "Maimonides," is one of the most important figures in the history of Torah scholarship; on his gravestone were inscribed the words, "From Moses to Moses, none arose as Moses."
Maimonides was born in Cordova, Spain, on the 14th of Nissan of the year 4895 from creation (1135); his father, Rabbi Maimon, was the Dayan (chief rabbinic authority) of Cordova and a descendent of King David. In 1148, the fanatical Muslim Almohades came to power and the Jewish population became subject to severe persecution and forced conversion to Islam; the family of Rabbi Maimon fled Cordova and wandered for ten years throughout southern Spain and northern Africa, lived for five years in Fez, Morocco, finally making its way, by way of of Jerusalem and Hebron, to Fostat (old Cairo) in Egypt.
When the drowning death of his younger brother David, a jewel merchant whose ship went down in the Indian Ocean along with all the family's assets, forced Maimonides to become the family breadwinner, he took up the practice of medicine (which he had studied in his youth); in time, he became personal physician to Grand Visier Alfadhil and to Sultan Saladin and authored a number of medical tracts. He also served as the leader of Egyptian Jewry.
Maimonides began the authorship of his first major work, a commentary on the Mishnah written in the Arabic vernacular (which includes his famed "Thirteen Principles" of the Jewish faith), as a young man of 23; he also wrote a commentary on much of the Talmud (which has been lost), and Sefer HaMitzvot, which enumerates the 613 precepts of the Torah. His most important work is Mishneh Torah, a 14-volume codification of the entire body of Torah law; it was the first such systematic codification, and the most comprehensive ever written. (In 1984 the Lubavitcher Rebbe initiated a daily study cycle for the Mishneh Torah and Sefer Hamitzvot, bringing the knowledge of these basic Torah works to many thousands of Jews worldwide).
In the last decade of his life, Maimonides authored his famed philosophical tract, Guide for the Perplexed. Maimonides passed away on the 20th of Tevet of the year 4965 from creation (1204) and was buried in the city of Tiberias in the the Holy Land.
Links: Today's Rambam lessons; Maimonides on charity; Maimonides on the birth of Judaism; freedom of choice (two essays based on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's teachings)
See Also:
The Rambam, A Brief Biography
Kehot Publication Society
