For those seeking an entry into the most brilliant of Jewish legal minds, a recently launched series serves as an immensely rewarding resource. The first volume of Koren Publisher’s Steinsaltz Edition of Maimonides’ code of Jewish law, the Mishne Torah, has been published in English. It seeks to make the legendary medieval thinker’s teachings accessible to a wide audience, utilizing the commentary of the late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who passed away in 2020.
In addition to the clear English translation of the source material, this unique edition contains sections covering additional legal perspectives that supplement those of the Mishne Torah itself. Also included are some of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe’s writings on Maimonides’ legal rulings.
Most helpful are the conceptual essays in the back of the book, which touch upon how Maimonides’ thought has been adapted, and argued with, over the ages.
Case in point is the volume’s discussion of how Maimonides’ belief in the science of the day is to be thought of in our own era – and how it relates to the authority ascribed to his rulings.
The article does not shy away from the fact that Maimonides presumes several elements of the natural world that are no longer accepted as true. These include a geocentric universe (with the Earth at the center), the existence of transparent celestial spheres, the attribution of intellectual capabilities to those spheres, and the cosmos as being structured with fire above air, above water, above earth, in concentric layers.
“Already in [Maimonides’] own time many Sages rejected his opinions,” the essay notes. Some subsequent Jewish authorities banned his books, and even burned them. Though, it notes, the harshest reactions usually centered on the Maimonides’ philosophic worldview, “which were considered an expression of foreign philosophy, mainly Aristotelian, not his scientific claims, which were probably viewed as established scientific assertions.”
The 18th-century sage known as the Vilna Gaon objected to some of Maimonides’ scientific assertions, and argued that “he was drawn after the accursed [Greek] philosophy.” Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin (1823-1900) also expressed reservations about Maimonides worldview, writing: “Maimonides, who explained the Act of Creation as referring to the natural sciences of created beings, found this useful in the service of God, may He be blessed, for loving and fearing Him. However, if this is true for him, it is not true for most of those who occupy themselves with these sciences… [the] knowledge of such subjects is not required for Torah believers, especially since many of his claims are not true, according to [gentile] scholars of the current day.” According to these opinions, the scientific content of the relevant chapters in Mishne Torah is not a matter of authoritative Jewish law, but rather a description of the world according to the knowledge and views of the author’s time. His Torah rulings are not to be undermined by new scientific concepts.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Lubavitcher Rebbe believed that all of Maimonides’ statements in the Mishne Torah — even those describing “science” — are binding and authoritative (though the Rebbe simultaneously argued that Maimonides’ philosophical writings in “The Guide of the Perplexed” are not binding and eternal). Accordingly, one must accept the views of Maimonides even when they contradict the findings of contemporary science.
Wherever one lands in this debate, the essay argues, “it is genuinely important from a religious and even a halakhic perspective to engage and delve into the science of the nature of the world.” This is the best way, in Maimonides’ opinion, to fulfill the commandment of loving and fearing God.
In this enriching new edition of the classic code of Jewish law, readers can delve deeply into the mind of Maimonides, from his analysis of the commandments to the controversies that have accompanied his writings, offering a window into the wisdom of one of our tradition’s preeminent thinkers.
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern is Senior Adviser to the Provost of Yeshiva University and Deputy Director of Y.U.’s Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. His books include the newly released “Jewish Roots of American Liberty,” “The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada,” “Esther in America,” “Gleanings: Reflections on Ruth” and “Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States.”
