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Reviewed by:
  • Maimonides
  • Marc B. Shapiro
Maimonides, by Sherwin B. Nuland. New York: Schocken, 2005. 233 pp. $19.95.

The last few years have seen the publication of numerous studies focusing on Maimonides and his oeuvre. The impetus, of course, was the eight-hundredth anniversary of Maimonides' death. Together with the much new and excellent scholarship produced during this time, comes a delightful, popular biography [End Page 183] of Maimonides by Sherwin Nuland, an outstanding medical doctor well known for his best-selling book How We Die.

It is no easy task to write a popular biography of Maimonides, and the last one to succeed in this was Heschel, some seventy years ago. I am happy to note that Nuland's book succeeds as well, and his magnificent writing is able to illuminate Maimonides' life in a way that is both informative and enjoyable. Scholars will even learn a thing or two, especially relating to Maimonides and medicine, not surprisingly the book's strongest aspect. (There is even a chapter devoted to Jews and medicine, which while somewhat out of place as the first chapter, is very informative.)

Before reading the book, and despite knowing the praise it had received, I was indeed skeptical that a non-specialist would be able to coherently present Maimonides' multi-faceted personality and works. It is perhaps precisely because Nuland is not a Maimonides specialist that he is best able to see the forest and not get bogged down in the trees. My only complaint is that the chapter on the Guide for the Perplexed is not up to the standard set in the other chapters. The reader does not gain any real understanding as to why the book was so controversial or what the struggle of reason and revelation meant for Maimonides. Unfortunately, there is no real discussion here of Maimonides' philosophy, and yet it is precisely due to Maimonides' philosophical endeavors, and how they relate to his rabbinic works, that he is so unique. Taking an issue such as creation, or providence, and showing how differently the philosophical tradition understood it compared to the Jewish tradition would have been a great service to the reader.

Since this book is likely to become a standard introduction to Maimonides, it is perhaps helpful to point out a few errors that hopefully can be corrected in a future edition.

P. 28: Nuland gives the precise date of Maimonides' birth, yet the evidence for this is somewhat questionable, especially since the medieval source that provides the date also provides an incorrect year.

P. 33. Maimonides was only a child when R. Joseph Ibn Migash died (1141), so any tales about Maimonides studying with him are certainly legendary.

P. 56. Nuland states that Maimonides wrote a pamphlet in which he explained his controversial view that rabbis could not take a salary from the community. Actually, the passages Nuland refers to appear in Maimonides' commentary to Avot 4:7.

P. 57. Nuland writes that the Shiites, who ruled Egypt during Maimonides' lifetime, "reject the oral tradition of Islam, accepting only the written Koran." This portrayal of Shiites as akin to Karaites is incorrect, as the Shiites [End Page 184] indeed identify authoritative hadiths. In addition, their advocacy of the Imamate shows that they believe in far more than the Koran. Furthermore, to say that the Sunnis "are therefore considered the more orthodox" makes no sense at all, since it depends upon whose perspective you are discussing. As far as the Shiites are concerned, it is they who are the orthodox Muslims.

Pp. 68–69. Nuland is apparently unaware that the popular ani ma'amin formulation is not identical with Maimonides' principles of faith, as he records them in his Commentary on the Mishnah.

P. 75. Contrary to what Nuland writes, Samuel Ibn Tibbon was not the translator of the Commentary on the Mishnah. All he did was translate Tractate Avot (including Shemonah Perakim), while different people translated the rest of the Commentary

Errors such as these, no doubt unavoidable when one moves into a field far from his own, should not be seen in any way as lessening the value of this book. As I indicated, it...

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