Maimonides, Moses

Maimonides, Moses Originally Moses Ben Maimon. Sometimes called "RaMBaM." 1135-1204

Spanish-born Jewish philosopher and physician. The greatest Jewish scholar of the Middle Ages, he codified the Talmud and in Guide for the Perplexed (1190) reconciled Aristotelian philosophy with Jewish theology.

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Literature, 1190

Nonfiction: Guide of the Perplexed by Cairo rabbi-physician Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon, or Abu Imran al-Kufuni), now 55, who has held that conversion was no sin so long as one remained secretly faithful to Israel.

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Maimonides

Maimonides or Moses ben Maimon, 1135-1204, Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher, one of the greatest Hebrew scholars; b. Spain. He is sometimes called Rambam (from Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon). His great work Mishneh Torah, known in English as the Strong Hand, represents his effort to organize for the layman as well as for rabbis and judges the vast mass of Jewish oral law, or MISHNA. His contribution to Western philosophy, however, rests on his influential Guide to the Perplexed, in which he attempted to reconcile Aristotle's theories with those of Jewish theology and thereby helped to introduce Aristotle to the Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages (see SCHOLASTICISM).

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Cultural and Religious Issues

Rationales for Jewish Circumcision: "The outstanding medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon; or Rambam, from the initials of Rabbi Moses ben Maimon), 1135-1204, was physician to the Sultan Saladin and communal leader of Egyptian Jewry, as well as an important figure in the codification of Jewish law." Read what he has to say about circumcision, in his oeuvre, "The Guide of the Perplexed".

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Rationales for Jewish Circumcision (from Moses Maimonides, "The Guide of the Perplexed", Part III, ch. 33)

To the totality of purposes of the perfect Law there belong the abandonment, depreciation, and restraint of desires in so far as possible. You know already that most of the lusts and licentiousness of the multitude consist in an appetite for eating, drinking and sexual intercourse. To the totality of intentions of the Law there belong gentleness and docility; man should not be hard and rough, but responsive, obedient, acquiescent, and docile. You know already His commandment... "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. Be silent, and hearken, O Israel. If ye be willing and obedient."

from Part III, ch. 49:

With regard to circumcision, one of the reasons for it is, in my opinion, the wish to bring about a decrease in sexual intercourse and a weakening of the organ in question, so that this activity be diminished and the organ be in as quiet a state as possible. It has been thought that circumcision perfects what is defective congenitally. This gave the possibility to everyone to raise an objection and to say: How can natural things be defective so that they need to be perfected from outside, all the more because we know how useful the foreskin is for that member? In fact this commandment has not been prescribed with a view to perfecting what is defective congenitally, but to perfecting what is defective morally.

The bodily pain caused to that member is the real purpose of circumcision. None of the activities necessary for the preservation of the individual is harmed thereby, nor is procreation rendered impossible, but violent concupiscience and lust that goes beyond what is needed are diminished. The fact that circumcision weakens the faculty of sexual excitement and sometimes perhaps diminishes the pleasure is indubitable. For if at birth this member has been made to bleed and has had its covering taken away from it, it must indubitably be weakened.

The Sages, may their memory be blessed, have explicitly stated: "It is hard for a woman with whom an uncircumcised man has had sexual intercourse to separate from him." In my opinion this is the strongest of the reasons for circumcision. Who first began to perform this act, if not Abraham who was celebrated for his chastity---as has been mentioned by the Sages, may their memory be blessed, with reference to his dictum: "Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon."

Rationales for circumcision on the eighth day from Maimonides, Part III, ch. 49:

The perfection and perpetuation of this Law can only be achieved if circumcision is performed in childhood. For this there are three wise reasons.

The first is that if the child were let alone until he grew up, he would sometimes not perform it.

The second is that a child does not suffer as much pain as a grown-up man because his membrane is still soft and his imagination weak; for a grown-up man would regard the thing, which he would imagine before it occurred, as terrible and hard.

The third is that the parents of a child that is just born take lightly matters concerning it, for up to that time the imaginative form that compels the parents to love it is not yet consolidated. For this imaginative form increases through habitual contact and grows with the growth of the child. Then it begins to decrease and to disappear, I refer to this imaginative form. For the love of the father and of the mother for the child when it has just been born is not like their love for it when it is one year old, and their love for it when it is one year old is not like their love when it is six years old. Consequently if it were left uncircumcised for two or three years, this would necessitate the abandonment of circumcision because of the father's love and affection for it. At the time of its birth, on the other hand, this imaginative form is very weak, especially as far as concerns the father upon whom this commandment is imposed.

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