Maimonides' Introduction to His Commentary on the Mishnah

Download or read book Maimonides' Introduction to His Commentary on the Mishnah written by Moses Maimonides and published by Rlpg/Galleys. This book was released on 1995 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moses Maimonides (1138-1204), physician, scientist, astronomer, philosopher, and theologian, emerged as a halakhist through his classic work, Commentary on the Mishnah, in which he sets out to explain to the layman the meaning and the purpose of the Mishnah, while bypassing the often complicated and concentrated discussions of the Gemara. It was Maimonides' wish to popularize the Mishnah and to make it easily accessible to the general reader. He did so by extracting the underlying principles involved in lengthy, often abstract, talmudic discussions and stating the halakhic decisions derived therein, interspersing them with ethical insights and philosophical teachings.