OLL’s March Birthday: Maimonides (30 March 1135 [?] – 12 December 1204)

The signature of Maimonides

March’s OLL birthday essay is in honor of the great Jewish rabbi, legal scholar, philosopher, community leader, and physician Moses ben Maimon, better known by the Hellenized version of his name, Maimonides. In Hebrew he is often called “Rambam,” an abbreviation of “Our Rabbi Moses, son of Maimon” and occasionally as “the Great Eagle” (haNesher haGadol). Although he made his living as a physician, he is mostly famous for his enduring contribution to the development of Jewish law and the crucial role his works subsequently played in medieval Scholastic philosophy.