It was a 250~ page biography by Abraham Joshua Heschel of Maimonides (the "Rambam"), who is considered along with Rashi the greatest post-biblical Jewish scholars. Why did it interest me? Because he was basically Judaism's earlier version of Thomas Aquinas (and he influenced Aquinas's views*) along with Albertus Magnus, Alexander of Hales, and Meister Eckhart called Maimonides an authority "second at most to St. Augustine", also impacting Nicholas of Cusa, Leibniz and Spinoza, and he struggled to synthesize Aristotlean logic with religious belief in his "The Guide for the Perplexed", updating the religion and preparing it for the modern era. His basic approach was to study non-religious matters such as mathematics and astronomy and to use Aristotlean logic to "prove" the realities of the bible where they could be proven, or otherwise to rely on the bible with faith, same as Aquinas.

The biography itself was OK -- it was easy to read and decently written, covering Maimonidies's life and his greatest works, and it tried touching on his personality which seemed (to me) to be incredibly arrogant even as he preached great humility, but perhaps that arrogance was well earned; however, given my lack of knowledge of Talmudic precepts and of rabbinical history there were great gaps of my knowledge which would have to be supplemented in order to fully understand the issues.

His basic story was this: he was a wandering Jew in North Africa (wandering due to both Islamic pressures and controversies that he stirred up within the Jewish community), son of a Rabbi and learned, possessing a photographic memory (in his older age he briefly forgot a very obscure reference and he was deeply embarrassed). He studied deeply and his younger brother supported him financially as a merchant until the younger brother drowned while trying to go trade in India; this threw Maimonides into a multi-year depression, after which he arose and became the personal physician of Saladin and the leader of the Jewish community in the Middle East (kind of; he competed with the Rabbis in Babylon).

Other than Guide to the Perplexed, he is primarily known for his Mishneh Torah, which gave the black letter law of Talmudic interpretations of the Torah, which had not existed prior to his attempt (Jews would have to study Talmud, which was comprised of the written down Oral Law ("Mishnah") and the rabbinical interpretations of the Mishnah ("gemara") for years or decades to understand the black letter law, which was beyond the ability for most Jews). The Mishneh Torah was later used as one of the works for the basis of the Shulchun Aruch, which updated the black letter law for the Ashkenazim.

One of the most interesting aspects of the biography was how Maimonides cracked down on the Karaite sect, which was a popular Jewish sect of that time that disclaimed the Oral Law/Talmud entirely and only believed in the Torah. The Karaites believed that the rabbinical Jews - the descendants of the Pharisees - had rabbinical rulings that went against the intent of the Torah, which seems obviously true. The Karaite community still exists today but they are very small. Interestingly, both the Tsar in Russia and the Nazis who invaded Germany left the Karaites alone, believing that the core problem was the Talmudic Jews, not the Karaites/Torah Jews.

Lastly, I really don't like studying religious texts or have much interest in exoteric religious debates; my brain doesn't work that way. I like to view real world effects of beliefs and work backwards; it is the results of belief that matters to me, not clever arguments of interpreting God's will or whatever.

Overall this was an OK exercise but probably one I won't go down further given I have so much else to explore.

* The Christians had burned almost all of Aristotle's works after their conquest of Rome, and it was the re-introduction of those works by the Muslims after 1,100 AD that caused a crisis of faith in the West. The Church was forced to grapple with Aristotle's arguments and that led to Aquinas's attempt to synthesize belief with logic. In constructing a Christian philosophy within an Aristotelian framework, he made Aristotelianism respectable and acceptable to the most advanced thinkers of the medieval world, which was the biggest factor in ending Christian persecution of reason and science. This in turn opened the door to the Renaissance.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607773&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310915",#48172216)

I thought this passage about his daily routine was interesting, where he told Samuel ibn Tibbon not to visit him because he didn't even have an hour a day to himself:

"The sultan lives in Cairo and I live in Forstat; the two towns are two Sabbath leagues apart. I have a difficult time with the sultan; I must visit him every morning. If he himself or one of his children or harem members is sick, then I may not leave Cairo. I spend most of the day in the sultan's palace. Usually, I also have to treat some dignitary. In a word: I go to Cairo every morning at the crack of dawn, and if nothing keeps me there and nothing unforeseen occurs, I can come home only in the afternoon, but by no means any earlier. Here, starving as I am, I find the antechamber full of people: Jews and non-Jews, nobles and lowly peoples, judges and officials, friends and foes, a motley company awaiting me with impatience. I dismount from my horse, wash, and enter the waiting room with the plea that they may not feel offended if I have to make them wait a bit longer while I partake of a hasty light meal, which normally happens only once every twenty-four hours. Then I go out to them again, treat them, and prescribe medicaments on notes. Thus the people go in and out of my home until late in the evening. Sometimes, I swear it on the Torah, it is 2 am or even later before I manage to consume anything. I am then so worn out that I collapse on my bed; I have to say good night, I am totally exhausted and incapable of speaking. Only on the Sabbath can anyone speak to me alone, or can I be alone with myself for even an instant. Then all or most of the members of the community gather in my home after the morning prayer. I indicate what is to be done in the community during the coming week; then they listen to a short lecture until noon, go home, and return in a smaller number. Now a second lecture takes place, between the minkhah and the maariv prayer."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607773&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310915",#48172581)

But I read something of his once about how the whole of the ten commandments are contained within "honor thy father and mother" and it was a great read.

from what I can tell, heschel was a good thinker and good writer, deeply souled. But I suspect he was fated to always be pushing for his own tribe, at anyone's expense, which should probably be a state of nature for any tribe... except ((somehow)) europeans got bamboozled out of it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607773&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310915",#48172579)

i knew, at the same time, he was promoting the mlk myth, fucking up vatican 2, etc etc, so it occurs to me he was probably a complicated man

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607773&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310915",#48172671)