author
Moses Maimonides
1135–1204
A towering figure of medieval Judaism, this rabbi, philosopher, and physician brought Jewish law, reason, and medicine into the same conversation. His books shaped religious thought for centuries and still draw readers looking for clarity, rigor, and intellectual courage.
1 Audiobook
The guide for the perplexed
by Moses Maimonides
About the author
Born in Córdoba in either 1135 or 1138, and later living in Morocco and Egypt, he became one of the most influential Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages. He is widely known as Maimonides, or Rambam, and is remembered not only as a rabbi and legal scholar but also as a philosopher and physician.
His best-known works include the Mishneh Torah, a major code of Jewish law, and The Guide for the Perplexed, which explores how faith and philosophy can speak to each other. He wrote in both Arabic and Hebrew, and his work reached far beyond Jewish communities, influencing later religious and philosophical thought.
He also served as a physician in Egypt, a role that added to his reputation as a thinker deeply engaged with practical life as well as big ideas. That blend of precision, range, and moral seriousness helps explain why he is still read more than 800 years after his death in 1204.