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The Book of Knowledge: From the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides

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I must confess that I have not read this particular book. I have read all of Mishneh Torah. This review is based upon the totality of M-Torah.

Mishneh Torah is one of the master works of the world. Aside from the Torah itself, M-Torah by RAMBAM is the best Jewish book I have read, and I have read many. M-Torah is free of Maimonides' particular philosophy, which can be found in Guide of the Perplexed. GOTP is difficult reading. M-Torah is not.
It is clear-cut, quite simple to read and reflects classical Judaism devoid of Kantian or other influences. One who does not grasp the nature of Jewish ethics from the Bible may find M-Torah easier to understand. There is the wonderful prohibition against gambling: If one gambles with a fellow Jew and wins, it is stealing; if one gambles and wins or loses with a gentile, it is a waste of time, and it is, says RAMBAM, unfitting that a person should do anything which neither increases one's understanding nor contributes to the progress of civilization.

RAMBAM uses Jacob as the ethical model for Jewish behavior. He relates how Jacob approaches his brother, whom he cheated of his birthright, and as Jacob approaches he places his lesser wives and their children in the front of a long line, then his less favored wife and her children and then his favored wife with her sons.

RAMBAM demands that the Jew lie to a potential enemy to avoid the potential enemy's having an advantage. He bases this on the behavior of Jacob.

He prohibits Jews' selling weapons to gentiles except in the common defense. He states that a Jew must be treated by a Jewish physician unless it is a matter of immediate life-or-death, and the Jew who will die without immediate medical care must accept death rather than be treated by an apostate. This is most telling about the Jewish ethic: The long-term welfare of the Jewish people, living and of future generations, is the measure of what is ethical as opposed to what is unacceptable or sin. The ethno-centric quality of the ethical standard which has influence generations of Jews, but also Christians, is brought before the eyes of any reader willing to open his eyes.

M-Torah is one of the most important books in the history of man. I found it in a university library. Any good university library should have at least one copy.

It is perhaps telling that M-Torah was written in Hebrew, but Guide of the Perplexed was written in Arabic.

Some of the directions given in M-Torah may seem trivial, such as the rule that if a coin is on a table and its ownership in dispute, the coin belongs to the person whose edge of the table the coin is closest. Trivial it is not in reality, because it eliminates waste of time making decisions that have already been thought out and decided upon. This little rule points to Judaism as the antipodes of Christianity.

It is impossible to praise M-Torah too much. RAMBAM is perhaps the most under-rated genius of all time. At least by gentiles.