Maimonides (Jewish Encounters) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maimonides, one of the preeminent personalities of medieval Jewish history, was a jurist, philosopher, expert in Jewish law, physician at the court of Saladin and a respected and dedicated communal leader. Given all that, it's difficult to understand the decision to present Maimonides's legacy primarily through the lens of his work as a physician. The 12th century was a time of stagnation in the history of medicine, and the author himself concedes that Maimonides contributed very little that was new or innovative to the field. By contrast, his jurisprudential magnum opus, the Mishne Torah, constituted a groundbreaking work in its own day and continues to be authoritative almost a millennium later. Although Nuland acknowledges this in a chapter on Maimonides's religious scholarship, it is dwarfed by the overarching concern with medicine—which seems the primary interest of Nuland, a clinical professor of surgery at Yale. The author does a serviceable job of stitching together this slight, popular biography of the larger-than-life Maimonides, but his writing is marred by an overwrought prologue and some glib generalizations. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

Reputedly the greatest figure in Judaism after his namesake, Moses Maimonides (1138 [not, as long supposed, 1135]-1204) was also a great physician. That second identity (he has a third as a philosopher, though no one now comprehends his Guide for the Perplexed, and a fourth as a judge) furnishes the surgeon--author of the National Book Award-winning How We Die (1994) entree into the life of this medieval intellectual titan. Like disproportionately many Jewish sons, Maimonides became a doctor in obedience, Nuland thinks, to the Lord's injunction to his people to choose life. In chapters centered on Maimonides' travels, three great books, and medical papers, Nuland argues that that obedience shows in more than Maimonides' medical career. Maimonides was devoted to sustaining the Jews as a people, and out of that, to human life generally. If he was otherwise a physician of his time, bound by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen, he believed that reason and observation should also inform prescription. A little gem of intellectual biography. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Schocken; 1 edition (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805242007
• ISBN-13: 978-0805242003
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #376,367 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hero for Our Time, January 24, 2006

By	Virginia J. Prickett "retired librarian" (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The great philosopher, physician and leader is brought vividly to life by Sherwin Nuland, himself a writer-physician. Although this is a relatively brief book, it touches on all the points of Maimonides's life with authority and clarity. Nuland positions his subject's writings within the issues of his time and ours. With a well-annotated bibliography this is a fine entry into a fascinating life.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Moses to Moses there was none like Moses, December 7, 2006

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Sherwin B. Nuland opens this book by explaining how he finally came to after much discouragement write this book on the great Jewish thinker, halachist, communal leader and physician Moses Maimonedes, commonly known as the Rambam. Nuland's reluctance is understandable as he is not a scholar of Jewish texts, nor one deeply versed in Jewish thought. He is a prominent well- known highly esteemed physician and writer. And a good share of the book is devoted to understanding the Rambam as a physician. In the course of this Nuland provides a brief historical sketch of the development of Medicine from Galen to and through the Middle Ages. In the course of this he makes it clear that the Rambam was like all the great Medieval physicians not really a medical innovator. The Rambam was an extraordinarily dedicated physician whose observational powers were complemented by his vast knowledge of the extant medical literature. Nuland quotes the famous letter of the Rambam in which he details his exhausting schedule as physician including his work at Court and his work with the poorer Muslim population and with the Jewish community. Nuland also describes in some detail the medical writings of Rambam, including the Aphorisms and guidebooks which served a wider public to the dawn of the ear of Modern Medicine.
The Rambam turned to Medicine only after a great personal tragedy the loss at sea of his younger brother David. David had provided the material means for the Rambam to be totally devoted to scholarship. Rambam went into depression for over a year until finally emerging with the decision to practice medicine.
Nuland gives an excellent summary of the whole course of Rambam's life, including the childhood in Cordoba, the early years in Fez, the expulsions the Jewish community suffered, the forced conversion, and above all the genius which surfaced quite early. Rambam mastered whole worlds of Jewish texts , held them in his mind . And this enabled him to create his vast works of syncretic scholarship, most notably the work still studied and of great significance today , 'The Mishneh Torah'. Nuland provides a good understanding of the basic meaning of and history of 'The Mishnah Torah'. However in confronting Rambam's philosophical masterpiece "Guide to the Perplexed" Nuland is somewhat less understanding and appreciative.
In assessing Rambam's overall historical signifiance Nuland writes this telling analysis of why Rambam is held in such great importance by Jews to this very day.
" it is the iconic memory of a man whose life was devoted to the continuity of the Jewish people.
- From the letter to the Jews of Fez written when he was twenty- four years old , to his labors until the hour of his death as his community's acknowledged leader ,he devoted the totality of his prodigious talents to the preservation of the community of the Jews everywhere."

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Balancing faith and reason, December 14, 2006

By	Steve Reina (Troy Michigan) - See all my reviews

Dr. Nuland, himself a Jewish physician, was understandably reluctant to engage in doing the biography of perhaps the ultimate Jewish physician of all time: Moses Ben Maimon also referred to as Rambam or Maimonides.

His reluctance was understandable on a number of levels. First, Maimonides was of pronounced expertise in the healing arts. Not only the author of ten medical books, he had through dint of skill managed to elevate himself to being court physician at the court of Saladin.

Second, for Jewish thought (and derivatively for western thought itself) Maimonides was significant for his recognition of and attempt to deal with the conflict between the canonized precepts of faith and the unanswered questions of science. His "Guide for the Perplexed" itself perplexing is an attempt in some ways an attempt at striking a balance.

However, in both ways Nuland managed to briefly make the material accessible to the reader.

And significantly also, Nuland managed to connect the reader with Maimonides humanity...his early difficulties with learning, his grief at the loss of his brother and his joy in parenthood.

In this way, Nuland managed to create and even more iconic figure because rather than putting him a pedistal, Nuland put Maimonides right next to you...all the more human and therefore all the more relevant.