AN ALMOHAD “FUNDAMENTALIST”? 63
Law will be easily accessible to all.”^46 The terms in which Maimonides
chooses to present his decision to compose this book are indicative of the
importance he granted it and of his own sense of prophetic mission: “For
I—by God—I have been very zealous to the Lord, the God of Israel, as I
saw a nation devoid of a [legal] compendium (diwan), devoid of correct,
well-organized opinions (ara).”^47 In his correspondence with his disciple
Joseph Ibn Shimon, Maimonides repeatedly emphasized the value of
studying the Code. He presented this book as destined to correct some-
thing that, as a result of the Talmudic method of study, went sorely wrong
in the course of the previous generations:
I urge you not to neglect the study of this book until you appre-
hend all of it. Make it your own book; teach it everywhere to dis-
seminate its usefulness. For the purpose intended in composing
the Talmud was lost and has vanished. The purpose of the erudite
[today] is to waste time in Talmudic discussions, as if the purpose
and intention was solely to exercise polemical skills. This, however,
was not the fi rst intention:^48 discussions and polemics occurred
only accidentally.... Therefore I was moved to [recall] the fi rst
purpose, to facilitate the task of remembering it, and furthermore:
to make it known, for it had been lost among all the polemical
words.^49Maimonides’ declared aim in this book was to replace the written Oral
Law, that is to say, the Mishnah and theTalmud (while reaffi rming their
authority), and to make it possible to dispense with the later legal litera-
ture, a body of texts that had accumulated over the ages. Maimonides’
explicit declaration refers only to Talmudic and post- Talmudic literature.
In fact, however, as the name “Mishneh Torah” (lit., “re- iteration of the
Torah,” but also “second to the Torah”) reveals, and as the introduction
to the book openly states, Maimonides intended this book to make the
whole body of written Oral Law redundant, “so that a person may fi rst
read the written Torah, then read this book and know through it the
(^46) “Introduction to the Code,” Mishneh Torah, 3.
(^47) “Epistle to Joseph Ibn Shimon,” Epistles, 293, 330– 31 (note the allusion to I Kings
19:10, 14, where the prophet Elijah recounts his solitary, uncompromising war against
idolatry and bemoans his ensuing isolation). A similar sense of mission is refl ected in Mai-
monides’ “Introduction to the Code”: “Therefore I braced myself... and relied on the
Holy, may He be blessed.”
(^48) Al-qasd al- awwal; On fi rst intention, in Maimonides’ thought, see chap. 4, note 58,
below.
(^49) “Epistle to Joseph Ibn Shimon,” 256– 59. A similar evaluation of Talmudic learning as
necessary but insuffi cient is expressed in Guide 1.51 (Dalala, 455; Pines, 619); See chap. 6,
below.