Major Works
Commentary on the Mishnah
- The Commentary on the Mishnah has not been translated into English in its entirety. However, there are translations of Maimonides' introduction to Pirqe Aboth called "The Eight Chapters." English translation of Eight Chapters, Introduction to Commentary on Avoth by Joseph Isaac Gorfinkle, New York: Columbia UP, 1912.Maimonides’ first major work sought to give a clear, accessible and practical explanation of Jewish Law as it is laid out in the Mishnah, the first and most authoritative systematization and reorganization of Jewish Law, probably completed around 200… MoreMishneh Torah
- The Mishneh Torah is published in the Yale Judaica series as a 14 volume set entitled The Code of Maimonides. A good place to start is with the second volume, which has been recently re-translated by Menachem Kellner, a noted scholar of Maimonides. Each Volume is listed individually under the category of the "Mishneh Torah".Mishneh Torah (1177) The Mishneh Torah is a 14-volume comprehensive compendium of Jewish Law, giving authoritative legal guidance on virtually every aspect of the Law, e.g., the foundations of the Law, ethical qualities, marriage and divorce law,… MoreGuide of the Perplexed
- Recommended translation: The Guide of the Perplexed. Translated with an introduction and notes by Shlomo Pines.With an introductory essay by Leo Strauss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963. Originally composed in Arabic, in 1190.The Guide presents the Law and philosophy as espousing two different, even contradictory views of the world. The perplexity induced by these two different worldviews is Maimonides’ main subject in the Guide.
Commentary
Persecution and the Art of Writing
-Strauss, Leo. Persecution and the Art of Writing. Glencoe, Ill., 1952.
on The Guide of the PerplexedMaimonides’ Statement on Political Science by Leo Strauss
-Strauss, Leo. “Maimonides’ Statement on Political Science.” Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 22 (1953):115-30. What Is Political Philosophy?
On The Guide of the Perplexed, the Mishneh Torah, and other works.What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies
-Strauss, Leo. What is Political Philosophy? And Other Studies. Glencoe, Il., 1959.
on The Guide of the PerplexedA Re-examination of Maimonides’ ‘Statement on Political Science
-On Logic. Berman, L. “A Re-examination of Maimonides’ ‘Statement on Political Science.’” Journal of the American Oriental Society 89 (1969): 106-11.
A Maimonides Reader
- Twersky, Isadore. A Maimonides Reader (New York, 1972).On the Mishneh TorahAlfarabi’s Opinions of the Virtuous City and Maimonides’ Foundations of the Law
-Kraemer, Joel L. “Alfarabi’s Opinions of the Virtuous City and Maimonides’ Foundations of the Law.” Studia Orientalia Memoriae D. H. Baneth Dedicata. ed. J. Blau et al.:107-53.
On The Guide of the Perplexed and Commentary on the MishnahThe Collected Works of Shlomo Pines
- Pines, Shlomo. The Collected Works of Shlomo Pines. 5 vols. Jerusalem, 1979.Notes on Maimonides’ Book of Knowledge
-Strauss, Leo. “Notes on Maimonides’ Book of Knowledge.” In Studies in Mysticism and Religion presented to Gershom G. Scholem on his Seventieth Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends. Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967. Rprt. In Strauss, Leo. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy. Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1983: 192-204.
On the Mishneh TorahThe Laws of Kings, Wars, and the King Messiah According to Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah
-Vogelman-Goldfeld, Naomi. “The Laws of Kings, Wars, and the King Messiah According to Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah.” Sobre la Vida y Obra de Maimonides. ed. Jesus Pelaez del Rosal: 243-250.
On the Mishneh TorahBiblical Religion and Political Rationality in Simone Luzzatto, Maimonides and Spinoza
-Septimus, Bernard. “Biblical Religion and Political Rationality in Simone Luzzatto, Maimonides and Spinoza.” Jewish Thought in the Seventeenth Century. ed. Isadore Twersky and Bernard Septimus: 399-434.
On the Mishneh TorahMaimonides
- Lerner, Ralph. “Maimonides.” A History of Political Philosophy. ed. Joseph Cropsy and Leo Strauss. Chicago, 1963: 181-99. 2nd ed. Chicago, 1987: 203-22.Excerpt: “If one is to discuss the objects and character or law, one must proceed from an understanding of the beings for whose sake a law is made. Maimonides proceeds accordingly; in his Guide of the Perplexed, he examines the need for law before… MoreThe Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism: an Introduction to the Thought of Leo Strauss: Essays and Lectures
-Strauss, Leo. The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism: an Introduction to the Thought of Leo Strauss: Essays and Lectures; selected and introduced by Thomas L. Pangle. Chicago, 1989.
on The Guide of the PerplexedStudies in Maimonides
- Studies in Maimonides. ed. Isadore Twersky. Cambridge Mass., 1990.Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies
-Perspectives on Maimonides: Philosophical and Historical Studies. ed. Joel L. Kraemer Oxford, 1991.
The Thought of Moses Maimonides
-The Thought of Moses Maimonides. ed. Lawrence Kaplan, Ira Robinson, and Julien Bauer, Edwin Mellen Press,1991
Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss
- Green, Kenneth Hart. Jew and Philosopher: The Return to Maimonides in the Jewish Thought of Leo Strauss. Albany, N.Y., 1993.on The Guide of the PerplexedPolitics and Perfection: Gersonides vs. Maimonides
-Kellner, Menachem. “Politics and Perfection: Gersonides vs. Maimonides.” Jewish Political Studies Review (1994): 49-82.
On The Guide of the PerplexedMaimonides: Nature, History, and Messianic Beliefs
-Funkenstein, Amos. Maimonides: Nature, History, and Messianic Beliefs. Tel Aviv, 1997.
on The Guide of the PerplexedMaimonides’ Political Thought: Studies in Ethics, Law, and the Human Ideal
-Kreisel, Howard. Maimonides’ Political Thought: Studies in Ethics, Law, and the Human Ideal. Albany, N. Y., 1999.
On The Guide of the PerplexedNaturalism and Universalism in Maimonides’ Political and Religious Thought
- Kraemer, Joel L. “Naturalism and Universalism in Maimonides’ Political and Religious Thought.” Me’ah She‘arim: Studies in Medieval Jewish Spiritual Life in Memory of Isadore Twersky. ed. G. Blidstein et al.: 47-81.On The Guide of the PerplexedThe Cambridge Companion to Maimonides
-The Cambridge Companion to Maimonides. Ed. Kenneth Seeskin. Cambridge University Press, Illinois, 2005
The Classic Jewish Philosophers
- Schweid, Eliezer, The Classic Jewish Philosophers: from Saadia through the Renaissance. Trans. L. Levin. Leiden and Boston, Brill Press, 2008.Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds
-Kraemer, Joel. Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization's Greatest Minds. Doubleday, 2008/Random House 2010.
From the publisher: “This authoritative biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential minds in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. A biography on a grand scale, it brilliantly explicates one… MoreMaimonides and Spinoza on Good and Evil
- Motzkin, Aryeh Leo. “Maimonides and Spinoza on Good and Evil.” In Aryeh Leo Motzkin, Philosophy and the Jewish Tradition, ed. Yehuda Halper. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011: 83-104.On The Guide of the PerplexedTorah as Political Philosophy
- Edward Halper, “Torah as Political Philosophy: Maimonides and Spinoza on Divine Law,” in Judaic Sources and Western Thought: Jerusalem's Enduring Presence, edited by Jonathan Jacobs, pp. 190-214. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Leo Strauss on Maimonides
-Strauss, Leo. Leo Strauss on Maimonides: The Complete Writings. Ed. Kenneth Hart Green. Chicago, U Chicago Press, 2013.
Maimonides on Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Guide of the Perplexed 1 2
- Burger, Ronna. "Maimonides on Knowledge of Good and Evil: The Guide of the Perplexed 1 2", ed. Pangle, Thomas and Lomax, Harvey in Political Philosophy Cross-Examined: Perennial Challenges to the Philosophic Life (Recovering Political Philosophy), Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2013.on The Guide of the Perplexed