This creed onnpy ;Tim chun forms to the pre sent day a part of the Synagogue Ritual, and is rehearsed daily by every Jew. If any Israelite dis believes one of these articles, he is regarded as a heretic 1:,11P'nt:), does not belong any more to the Jewish community, and has no portion in the world to come (NZI th 3h pri). Comp. Maimonides, Introduction to sect. x., Tract San hedrin:. or to Perek Chdek.
In consequence of this work, Maimonides gra dually became the great oracle in all matters of religion ; he was appealed to (in 1175) by the Jews from different parts of the world for his opi nion on difficulties connected with the law, and was nominated Rabbi of Raheia in 1177. Though con stantly beset by crowds who came to consult him on all questions, philosophical, medical, and re ligious, yet, by intruding on the night for his pro founder studies, he was able, after ten years' la bour (1170-So) to complete his second stupendous work (Nov. 7, 1180), called Deuteronomy, Second Law (r11111 rovn), or yad Haehezaka = The Mighty Hand (nprrin -p, in allusion to Deut. xxxiv. 12, and because the work consists of fourteen books = 14), which created a new epoch in Judaism. The fourteen books, subdivided into eighty-two Tractates (nn9r), of which the work consists form a cyclopedia comprising every department of Biblical and Judaistic literature. When it is added, that Maimonides has given in every article a lucid abstract of the ancient traditional expositions of those who were regarded as the oracles in their respective departments, the immense importance of this remarkable production to the Biblical student can hardly be overrated. It is written in very clear and easy Hebrew, as Maimonides was anxious that it should be intelligible to all readers. Within a few years of its appearance the work was copied and circulated most extensively in Arabia, Pales tine, Africa, Southern France, and Italy, and through the world wherever Jews resided. It soon became the text-book of the Jewish religion, and was regarded as a new Bible or Talmud. So great and world-wide was his fame, not only as the re former of Judaism, but as a physician, that Richard Coeur de Lion invited him to become court phy sician in England, which he declined, and the Vizier Alfadhel appointed him chief (Reis, I'll) of all the congregations in Egypt (circa I1S7). His numerous and onerous duties, as the spiritual head of Judaism, and the constant demand for his great medical skill, were, however, alike unable to over come the powers of his intellect, which he had con secrated to the elucidation of the Bible and the traditional law, and to the harmonizing of revela tion with philosophy. Thus, in the midst of all
his engagements, Maimonides determined to re claim his disciple Ibn Aknin [IBN ARNIN] from the prevailing scepticism about a future world, the destiny of man, sin, retribution, revelation, etc. etc. ; and, desirous to counteract this baneful infidelity, completed, about 1190, his third great work. This religio -philosophical work, consisting of three parts in 204 sections, which he wrote in Arabic, entitled r6t6-1, in Hebrew In= MORE NEDUCHIM = the Guide of the Pellexed, in allusion to Exod. xiv. 3, created a new epoch in the philosophy of the middle ages. Not only did Mohammedans write commentaries upon it, but the Christian schoolmen learned from it how to harmonize the conflicts between religion and philosophy. The great aim of Maimonides to harmonize in his writings the written with oral law—obliged him to reject many things in the rabbinic writings which many of his Talmudic brethren held inviolably sacred. This involved hint in extensive and painful controversies during the rest of his life, and he had the mortification of seeing the Jewish nation, whom he laboured so hard to unite by the creed he, for the first time, introduced into the synagogue, divided into two parties; the one fighting with anathemas against him, regarding him as a heretic, and consigning his works to the flames, and the other defending him as the angel, the mes senger of a new covenant. In the midst of the conflict `the Great Luminary' of the Jewish nation was extinguished, Dec. 13, 1204. The Jews and the Mohammedans of Fbstat had public mourning for three days, the Jews of Jerusalem proclaimed a day of extraordinary humiliation, reading pub licly the threatenings of the law (Dent. xxviii.) and the history of the capture of the ark by the Philistines (I Sam. iv. etc.) ; for they regarded Maimonides as the ark containing the law. His remains were conveyed to Tiberias ; and the reve rence which the Jewish nation still cherish for his memory is expressed by the well-known saying, ;iv= t.6 rie' nvnn, From Moses, the lawgiver, to Moses (Maimonides), no one bath arisen like Moses,' in allusion to Deut. xxxiv. to.