Abraham Joshua Heschel once suggested that if one didn't know that "Maimonides" was a person, one would assume it was the name of a university. Heschel was referring to the monumental breadth and influence of the 12th-century philosopher's work. But he could just as easily have been referring to the endemic turf wars, among academics and religious Jews alike, over the true legacy of the man known variously as Moses Maimonides, the Rambam, and Musa ibn Maimoun.
For theologians and philosophers, the essential Maimonides is Maimonides the metaphysician, and the essential text is his canonical Guide of the Perplexed, a rationalistic expounding of Judaism. This means that they often overlook, out of either ignorance or willful disregard, Maimonides' comprehensive legal code, the Mishneh Torah.
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