Q&A: The Attitude toward Maimonides and the Mishneh Torah
The Attitude toward Maimonides and the Mishneh Torah
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the yeshiva world over the last 200–300 years, it has been commonly accepted that Maimonides was precise in his wording down to every single word. People infer and derive piles upon piles of halakhic rulings from his language.
It is true that usually one can see that the formulation, the order of the matters, the placement of the laws in the book, and so on, indicate deliberate intent.
But quite a few times, it seems that people get unnecessarily tangled up in his wording, or force interpretations into it, when Maimonides was simply “speaking in ordinary human language.”
What is your impression on this issue?
Thank you,
Answer
He himself wrote that he was precise. Especially in comparison to the other medieval authorities (Rishonim), regarding whom it is fairly clear that they were not precise in their wording, but rather wrote in ordinary human language without paying attention to every word. Still, there is a limit to how tall a structure it is reasonable to build on the basis of such precision. I don’t have a clear criterion.