Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

If Sherwin B. Nuland, in his Nextbook/Schocken book titled Maimonides, would only have given a detail picture of 12th century history of the Mediterranean region, including the various rulers’ rise and fall, characteristics of their empire, extending it both in space (covering Africa and Europe) and time (earlier and later centuries) … it would have been enough.

If the book would only have analyzed why so many Jews became doctors from the earliest of times, listing such reasons as medical knowledge being portable, when Jews were forced to move often; or the fact that the minds honed on Talmudic debates could easily use the same techniques for scientific/medical argumentation and produce better results, than other healers’, who were often uneducated … it would have been enough.

If Nuland would only have covered Rambam’s biography, including his travels and the reasons behind them, his relationships to his father, brother, students and women as much as possible; talked about his studies, positions, correspondence, alliances, and enemies … it would have been enough.

If the book would only have introduced Rambam’s major works, putting them in the context of their origin, including how the “Commentary on the Mishnah” with its combination of Greek philosophy and Rabbinic commentary manages to balance and keep scientific approach and unbending faith at their places; how the Rambam spent ten years on writing the “Mishneh Torah”‘s fourteen volumes to create a reduction of Talmudic law, making its decrees available for the less educated mind; and how “The Guide for the Perplexed” created divisions between those who understood it, those who did not and those who thought they did… it would have been enough.

If Nuland, as a medical doctor and historian himself, would only have evaluated Maimonides reputation as a medical luminary, pointing out how much of his writings and practice depended on Hippocrates, Galen, Arabic and Christian sources, how Maimonides cannot be really considered an original thinker in terms of medical science, but more of a re-interpreter, similar to all of his contemporaries, but nevertheless not belittling his mental powers… it would have been enough.

If the book would only have pointed out why Rambam viewed health important (so people could devote more time to the most important duty of attaining knowledge of G-d) … it would have been enough.

But, the author also pointed out on page 190,

“The real reason that Maimonides has been an ageless icon to Jews everywhere […is the] memory of a man whose life was devoted to the continuity of the Jewish people.”

(Some of you might have recognized that the “it would have been enough” phrase is from a Pesach song. I wrote this review following that pattern in honor of the Rambam/Maimonides, who was born on the first night of Pesach in 1135.)