If you don't know what the Mishnah is, you might want to see my history of the development of the Oral Torah and the Mishnah. Basically, I've abridged and rearranged the content of this page's formal presentation of parts of Maimonides' Introduction to the Commentary on the Mishnah.Maimonides' Introduction contains no less than 16,000 words in the Hebrew translation from the original Arabic.
Before Maimonides begins his compositions, he
opens with the above verse: “In the name
Here, Maimonides identifies himself as the author.
Without question, these are Maimonides' own words in Hebrew since the rhymes are only suitable in Hebrew. He repeatedly makes reference to the sustenance of food and drink, metaphors for the spiritual sustenance of the Commentary, not to mention the Mishnah itself. Maimonides invites the reader to taste what has written.
To quote a somewhat recent scholar (His Holiness, Grand Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, 1745-1812):
And since, with knowledge of the Torah, the Torah is enclosed in the human soul and in its intelligence, and is completely encompassed within them, it is called by the name 'bread' and 'food' for the soul. Just as physical bread sustains the body when a person actually introduces it into themselves so that it is incorporated into their blood and flesh and thereby [the person] lives and is sturdy, so with knowledge and understanding of the Torah for the humansoul . . . it [the Torah] becomes sustenance for thesoul . . . as the verse in Psalms says, "so Your Torah is deep within me" (Psalm 40:9).*
* "I have desired to do your will, myG-d, so [the instructions of] Your Torah is deep within me."
(Tanya, Chapter x)
In Arabic, the entire commentary has been called al-Siraj which means something like The Illumination or The Lamp.
First Maimonides opens with the epigraph -
Then he writes a short Preface -
Then Maimonides writes the long text "Key to the Talmud" / "Introduction to the Talmud" - both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.
The Illumination: The actual commentary and explanation of the text of the Mishnah -
Parts of the entire composition were already translated into Hebrew during Maimonides' lifetime. He instructed and trained the translators concerning methodology and style. People have called the complete Hebrew language editions Sefer HaMa'or – SAY fehr hah mah OR – The Book of Illumination. The Hebrew word ma'or means the source of light as the sun is the source of the light which reaches us. In this sense, the name of Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah is The Luminary. This is something like what it has been called in Arabic, al-Siraj –The Illumination or The Lamp. Despite all this, there is no evidence that Maimonides himself referred to his commentary by this name or any similar one. Instead, it seems possible to me that students expressed their feelings of illumination when studying Maimonides' Commentary to the extent that they rendered their feelings into a title for the book.
The introduction / key that Maimonides wrote, before he actually begins his commentary, is quite long. For some scholars it is known as the Introduction to the Talmud
Rabbi Mordechai Dov Rabinowitz, in his critical edition, divided this Introduction into eleven sections. These sections are for the convenience of students, but they are not from Maimonides himself.
For the sake of clarifying the sections that I just mentioned, let me list them in order.
Know that every commandment that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to Our Teacher Moses (of blessed memory) was given to him with its explanation. The Almighty would tell him the [particular] commandment and afterwards tell him its explanation and its context, including all that which is included in the Written Torah.The manner of teaching it to the Israelites was as I will tell you:
Moses would enter his tent, and [his brother] Aaron would enter with him first. Moses would tell him the mitzvah which had been given to him one time [alone] and he [Moses] would teach him [Aaron] its explanation.
Aaron would move over to stand on Our Teacher Moses' right. Afterwards, Elazar and Itamar, his [Aaron's] sons would enter, and Moses would tell them what he had told Aaron. Then one would sit on Our Teacher Moses' left and the other to the right of Aaron. Then the seventy Elders would enter and Moses would teach them as he had taught Aaron and his sons. Then the populace, who were all seeking knowledge from
G-d, [would come] and he [Moses] presented them with the particular mitzvah so that all would hear from his [Moses'] mouth.The result: Aaron would hear the particular mitzvah from Moses four times, his sons three times, the Elders two times, and the rest of the people one time.
. . .
. . .
. . . [After the tractates that a judge needs, Rabbi Judah the Prince] began Tractate Avot – "Fathers." He did this for two reasons:
First, to let us know that the agreement [of the Sages on each point of Jewish Law in the Oral Torah] and the transmission [of the Oral Torah] are true and correct, the entirety of a generation receiving this from the entirety of the previous generation. . . . The Sages said, "If we come to critique the court of Rabban Gamliel, we need to investigate every single court that existed since the time of Moses (Mishnah, Tractate Rosh Hashanah 2:9). . . . In this matter, people should take heed not to ask, "Why should we accept the judgement ofSo-and-So or the [special] enactment of such-and-such a judge?" On the contrary, the judgement does not derive from judgeSo-and-So. It comes from the Holy One, blessed be He, Who has commanded this to us, as the Torah says, ". . . because judgement belongs toG-d" (Deuteronomy 1:17). Instead, there is one Law which they [the people in each generation] received, one person from another by word of mouth as the generations came and went.
The second reason is that he [Rabbi Judah the Prince] wants to recall in this tractate lessons from every Sage – ["fathers"] – (of blessed memory) so that we should learn good habits from them. . . .
When Rav Ashi completed compiling the compilation [that we call the] Talmud as it is before us, the greatness of his compilation and its great usefulness stand as a faithful witness that, "he possessed Divine inspiration" (from Daniel 4:5). . . .
In progress
Commentary on the Mishnah - Maimonides wrote this as a young man before any other of his compositions.
Introduction to the Talmud - both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud.
Maimonides wrote both the introduction and the commentary themselves in the Arabic language of Jews in North Africa and Egypt. Although the language of the text was Arabic, it was written with the characters of the Hebrew alphabet. Maimonides also included vowel points to accompany the twenty-two consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. The text was thereby accessible to Jews who spoke Arabic although they only had a rudimentary Jewish education.
Maimonides' Introduction is long. According to my estimate, his Introduction contains no less than 16,000 Hebrew words.
Printers of traditional texts occasionally begin paragraphs with larger, bold font. However, I have yet to discern any system for these divisions. Also, I don't believe that these bold words correspond to any section markings in Hebrew manuscripts, not to mention any markings in Maimonides' original text in Arabic.
For the sake of a table of contents and synopses, Rabinowitz inobtrusively divides the Introduction into eleven sections. He writes a synopsis for each of these sections. I've designated them above as a) through k).
Lampel's English translation of the Introduction runs to about 200 pages with notes and related sources. Lampel follows Rabinowitz's divisions except for dividing one section into two parts. Lampel calls these sections "chapters." Also, he calls the last section an addendum although it is part of Maimonides' text.
Finkel's English translation of the Introduction runs to about 80 pages.
In Rosner's translation,
Maimonides' Introduction
runs straight through for 133 pages. Since Rosner doesn't divide
his translation into sections, the counting of notes doesn't ever
restart from 1. Rosner's last note for the translation is numbered
890. These notes themselves fill another 52 pages.
Lampel's text of 200 pages is longer than Rosner's text of 185 pages in part because Lampel includes "Scriptural and Other Source Quotations" before several chapters. On the other hand, Rosner begins with 60 pages of his own introduction, whereas Lampel only adds 9 pages.
By the name L-rd, G-d of the world - This verse from Genesis is part of Maimonides' text. Authors of Torah texts often introduce their compositions with a Scriptural verse as an epigraph. The verse is like a rubric for the entire book or essay that follows.
By the name L-rd, G-d of the world -
prologue and Mishnah are explained above after the first paragraph.
Know - Faith or belief is not sufficient. Knowledge is impelled by faith, though. One who does not believe is unlikely to try to learn even the subject of this first sentence. On the other hand, Maimonides addresses all or most issues which are impediments to the knowledge of the Torah's truth.
the Holy One, blessed be He - G-d is Holy.
Our Teacher Moses - in Hebrew, Rabbeinu, rah BAY noo
The Almighty would tell him the [particular] commandment - during the course of the forty years in the Wilderness of Sinai.
tell him - dictate to him. Moses added paragraphs and
chapters to the Torah scroll as occasions arose – when
its context - or "its content," "its subject"
Rabbi Judah the Prince - Yehudah HaNasi (hah nah SEE; also hah NAW see) in Hebrew; compiler of the Mishnah; known plainly as "Rebbe," REH bee.
Avot - literally "Fathers"
Avot - also known as "Chapters of the Fathers" or "Ethics of the Fathers"; in Hebrew, Pirkei Avot, peer KAY ah VOHT.
the entirety of a generation receiving this from the entirety of the previous generation - The first chapter of "Chapters of the Fathers," Avot, begins, "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and passed it on to Joshua . . . Sinai refers to the One Who revealed Himself at Mount Sinai.
Rav Ashi - Rabbi Ashi (353-427 ce;
The Talmud was first printed To put this in perspective, the Code of Jewish Law (by Rabbis Joseph Karo and Moses Isserles) that we use today had just been published. At the same time, the Kabbalistic Fellowship in Safed, Israel, was at its most productive stage of development.
compilation -
Talmud -
As a young man, Maimonides composed, in the Arabic
of the Jews around him, an explanation of the Mishnah which,
translated into Hebrew, is appended today to most copies of the
Talmud. He writes that he began to compose the explanation when he
was
We find that Maimonides was in the midst of writing the Mishneh Torah in 1170 – perhaps finishing it in 1179, 12 years after the Mishnah (Tzemach Dovid).
Maimonides was born in Córdoba, Andalusia (Muslim Spain) in 1135 ce. His father was a judge for the Jewish law court and a community leader. The family was uprooted when Maimonides was thirteen years old. A fanatical Muslim sect had invaded the Iberian peninsula, persecuting Jews. Jews were faced with conversion or the sword.
From the age of
"Rabbi Judah son of Solomon (Yehudah ben Shlomo) from Sepharad (Moorish Andalusia, today's Spain) known by the family name Al-Harizi."
While Maimonides was still alive and living in Egypt, Al-Harizi began a translation from Arabic into Hebrew. Maimonides was already famous in Marseilles
Hakdamot l'Peirush HaMishnah, by Rabbi Moses Maimonides
[Introductions to the Commentary on the Mishnah]
Edited, with introduction, notes and table of contents, by Mordechai Dov Rabinowitz, Tel Aviv, 1948.
Hebrew with vowels
Rambam l'Am Series
Jerusalem: Mossad HaRav Kook Publishing, 1987 (5747).
Includes the preface, in Hebrew, by Al-Harizi, the first translator of the Arabic text into Hebrew.
Shishah Sidrei Mishnah: M'Nukadim
[Six Orders of Mishnah: with Vowels]
Jerusalem: Eshkol Publishing, 1978 (5738).
- Hakdamat HaRambam za"l (l'Shishah Sidrei Mishnah)
[Introduction by Maimonides, of blessed memory, to the Six Orders of Mishnah]
as translated into Hebrew from Arabic.
Pages 1-21.
Babylonian Talmud
Volume 1
Tractate B'rachot
Appended with five related folios.
Hebrew and Aramaic.
Vilna, Lithuania: The Widow and the Brothers Romm Publishing,1880-1886.
- Maimonides' Hakdamah l'Rabbeinu Mosheh bar Maimon za"l miSeder Ze'ra'im
[Introduction from Our Rabbi Moses son of Maimon, of blessed memory, from the Mishnah's Order Ze'ra'im]
as translated into Hebrew from Arabic.
This is a traditional Hebrew language text presented by the scholars of Vilna.
Pages 105-111 (53a-56a) in the first folio that is appended to Volume 1.- Photo offset published by M. P. Press, New York, 1958 (Kislev 5719)
The Brothers Pollack
Reprinted 1976-1979
The Essential Maimonides: Translations of the Rambam
Translated from Hebrew and presented by Avraham Yaakov Finkel.
Maimonides' "Introduction" to his Commentary on the Mishnah is Part 3 of this book.
Contains an introduction by the translator with a glossary and index.
Other parts of this book contain:Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1996.
- A general introduction to the book
- "The Letter to the Jews of Yemen"
- "Discourse on Martyrdom"
- "An Introduction to the Chapters of the Fathers"
- "Discourse on the World to Come"
• BM545. A2513 1996
• 296.1'72--dc20
Library of Congress Control Number: 96-4766
ISBN: 1-56821-464-2
Maimonides' Introduction to the Talmud: a translation of the Rambam's introduction to his Commentary on the Mishna,
by Rabbi Moses Maimonides
Translated from Hebrew and annotated by Zvi Lampel.
Contains the complete Hebrew text as published in editions of the Talmud as an appendix
With a preface, synopsis, indices, glossary, and a chart of Torah Transmitters.
Includes the preface, in English, by Al-Harizi, the first translator of the Arabic text into Hebrew.
New York: The Judaica Press, 1987.
First published in 1975; also revised 1998.
ISBN 0-910818-71-1 [0-910818-06-1]
Library of Congress Control Number: 74-25932
Maimonides' Introduction to his Commentary on the Mishnah,
by Rabbi Moses Maimonides
Translated from Hebrew and annotated by Fred Rosner.
Does not contain an index, unfortunately.
Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 1995.
First published in 1975
• BM497.7.M332513 1995
• 296.1'2307--dc20
ISBN: 1-56821-241-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 94-14644