A New, Pluralistic Attempt to Codify Jewish Belief

When Moses Maimonides wrote his seminal digest of talmudic law he did something that, even by the standards of this bold undertaking, was both unprecedented and daring: he sought to codify not just law, but belief. Thus the opening chapters are filled with explanations of God, divine attributes, prophecy, and so forth—all in an Aristotelian key. A few legal codes preceded Maimonides, and many have appeared since, but next to none have set about to canonizing doctrine.