Though constantly beset by crowds who came to con- sult him on all questions, philosophical, medical, and religious, yet, by intruding on the night for his pro- founder studies, he was able, after ten j'ears' further la- bor (1170-80), to complete (Nov. 7, 1180) another work, of even greater magnitude than the foregoing, which he called Deuteronomy, Second Law (min fIDlUia), or Jad nachezal-a = The Mighty Hand (npTnn 11, in al- lusion to Deut. xxxiv, 12, and because the work con- sists of fourteen books, 11=14), which created a new epoch in Judaism. The fourteen books, subdivided into eighty-two Tractates (nlDbtl), of which the work con- sists, form a cyclopedia comprising every department of Biblical and Judaistic literature. When it is added that Maimonides has given in every article a lucid ab- stract of the ancient traditional expositions of those who were regarded as the oracles in their respective departments, the immense importance of this remark- able production to the Biblical student can hardly be overrated. It is written in very clear and easy He- brew, as :Maimonides was anxious that it should be ac- cessible to the Jewish peoijle generally. Within a few years after its appearance the work was copied and cir- culated most extensively in Arabia, Palestine, Africa, Southern France, and Italy, and throughout the world wherever Jews resided. It soon became tne text-book
of the Jewish religion, and was regarded as a new Bible or Talmud. A detailed account of its contents is given by Wolf, Bibliotheca Heb. i, 840 sq. Most of the j'oung Israelites of his days were spending their best time in acquiring a mediocre knowledge of the sixty books of the Talmud, to the neglect and exclusion of all secular science and philosophy. To obviate this, Maimonides wrote these systematical works, comprising the main contents of the whole Talmud. "If the Talmud," says Griitz (vi, 339)," may be likened to a Diedalic structure, in which one can scarcely find his way even with the aid of an Ariadne thread, ]\Iaimonides has transformed it into a well-regulated edifice, with side -wings, halls, apartments, chambers, and closets, in which the stranger, led by the fitting superscriptions and numbers, may make his way without a guide, and gain a view of all the con- tents of the Talmud. . . . One might almost say that Maimonides created a new Talmud. It is true these are the old elements; we know their origin, their rise, their original connection ; but in his hands it looks like an- other work ; the mist is removed ; the disiiguring ad- denda done away with ; it appears remoulded, smoother, fresher, and newer. The Mishna, the foundation-struct- ure of the Talmud, opens by propounding the question on the law: 'At what time of the night is the chapter Shema to be read?' and closes with the discussion, when this or that thing becomes levitically unclean. Jlaimoni- des, on the other hand, thus opens his Talmudical codex : ' The foundation of foundations, and the pillar of wisdom, is to know that there exists a first Being which called all other beuigs into existence, and that all things ex- isting in heaven or on earth, and whatever is between them, exist only through the medium of this first Being,' and closes with the words, ' The earth will one day be covered with knowledge as the ocean's gromid is by wa- ter.' The whole work is permeated by a peculiar savor ; it breathes the spirit of complete wisdom, cool refiection, and deep morality. Maimonides, so to speak, has Tal- mudized philosophy and metaphysicized the T^.lmud. He has admitted philosophy within the precincts of the religious codex, and there conceded her a citizenship of equality beside the Halacha. Though philosophy had, previous to his day, been ciUtivated by Jewish thinkers (here comp. Sachs, Reliijidse Pocsie der Juden in Spanien, p. 185 sq.), and applied to Judaism from Philo down to Abraham Ibn- David [see Chayl'g], she had always been regarded as sometliing outside of the Jewish camp — as a something which had nothing in common with practical Judaism as exercised daily and hourlj'. Mai- monides, however, introduced her into the very holiest of Judaism, and, so to speak, gave Aristotle a place by the side of the sages of the Talmud." " The master-muid of INIaimonides only," says Dr. Wise (^Israelite, Dec. 1, 1871), "could accomplish such a gigantic task, and codify that immense mass of laws and customs as sys- tematically and linguistically exact as he did. Nobody before or even after him has been able to do it so well and completely as he has done it. He alone has brought the rabbinical law within a compass, to be mastered in a few years, and under a system to find particular laws or customs without roaming over a mass of rabbinical sources, thereby affording students an opportunity to master the rabbinical laws, and to save time for other studies." His fame now became world-wide. Not only, however, as a law-giver in Judah did he advance to the first place among the great and learned ; as a physician also he excelled his colleagues, and for his attainments in this field of labor his name was carried to manj^ foreign lands. Kichard Coeur de Lion, learning of his medical skill, anxiously sought to secure the services of this noted Jew as his court physician. Maimonides, how- ever, preferred to remain in the land of his adoption, and declined the proffered Iionor (compare Weil. Chalifen, iii, 423 sq.). It was about this time that tlie vizier of Saladin, the Kadhi al-Fadhel, who had taken ^Maimoni- des under his protection, appointed Moses chief {Reis, 1153) of all the congregations in Egypt (about 1187).