Rambam wrote a few letters to the rabbis of the main communities in southern France: the communities of Lunel and Montpellier. I am going to discuss my favorite, a letter that was composed in Egypt in the year 1200, four years before Rambam passed away.
The background to this letter is that, a few years before, a group of rabbis from one of these communities had written to the Rambam for the first time, asking about the status of astrology in Judaism. Rambam replied with a detailed letter that instructed them that thinking that the stars influenced behavior is foolishness. Impressed by his response, this group of rabbis and other rabbis associated with them thereafter sent him a few other letters. For example, they asked him some respectful questions on his Mishneh Torah.
Joel Kraemer writes: “It was uplifting for [Rambam] to receive letters from scholars who appreciated what he had done and asked friendly and constructive questions… After Rambam had worked for ten years on the Mishneh Torah, learned colleagues found it wanting, accused him of self-aggrandizement and tried to destroy his reputation. Now in southern France, he found scholars who valued his work, who were sincerely puzzled by some passages, and addressed him with veneration. The Spanish origin of many Provencal scholars surely pleased him. His hopes for a continuation of learning were centered in southern France…” See J. Kraemer, Maimonides: The Life and World of One of Civilization’s Greatest Minds (2008), page 432.
As further background, Rambam completed his Guide to the Perplexed around 1191. But it was composed in Arabic. The rabbis who wrote to him from southern France could not read Arabic and asked that Rambam translate it into Hebrew, along with some of his other works.
Here is the main part of the letter that Rambam wrote in the year 1200:
“I… am forwarding to you now the third part of the Guide… in the Arabic language. However, with regard to your request that I may translate the text into the holy tongue for you — I myself could wish that I were young enough to be able to fulfill your wish concerning this and the other works which I have composed in the language of Ishmael… But I must blame the unfavorable times for preventing me from doing so. I have not even time to work out and to improve my commentaries and other works composed in the rabbinic language, which contain various obscurities, in order to arrange new editions — to say nothing of making translations from one language into another…
But you have in your midst the learned and well-instructed Rabbi Samuel ben Judah (Ibn Tibbon), on whom the Lord has bestowed the necessary insight… for performing the translation you have asked for. I have already written to him about this subject.”
“To you, my honored friends, may you remain confident and strong, I have now to tell the truth: You, members of the congregation of Lunel, and of the neighboring towns, stand alone in raising the banner of Moses. You apply yourselves to the study of the Talmud and also cherish wisdom. The study of Torah in our communities has ceased; most of the bigger congregations are dead to spiritual aims; the remaining communities are facing the end. In the whole of Palestine, there are three or four places only, and even these are weak, and in the whole of Syria none but a few in Aleppo occupy themselves with the Torah according to the truth, but they have it not much at heart. In the Babylonian Diaspora, there are only two or three groups in Yemen, and in the rest of Arabia, they know little of the Talmud and are merely acquainted with aggadic exposition.
Only lately some well-to-do men came forward and purchased three copies of my code which they distributed through messengers in these countries, one copy for each country. Thus the horizon of these Jews was widened and the religious life in all communities as far as India revived. The Jews of India know nothing of the Torah and of the laws, save the Sabbath and circumcision. In the towns of Berbery, which belong to the realm of Islam, the Jews read the Torah and observe it according to its literal meaning. What was inflicted upon the Jews of Maghreb as punishment for their sins you know.”
“Therefore be firm and courageous for the sake of our people and our God; make up your minds to remain brave men. Everything depends on you; the decision is in your hands. Do not rely upon my support, because I am an old man with gray hair. And know that for this not my age but my weak body is responsible…”
(The above translation of this Hebrew letter is taken from “A Rambam Reader,” by I. Twersky. A slightly different text is printed in Y. Shailat, Iggerot Ha-Rambam, Volume 2. There are two surviving manuscripts of this letter; they differ slightly from each other.)
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1. This letter is interesting because of the broad survey of the Jewish communities that Rambam undertook in the year 1200. He described Torah learning as dying or deteriorating everywhere and believed that the future of Judaism depended on the study of Torah in Lunel and its neighboring communities.It is also interesting that Rambam failed to mention the communities of northern France and Germany, where there was much Torah learning going on in the year 1200. Today, we can name the numerous communities and many learned Rishonim from this region from this time.
When I first observed this omission, I thought it reflected some type of implicit criticism by Rambam of the method of learning in northern France and Germany. But then, Ephraim Kanarfogel pointed out to me that I was reading too much into the omission. Rambam had been living in Egypt for about 34 years when he wrote this letter. By that time, the communities of northern France and Germany were probably just not on his radar. As noted in the Encyclopedia Judaica (11:757), we have evidence of Rambam corresponding with every part of the Jewish world, except for the area of northern France and Germany.That which was going on in northern France and Germany was off Rambam’s radar is hard for us moderns to imagine. Every Shabbat, I turn the pages of a certain weekly Jewish newspaper and without even trying, I am informed of the happenings in far-off Jewish communities such as Ireland, Australia and India — just to name a few examples.
The letter did refer to “members of the congregation of Lunel, and of the neighboring towns.” Perhaps, the latter phrase (“ve-chol he-arim asher sevivoteichem,”) was meant to include the towns of northern France and Germany. But a fair reading of the entire letter makes this interpretation unlikely.
2. The text of the letter printed by Shailat includes other material. There is one interesting phrase in it, where. Rambam told the Rabbis of Lunel: “ve-aleichem mitzvat yibum, o chalotz o yabem.” Here, Rambam was comparing the Torah — which was now being abandoned in most communities — to a widow. He was encouraging the Rabbis of Lunel to do the proper thing and “marry it,” rather than let it remain abandoned.
3. I have always enjoyed reading Rambam’s comment about being proud of one Mishneh Torah being sent to each of three countries. Today, in Teaneck alone, where I live, there are probably thousands of copies!
Mitchell First can be reached at [email protected]. Like the Rambam, he hopes to have his books sent to faraway venues to revive Jewish learning.
