An Explanatory Commentary on Each Chapter
of Maimonides' Guide of The Perplexed
By: Scott Michael Alexander
About Maimonides
This site is the home for Scott Alexander's explanatory essays on Maimonides' Introduction, and on each of the 76 chapters from the first volume of The Guide of the Perplexed. Also (as of August, 2025) we have completed chapter-essays on the first 9 chapters of the second volume. Refer back here frequently as we work on new chapter-essays. You will also find podcasts, videocasts and crucially important links in support of this endeavor. It is also the home for other occasional writings by Scott Alexander on associated topics.
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Scott can be reached for comments, questions and criticism at scottmalexander@rcn.com as well as at Maimonides Group at YahooGroups.com where you may post your comments.
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About Maimonides
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Moses Ben Maimon, (1137-8 to 1204 CE), the greatest Jewish philosopher, is known in the west as Maimonides, and in Hebrew literature as Rambam. He was born in Islamic Cordova, in Andalusia, Spain. Apart from being a philosopher, he was famous as a jurist, physician, international Jewish leader, writer in Arabic and Hebrew; in short, a man of innumerable accomplishments.
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​In his eternal monument, the Mishneh Torah, Maimonides codified the entire Corpus Judaica, including the vast repositories of Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic lore. The Guide of the Perplexed was his statement of "the science of the law in its true sense," that is, the examination of divine purpose in divine law. Maimonides' Guide searches for the meaning of prophecy, and it was meant to be a curriculum for all future prophets.
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THE GUIDE
An Explanatory Commentary on Each Chapter of the Guide of the Perplexed
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I'm a title.
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© COPYRIGHT 2017 Scott Michael Alexander, reproduction only allowed upon written permission of the author.
QUICK TABLE OF CONTENTS : Click on any title to open
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FULL SEARCHABLE PDF OF VOLUME ONE CHAPTER-ESSAYS
(Caution, there may be some differences between chapter contents found in this pdf, and the individual pdf's of chapter essays below. However this site needed a good way to search the entire volume. There is an actual index at the end of this pdf, but I strongly caution against using it in its present shape. This a huge document so it may take a minute to load. I suggest you find your term in this pdf, figure out what chapter it is in, and then go to the VERY LATEST pdf of that chapter in the table of contents below. The Introduction to Volume II and the Commentator's Preface are not yet included. You can search them with a Control-F search in those respective PDFs. The search box at the top of this page does not have the power to search in the pdf, but only on the html website materials). New!
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Click here for the FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
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MAIMONIDES' INTRODUCTION I MAIMONIDES’ INTRODUCTION II
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VOLUME II
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