On Maimonides’ Philosophy of Halachah [1948]

Dr. Slonimsky of the Jewish Institute of Religion once told me of the following incident, which took place at a round-table discussion on medieval scholasticism at the University of Chicago: Rabbi Joshua Liebman, who was to speak on the Jewish aspects of the topic under discussion, made the statement that what St. Thomas’ “Summa Theologica” is to Christianity and specifically to Roman Catholicism, Maimonides’ “Guide of the Perplexed” is to Judaism. Dr. Slonimsky, however, rose to the correction that not the “Guide of the Perplexed” but rather Maimonides’ “Mishneh Torah” occupies in Judaism the place which in Christianity is held by the “Summa.”