Editing Maimonides (section)

===Mishneh Torah===
{{Main|Mishneh Torah}}
With {{transliteration|he|Mishneh Torah}}, Maimonides composed a code of [[Jewish law]] with the widest-possible scope and depth. The work gathers all the binding laws from the [[Talmud]], and incorporates the positions of the [[Geonim]] (post-Talmudic early medieval scholars, mainly from [[Mesopotamia]]). It is also known as {{transliteration|he|Yad ha-Chazaka}} or simply {{transliteration|he|Yad}} ({{lang|he|יד}}) which has the numerical value 14, representing the 14 books of the work. The ''Mishneh Torah'' made following Jewish law easier for the Jews of his time, who were struggling to understand the complex nature of Jewish rules and regulations as they had adapted over the years.

Later codes of Jewish law, e.g. [[Arba'ah Turim]] by Rabbi [[Jacob ben Asher]] and [[Shulchan Aruch]] by Rabbi [[Yosef Karo]], draw heavily on {{transliteration|he|Mishneh Torah}}: both often quote whole sections verbatim. However, it met initially with much opposition.<ref>Siegelbaum, Chana Bracha (2010) [https://books.google.com/books?id=4HVwBMI5zK0C&dq=Mishneh+Torah+met+initially+opposition&pg=PA199 ''Women at the crossroads : a woman's perspective on the weekly Torah portion''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912011823/https://books.google.com/books?id=4HVwBMI5zK0C&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=Mishneh+Torah+met+initially+opposition&source=bl&ots=p7VTtHovyS&sig=_ntA1Qo23D9AQ5MvoggZ9194Tg4&hl=es-419&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAmoVChMIldLSte66xwIVghyQCh22dA_s#v=onepage&q=Mishneh%20Torah%20met%20initially%20opposition&f=false |date=12 September 2015 }} Gush Etzion: Midreshet B'erot Bat Ayin. {{ISBN|9781936068098}} page 199</ref> There were two main reasons for this opposition. First, Maimonides had refrained from adding references to his work for the sake of brevity; second, in the introduction, he gave the impression of wanting to "cut out" study of the Talmud,<ref>Last section of Maimonides' Introduction to Mishneh Torah</ref> to arrive at a conclusion in Jewish law, although Maimonides later wrote that this was not his intent. His most forceful opponents were the rabbis of [[Provence]] (Southern France), and a running critique by Rabbi [[Abraham ben David]] (Raavad III) is printed in virtually all editions of {{transliteration|he|Mishneh Torah}}. Nevertheless, Mishneh Torah was recognized as a monumental contribution to the systemized writing of [[halakha]]. Throughout the centuries, it has been widely studied and its halakhic decisions have weighed heavily in later rulings.

In response to those who would attempt to force followers of Maimonides and his {{transliteration|he|Mishneh Torah}} to abide by the rulings of his own [[Shulchan Aruch]] or other later works, Rabbi [[Yosef Karo]] wrote: "Who would dare force communities who follow the Rambam to follow any other [[posek|decisor]] [of Jewish law], early or late? [...] The Rambam is the greatest of the decisors, and all the communities of the [[Land of Israel]] and the [[Arabian Peninsula|Arabistan]] and the [[Maghreb]] practice according to his word, and accepted him as their rabbi."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=636&pgnum=70 |author-last=Karo |author-first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Karo|title=Questions & Responsa Avqat Rokhel|script-title=he:אבקת רוכל|access-date=31 August 2023| at= responsum # 32 |language=he}} (first printed in [[Saloniki]] 1791)</ref>

An oft-cited legal maxim from his pen is: "[[Blackstone's formulation|It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death]]." He argued that executing a defendant on anything less than absolute certainty would lead to a slippery slope of decreasing burdens of proof, until defendants would be convicted merely according to the judge's caprice.<ref>Moses Maimonides, ''The Commandments, Neg. Comm. 290'', at 269–71 (Charles B. Chavel trans., 1967).</ref>