Editing Jewish principles of faith (section)

===After Maimonides===
Despite the popular acceptance of Maimonides' principles, "even a cursory examination of Jewish literature shows that Maimonides' principles were never regarded as the last word in Jewish theology".<ref name=m13/> The 13 principles are simultaneously understood as rooted in legitimate Talmudic scholarship and Jewish tradition, and also remain somewhat controversial as scholars who both preceded and succeeded Maimonides (and Maimonides himself, in one case<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Thirteen Principles of Faith |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/beliefs/Theology/Thinkers_and_Thought/Doctrine_and_Dogma/The_Middle_Ages/Principles_of_Faith.shtml |access-date=2024-01-30 |website=My Jewish Learning |language=en-US}}</ref>) offered different views.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=m13>{{Cite journal |last=Shapiro |first=Marc B. |date=1993 |title=Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40914883 |journal=The Torah U-Madda Journal |volume=4 |pages=187–242 |jstor=40914883 |issn=1050-4745}}</ref> Nevertheless, in most cases the divergence from Maimonides' principles was relatively minor.<ref>[https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-thirteen-principles-of-faith/ The Thirteen Principles of Faith]</ref>

Some successors of [[Maimonides]], from the 13th to the 15th centuries—[[Nahmanides]], [[Abba Mari ben Moses]], [[Simon ben Zemah Duran]], [[Joseph Albo]], [[Isaac Arama]], and [[Joseph Jaabez]]—narrowed his 13 articles to three core beliefs: belief in God; in creation (or revelation); and in [[Divine Providence|providence]] (or retribution).

Others, like [[Hasdai Crescas]] and [[David ben Samuel Estella]], spoke of seven fundamental articles, laying stress on free-will. On the other hand, [[David ben Yom Tov ibn Bilia]] adds to the 13 of Maimonides 13 of his own<ref>In ''Yesodot ha- Maskil'' (Fundamentals of the Thinking Man)</ref>—a number which a contemporary of Albo also chose for his fundamentals; while [[Jedaiah ben Abraham Bedersi|Jedaiah Penini]] ({{circa | 1270|1340}}) enumerated no fewer than 35 cardinal principles.<ref>''Behinat ha-Dat'', final chapter</ref>

[[Isaac Abarbanel]] argued that while Maimonides' 13 principles are necessary, they are not sufficient as really the truth of every belief or narrative in the Torah should be an article of faith.<ref>''Rosh Amanah'' (The Pinnacle of Faith, 1505)</ref><ref name=m13/> 

For Maimonides, the uniqueness of the 13  beliefs was that even a rejection out of ignorance placed one outside Judaism, whereas the rejection of the rest of Torah must be a conscious act for a person to be classified as a heretic. Others, such as Rabbi Joseph Albo and [[Abraham ben David |the Raavad]], criticized Maimonides' list as containing items that, while true, in their opinion did not place those who rejected them out of ignorance in the category of heretics. Many others criticized any such formulation as minimizing acceptance of the entire Torah. As noted, however, neither Maimonides nor his contemporaries viewed these principles as encompassing all of Jewish belief, but rather as the core theological underpinnings of the acceptance of Judaism.