Editing Nachmanides (section)

== Attitude toward Maimonides ==
Called upon, about 1238, for support by [[Solomon ben Abraham of Montpellier]], who had been excommunicated by supporters of [[Maimonides]], Nachmanides addressed a letter to the communities of [[Aragon]], [[Navarre]], and [[Crown of Castile|Castile]], in which Solomon's adversaries were severely rebuked. However, the great respect he professed for Maimonides (though he did not share the latter's views), reinforced by innate gentleness of character, kept him from allying himself with the anti-Maimonist party and led him to assume the role of a conciliator.<ref name="jewishencyc"/> Maimonides was 58 years old when Nachmanides was born. 

In a letter addressed to the French rabbis, he draws attention to the virtues of Maimonides and holds that Maimonides' [[Mishneh Torah]] – his Code of Jewish Law – not only shows no leniency in interpreting prohibitions within Jewish law, but may even be seen as more stringent, which in Nachmanides' eyes was a positive factor. As to Maimonides' ''[[Guide for the Perplexed]]'', Nachmanides stated that it was intended not for those of unshaken belief, but for those who had been led astray by the non-Jewish philosophical works of [[Aristotle]] and [[Galen]]. (Note that Nachmanides's analysis of the ''Guide'' is not the consensus view of modern scholars.) "If," he says, "you were of the opinion that it was your duty to denounce the Guide as heretical, why does a portion of your flock recede from the decision as if it regretted the step? Is it right in such important matters to act capriciously, to applaud the one to-day and the other tomorrow?"<ref name="jewishencyc"/>

To reconcile the two parties, Nachmanides proposed that the ban against the philosophical portion of Maimonides's Code of Jewish law should be revoked, but that the ban against public study of the ''Guide for the Perplexed'', and against those who rejected allegorical interpretation of the Bible, should be maintained and even strengthened. 

Due to the existence of three variant editions of Nachmanides' letter, there is some debate as to the contents of his proposed resolution. The Savaral manuscript reads as follows:

{{Blockquote
|text=Let a royal command issue forth from you as you become a single group and a lasting bond to destroy an upraised arm, to excommunicate, ban, and place under a curse every tongue speaking arrogantly which God will destroy, one who mocks the ''[[Aggadah|aggadot]]'' or opens his mouth against the ''[[Asmachta (Talmudical hermeneutics)|asmakhtot]]'', and those who engage in the study of the [[The Guide for the Perplexed|Guide]] in groups. For the great rabbi and author [[Maimonides]] has commanded not to publicize nor explicate it.
|source=''Cultures in Collision and Conversation: Essays in the Intellectual History of the Jews, p. 122'' (2011)
}}

This compromise, which might have ended the struggle, was rejected by both parties in spite of Nachmanides' authority.<ref name="jewishencyc"/>