**Mishneh Torah**

Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, is known by many as the second Torah and Talmud, for he writes in the introduction:

>“a person will not need another text at all with regard to any Jewish law.” Instead, “a person should first study the Written Law [the Torah], and then study this text and will then understand the entire Oral Law [the rabbinical enactments] from it without having to study any other text other than these two.”

Contrary to what many people think, Mishneh Torah does contain philosophy. In the Mishneh Torah “Code of Jewish Laws,” Laws of Kings 11:3, chapters 11 and 12, Maimonides explains that the Messianic age will be a natural event.

**The Guide of the Perplexed**

Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed is his philosophic works. Yet the work is contradictory. This was because he was writing for two audiences. For example, in the Mishneh Torah he expressed his belief in angels but in the Guide (2:6,) he equates them to the natural forces. G-d is all-powerful and needs no helpers. More examples are the sacrifices, which the Rambam writes were a concession for humans (see Guide 3:32).

In the introduction to the Guide, Maimonides spells out his technique of implementing the fifth and seventh contradictions, writing:

>“Do not read superficially, lest you do me an injury, and derive no benefit for yourself. You must study thoroughly and read continually; for you will find the solution of those important problems of religion, which are the source of anxiety to all intelligent men.”