I THE OBJECT OF MAIMONIDES' WORKS. THE COMMENTARY ON THE MISHNAH. THE SHEMONAH PERAḲIM During the lifetime of Maimonides, there were many who bitterly assailed him, declaring that his Talmudical knowledge was faulty, that his writings were un-Jewish, that he sought to introduce strange elements into Judaism, and that he desired his works to supersede the Talmud. Some of Maimonides' opponents were animated by a spirit of true criticism, but other attacks made upon him were partly due to personal feelings of envy. The opposition continued for a while after Maimonides' death, but it was not long before the true character of this master's works became universally recognized. The feeling, minus the personal element, that Maimonides wished to have his works take the place of the Talmud, has, however, persisted to this day. Thus, we find Luzzatto stating that Maimonides wrote his Mishneh Torah in order to do away with the study of the Babylonian Talmud. Beer, supporting the same opinion, maintains that Maimonides saw the disadvantages of the study of the Talmud, was aware of the uselessness of some of its parts, and considered its extended study a waste of time. As proof of this he quotes from the introduction to the Mishneh Torah the famous sentence, "I have named this work Mishneh Torah for the reason that if any one has read the Torah and then this work, he would know the Biblical and oral law without having to read any other book." Geiger maintains that Maimonides' object was merely to shorten the study of the Talmud. There are those, however, who take exception to this view. Rosin says, "From the very beginning the Talmud alone was the object of his study." Worldly knowledge and philosophy were merely used by Maimonides as instruments for explaining and glorifying the divine teaching. He considered the rabbis to be second only in rank and greatness to the prophets, and held their writings in equally high esteem. On the face of it, the quotation cited from the Mishneh Torah would seem to prove the assertion made above, but this passage may be interpreted to prove exactly the opposite; that far from being his object to discourage the study of the Talmud, he wished to spread its knowledge among those who for any reason were unable to have access to it, or who could not devote sufficient time to master it. "It is a gross injustice often done to Maimonides," says I. Friedlaender, "to accuse him of having the intention to supersede the Talmud entirely. . . . He considered the Talmud as a most worthy object of study, but only for scholars. The people, however, are not scholars and cannot devote the whole of life to learning. For the mass of people alone he intended to supersede the Talmud by a comprehensive extract from it." Ziemlich, finally, asserts that Maimonides did not desire to put an end to the study of the Talmud, but rather to cast it into scientific form. Although this decided difference of opinion as to Maimonides' attitude towards the Talmud still exists, all, however, agree that his main object was to harmonize Jewish traditional belief with the current Aristotelian philosophy. For this work Maimonides was admirably equipped; his ability as a systematizer was most remarkable, and not only had he a profound knowledge of Jewish law and lore, but was so deep a student of philosophy and the sciences that his works have since exercised considerable influence even outside the domains of Judaism.