Part 2 of Maimonides Letters to Hakhme Lunel/Rabbis of Provence. Tradition website: “The last two recorded letters of Maimonides were addressed to Rabbi Jonathan Hakohen of Lunel in 1199 and to the leaders of the same community in 1200, four years prior to his death on December 13, 1204, at the age of seventy. The letters were permeated with pathos and a sense of urgency similar to the farewell admonition of Moshe Rabeinu, calling upon his followers to remain firm and of good courage in support of our religion. ‘You, the members of the congregation of Lunel, and of neighboring towns, stand alone in raising aloft the banner of Moses,’ he wrote in desperation to the leaders of the community whom he regarded as ‘the saving remnant.'”Another website: Among the massive correspondence that reached the Rambam were letters with questions from Rabbi Yehonatan of Lunel and from a group of other rabbis from Provence. Rabbi Yehonatan asked about things that were written in the Mishneh Torah and requested copies of the Rambam’s other works. The other rabbis sent a list of twenty-four questions. These letters went unanswered for years, because there was not enough time to devote to them. But the rabbis persisted in their request, addressing Maimonides as “the one who tells his words to Jacob and his laws to Israel.” Finally, the Rambam sent them a responsum with a list of twenty-four answers. Maimonides was pleased by their letter. He understood from it that his book had reached them and that they had studied it thoroughly. His answer was written only partly in his own handwriting, for he was too old and sickly to write all of it himself.
In the letter, he described the method by which he had written the Mishneh Torah. ” I brought together things that were scattered and separated among the hills and mountains. I called them one from a city and two from a family. Who can know his mistakes? Forgetfulness is common, especially among old people. For all these reasons, my words should be examined and checked. Whoever reads my book should not say, ‘who is the man who will come after the king?’ I give them permission. ‘The king said, “Let him come.” ‘You have done me a great favor, esteemed sages. And whoever finds something and tells me about it is doing me a favor, so that no stumbling block will remain there, God forbid. For in writing this work I only intended to clear the way and to remove the obstacles from before students, so that they not become overwhelmed by all the discussion and spend hours trying to arrive at the ruling.”
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