Halakha · Rambam (R' Moshe ben Maimon / Maimonides) · 12th c. · Fostat · Autograph · Mishneh Torah · Fragment · Foundational

משנה תורה — קטע בכתב יד קדשו של הרמב״ם

Mishneh Torah — autograph fragment of Maimonides (Hilkhot Loveh u-Malveh)

c. 1180 · The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary

A two-leaf fragment of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah — Hilkhot Loveh u-Malveh, chapters 19:6–8 and 22:1–2 — written in the Rambam's own hand around 1180. The Mishneh Torah is the Rambam's halakhic magnum opus, a complete systematic restatement of the entire halakhic corpus in clear classical Hebrew, organized into fourteen books. Hilkhot Loveh u-Malveh — the Laws of Borrower and Lender — sits within Sefer Mishpatim, the eleventh book. Only a small number of such autograph leaves of the Mishneh Torah survive anywhere in the world, scattered between the genizah finds and a handful of great libraries; this is one of the closest physical encounters with the Rambam himself possible nine centuries after his death. A downloadable PDF facsimile is also available.