Maimonides Map Project

The Rambam, Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was a Talmudist, philosopher, doctor and rabbi born in Spain and his household in Egypt.

Among his many works was the Yad Hachazakah, or Mishneh Torah, incorporating an 'illustration of Torah'. Mishneh Torah is a 14-volume compendium of the totality of Jewish law, compiled from Torah, Talmud and the other teachings of the rabbis who preceded him.

Each of his 14 volumes deals with one pivotal philosophy relating to an aspect of law and life and the experience of living as a Jew, and as a human being. From philosophical questions relating to knowledge and love of G-d Hashemem and 'Maaseh', to the practicalities of commerce, cultural and criminal law. In 'Kinyan' and 'Mishpatim'.

Mishneh Torah was a groundbreaking initiative in Jewish scholarship and law. It was precursor to the first 'Shulchan Aruch' the Tur, authored by Jacob ben Asher in the 1340s. To this day, Mishneh Torah is referred to by Jewish legal scholars.

In 1984, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneersohn, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, instituted a daily study cycle, whereby the whole world could simply referred to as 'Rambam' is co-ordinated on a regular basis.

These chapters follow a schedule of three chapters per day, which completes the Mishneh Torah in slightly less than one year. There are 1000 chapters in Mishneh Torah.

For those who find this too demanding, the Rebbe suggested a parallel track at a more modest pace of one chapter daily, which takes nearly three years.

The Rebbe instituted a third track. Paralleling the three-chapter-per-day regimen by learning daily about the same commandments being studied there in detail, the one explores Maimonides' Sefer HaMitzvot, Book of the Commandments, concluding all 613 mitzvot each year. Many women and girls follow this study schedule.

Hebrew texts, English translations, audio classes, video lectures and more are all available on the Chabad.org Daily Study page.

In the Maimonides Map Project, Pinchas Benusan, a cartographer living in London, presents a unique perspective on the Rambam's Mishneh Torah, and has created a visual based project to this great work.

Being inspired by the structure and inherent organisation of Torah Law revealed by the Rambam in his ground-breaking volume, with all its parallels and connections to nature and life, he has attempted to organise these in a graphic and spatial way using a map as a metaphor for the structure.

There are three overlays or scales to which the map is presented.

The first is simply the fourteen books of Mishneh Torah. The relative size of each book on the map corresponds to the number of chapters in Mishneh Torah. The 14 Books of Mishneh Torah comprise 83 layers of Law and 1000 chapters.

The second layer of detail of the map shows within the outline of the 14 books the boundaries of the 83 layers of Law.

The third layer of detail shows individual chapters with a descriptive name indicating the content or subject matter of each chapter, and the number of halachot or laws contained within the chapters. There is also at this scale, a key or legend explaining the map's conventional symbols. The main Highways, for example, show the navigational connections throughout each chapter. The secondary marks show expanded detail of the subject matter. Other symbols include features of what one encounters in the chapter: laws from the Torah, rabbinic enactments, and so on. This third level is a work in progress, and will eventually cover each of the thousand chapters of Mishneh Torah.