Rabbi Benyamin of Toledo walked down the pleasant streets. It looked so peaceful, so prosperous, this Egypt of Moshe Maimonides, the Rambam. How could it have swallowed up his old friend, the famous physician and scholar, without a trace? He approached an imposing building with a wrought-iron gate - the Rambam's home. He had tried to enter it several times, but the discreet doorman had informed him that the family was receiving no visitors.As he neared the house, he saw a little girl swinging back and forth on the gate. She had a distinctive face... a Maimon face. She must be Moshe's little girl.
"You must be Rabbi Moshe's daughter."
"Oh, no. Everybody thinks so, because I live here. I'm his niece."
"Why, then you must be...his younger brother David's little girl."
"Yes, that's right. My mother told me that he went in a big ship in the middle of the ocean, and there was a great wind and it sank down, and never came up again. And his soul is up in heaven. Look!" She pointed to a figure hurrying toward them. "That's my mother."
"Come, Mommy, here is a rabbi who knew Father when he was little. Come and speak to him."
Benyamin followed them into the courtyard. He explained that he had come all the way from Toledo to visit his old friend, Rabbi Moshe, but had not been permitted to enter.
"There are so many enemies. We don't know who to trust."
"I guessed as much. He is in hiding, then. I had hoped he was done with all the running and hiding."
"Our people call him the Great Eagle. He had risen too high. Our enemies cannot bear it that a Jew should have such influence. It's such a pity you can't see him. It would be good for him to see an old friend."
Benyamin felt the awakening of hope. "Do you think that it would be possible for me to see him, even for a few moments?"
"You must meet with Rabbi Moshe's friend, Rav Yehuda Hacohen."
Three days later Rav Yehuda Hacohen scrutinized Benyamin's credentials. "I am satisfied. We know we can trust you. But secrecy is of the essence. Tomorrow a few students are going to visit him in his hiding place. Be outside the yeshiva after maariv (the evening services)."
Two students were waiting for him the next evening in the shadow of the yeshiva building. They began climbing the foothills outside of the city. The path grew steeper and then disappeared. Suddenly they halted. Benyamin saw nothing but a rocky projection dimly illuminated by the glow of the moon.
He watched as the students bent down and pushed a boulder from the side of the cliff. Benyamin instinctively stepped back when confronted with the intense, blinding light streaming out of the opening in the mountain. Then, blinking in amazement, he beheld the most awesome sight he had even seen.
He was staring into a cave brightly lit by several tall, yellow wax tapers fixed to the veined rock wall. Behind a large desk strewn with rolls of parchment sat a Jew with a holy face that was framed by a silver beard. His entire being seemed to glow with some mysterious inner light.
The Rabbi behind the desk recognized him immediately. "Benyamin - from Toledo!"
It was then that the man realized that this rabbi was none other than his childhood companion Moshe, whom he had come to seek.
Rabbi Moshe questioned his friend closely about his life, his family, his travels through the lands of Jewish dispersion. Benyamin answered to the best of his ability, but at last could contain himself no longer. "Rabbi Moshe, what are you doing here all alone, in this cave in the wilderness?"
He had expected to find the great Rambam in hiding, but not cramped in a rough hole, denied the most basic human comforts.
"Don't look so downcast. Believe me, my friend, it is all for the best. I have not known such peace and tranquility since my childhood in Cordova. Come, I will show you something."
Benyamin came closer, and Rabbi Moshe pointed to several parchments in a box. "I have been working on a new book. I wish to gather from every law of the Torah all the mitzvot drawn from the Oral Law, and lay them all before the students in plain language and clear style. There shall be fourteen books in all. Very soon our Redeemer will come, and we will be gathered from all over the world. We will need to be fully conversant in all the laws very soon."
"What will you call your book?"
"I will call it Misheh Torah - so that every Jew, once he has learned the written Torah, will be able to turn to this book to find help in fulfilling the mitzvot correctly and studying the Talmud with greater ease."
Benyamin sensed that the interview was over. He and the two students walked home quietly together. One student said quietly to the other, "I feel as if I had just seen Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in his cave, with Elijah the Prophet teaching him."
From The Rambam by Rochel Yaffee, HaChai Publishing.
