A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides

The article aims to examine Maimonides’ investigation of leprosy. Re-reading the passages in Leviticus in which the issue is dealt with, Maimonides insists in his Mišneh Torah on the punitive scope of leprosy: it is simply the punishment that, following a series of warnings, God inflicts on those wh...

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Huvudupphov: Benedetto, Marienza
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Språk:engelska
Utgiven: E-theca OnLineOpenAccess Edizioni 2026
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author Benedetto, Marienza
author_browse Benedetto, Marienza
author_facet Benedetto, Marienza
author_sort Benedetto, Marienza
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The article aims to examine Maimonides’ investigation of leprosy. Re-reading the passages in Leviticus in which the issue is dealt with, Maimonides insists in his Mišneh Torah on the punitive scope of leprosy: it is simply the punishment that, following a series of warnings, God inflicts on those who have been guilty of the sin of turpitude. The strictly moral dimension is complemented by something else, however, in the Guide of the Perplexed, in which Maimonides attempts to explain the epidemic phenomenon of leprosy in scientific terms, moving beyond the categories of impurity and recovery of purity that had guided him in his analyses up to that point.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1710702026-01-29T07:30:35Z A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides Benedetto, Marienza Maimonides leprosy impurity punishment miracle thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science The article aims to examine Maimonides’ investigation of leprosy. Re-reading the passages in Leviticus in which the issue is dealt with, Maimonides insists in his Mišneh Torah on the punitive scope of leprosy: it is simply the punishment that, following a series of warnings, God inflicts on those who have been guilty of the sin of turpitude. The strictly moral dimension is complemented by something else, however, in the Guide of the Perplexed, in which Maimonides attempts to explain the epidemic phenomenon of leprosy in scientific terms, moving beyond the categories of impurity and recovery of purity that had guided him in his analyses up to that point. Published 2026-01-29T07:30:32Z 2026-01-29T07:30:32Z 2024-12-12 chapter 9788875903183 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/171070 eng Quaderni di Noctua image/jpeg application/pdf Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://dx.doi.org/10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua7-5 https://dx.doi.org/10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua7-5 E-theca OnLineOpenAccess Edizioni Medical and Philosophical Perspectives on Illness and Disease in the Middle Ages E-theca OnLineOpenAccess Edizioni, Università degli Studi di Torino 10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua7-5 10.14640/QuadernidiNoctua7-5 9c743178-7a11-43f5-9c4d-07b93e99f80f 06e34257-d26f-4a71-955c-9459468137d7 9788875903183 E-theca OnLineOpenAccess Edizioni, Università degli Studi di Torino 7 132-156 Florence, Parma, Turin open access
spellingShingle Maimonides
leprosy
impurity
punishment
miracle
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
Benedetto, Marienza
A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title_full A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title_fullStr A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title_full_unstemmed A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title_short A Divine Punishment? Leprosy in the Reflections of Moses Maimonides
title_sort divine punishment leprosy in the reflections of moses maimonides
topic Maimonides
leprosy
impurity
punishment
miracle
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
topic_facet Maimonides
leprosy
impurity
punishment
miracle
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
url https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/171070
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