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Maimonides wrote one code of Jewish law in the twelfth century. Within Judaism alone, the record now shows four entirely different reactions to it.

Kept, Argued With, Refused

Orthodox, Haredi, Chabad and Modern Orthodox Judaism hold the Mishneh Torah as an authoritative code, still consulted for practice. Reform Judaism argues with it rather than following it: in this reading the code records how an earlier generation answered its own questions, worth studying but not binding today. Karaite Judaism refuses it outright, and for a precise reason, the work sets the Oral Torah into systematic law, and Karaite practice holds to the written Torah alone. Humanistic Judaism refuses it for the opposite reason, keeping Jewish culture and ethics without appeal to a law given by divine command at all.

Held a Different Way

Two communities hold the code neither as authority nor as refusal, but as a different account of it. Conservative Judaism treats it as one voice to be weighed inside its own ongoing legal process, not the final word. Beta Israel, the Jewish community of Ethiopia, developed its law from its own scripture and its own monastic tradition, on a line that never passed through Maimonides, so for it the code describes a different Judaism's law rather than a rejected version of its own.

Where To Read More

• Mishneh TorahRules and CodesThe code itself, and the subject every stance below is about
• MaimonidesSagesIts author
• Reform JudaismJudaismArgues with the code rather than following or refusing it
• Karaite JudaismJudaismRefuses it for what it systematises, the Oral Torah
• Conservative JudaismJudaismWeighs it inside its own legal process rather than as final
• Beta IsraelJudaismA Jewish law formed on a line the code never reached