Moses Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, "Rambam," 1138-1204) is the towering figure of medieval Jewish thought, and his philosophical masterwork, the Guide of the Perplexed (written in Judeo-Arabic), is one of the most influential works of religious philosophy ever composed. It addresses the reader torn between the teachings of the Torah and the conclusions of Aristotelian philosophy, and seeks to show that, rightly understood, they do not conflict.
Central to it is a rigorous negative theology: God is absolutely one and incorporeal, so utterly beyond human categories that we can say what God is not but never positively what God is, and the anthropomorphic language of scripture ("the hand of God," God's "anger") must be read as metaphor. The Guide also offers rational accounts of prophecy, of providence, and of the reasons for the commandments (ta'amei ha-mitzvot). Maimonides wrote it esoterically, in deliberate "chapter headings" and scattered hints, so that its deepest teaching would reach the philosophically prepared while not disturbing the simple believer, a method that has kept interpreters arguing about his true views ever since.