Jonathan's
Little Corner : Torah
: Maimonides :
Ani Maamin
The Thirteen Basic Principles
paraphrased from the Rambam (Maimonides)
translated by Jonathan Baker
I hold with complete faith
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that the Creator whose Name shall be blessed:
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1. is the Creator and Director of all creatures, and that he alone made,
makes and will make everything that exists.
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2. is [the perfect] Unity and there is no Unity like him in any manner
and that he alone, our God, was is and will be.
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3. has no [physical] body, nor can any corporeal effect influence Him,
and that he has no form at all.
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4. is the First and the Last. [is eternal]
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5. is alone worthy to be the object of prayer, and that it is not fitting
to pray to anything other than Him alone.
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6. that all the words of the [Jewish] prophets are true.
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7. that the prophecy of Moses our teacher, E"H [variously translated as
servant of God, or peace be upon him, but absent in the Arabic
version] was truthful, and the he was the root of the prophets who came
both before and after him.
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8. that all of the Torah which now exists in our hands is that which was
given to Moses our teacher E"H.
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9. that this Torah will not be exchanged [for another, or overturned],
and that there will never be another Torah from the Creator whose Name
shall be blessed.
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that the Creator whose Name shall be blessed:
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10. knows every deed of human beings and all of their thoughts, as it is
written, Who created together their hearts, who understands all their
deeds.
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11. grants good to those who observe His commands and causes those who
transgress His commands to be punished.
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12. in the coming of the Moshiach [Anointed King], and even though he may
tarry, with all this I will wait for him every day that shall come.
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13. that there will be a resurrection of the dead at a time which shall
arise in the WIll of the Creator whose Name is blessed, and consciousness
of Him will arise forever and ever.