The Thirteen Principles of Faith שלושה עשר עיקרים
In his commentary on the Mishnah, Rambam listed thirteen things without which, by his reckoning, a man stands outside the community of believers. The list was accepted—and argued with almost at once.
Judaism has no creed recited at the door. There are commandments, there is teaching, there is argument—but a list of what must be professed did not exist at all for a long time. Rambam drew one up, in his introduction to the chapter Chelek.
What is in it. That God exists and is the cause of all; that He is one; that He is incorporeal; that He is first and last; that He alone is to be prayed to; that prophecy is true; that the prophecy of Moses is above all others; that the Torah is from heaven; that it will not be changed; that He knows the deeds of men; that there is reward and punishment; that the messiah will come; that the dead will live again.
How it spread. By two versifications. Yigdal, a hymn sung at the end of the prayers; and Ani Maamin, thirteen lines of prose, "I believe with perfect faith," of which the twelfth, about the messiah, became a song, and was sung in our own time by people walking to their deaths.
And the argument. It began quickly and is not over. Hasdai Crescas asked by what right there is a count here at all: commandments can be counted, but principles—by what measure? Joseph Albo, in his Ikarim, reduced the matter to three: that God is, that the Torah is from heaven, that there is reward and punishment. Abarbanel objected differently: everything in the Torah is obligatory, and to single out thirteen is to lower the rest. Rambam loses nothing by this: men argue with him because the list became everyone's.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Rambam, Commentary on the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 10 (Chelek) — the list of the thirteen principles itself
- Joseph Albo, Sefer ha-Ikkarim — the reduction of the principles to three and the argument with Rambam's count
Basis: documents and evidence.