A SINGLE VOLUME EDITION
The advantage of a precise edition bound in a single volume is by the very accessibility it offers even a first-reading of the text and the assurance that the text being read does not require validating as the Rambam’s own words, i.e., “one can open the book and see”. Of course, the reader can always delve more deeply into the text. Moreover, in a single-volume edition, the reader can survey entire chapters with a single glance, viewing the structure of the Halachot, their scope and order, and add one Halacha to another through the entire breadth of the Torah, in order to uphold what the sages have stated (at the end of the tractate of Horaiot), that “Sinai”, i.e., a person well versed in the entire Torah, whose learning is orderly and clear, is to be preferred over “an Up-rooter of Mountains", i.e. a sharp and intelligent person who analyzes the Torah but does not have all of his learning arranged in an orderly fashion. As we have seen, the internal associations between the details of various Halachot taken from the entire breadth of the Torah, are conductive to the formulation of clear rules according to the Torah's conceptions.
For these reasons, we have undertaken to provide the entire congregation of Israel with an integral and highly precise edition in a single volume that is both accessible and available, and very close to what was originally written by the Rambam, according to his will. An edition that will make it possible to study the language of the Rambam, as it is, at any time and in any subject, to learn in order to uphold. This may be done both through briefly glancing at the matter being investigated, by virtue of the fact that entire chapters may be surveyed at a single glance; and through accompanying the study of the Talmud itself, in order to get to the bottom of the Halacha according to the deeper understanding of the Talmud (even while studying the Daf Yomi). The single-volume edition may be studied as part of a program that strives to encompass the entire Mishneh Torah through daily lessons (as urged by the sacred call of the Sephardic geniuses, such as the author of "Khikerey Leve), and recently, the great call of the Rabbi of Lubavitch), or as part of one's striving to know what should be done in practice; for if a person wishes to get to the depth of various matter, he may only do so after the foundations of faith and action are clear and evident.
We recommend the editions that interpret the Rambam using his own concepts and words (the integral edition of Rabbi Kapakh of blessed memory, issued by Machon Moshe Publications, and a partial edition covering more that a third of this composition, as written by Rabbi A. Rabinowitz long may he live, issued by "Machon Maaliot").
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