Maimonides, also known as Rambam and considered one of history’s preeminent Jewish scholars, wrote the Mishnah Torah in the 12th century as an all-inclusive guide to the system of Jewish law
Adam Schiff, the freshman Democratic senator from California, is being sworn into office on a 1490 edition of Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, one of the most revered and prominent codes of Jewish law.
Schiff, in a statement ahead of his swearing in on Monday, said the edition, published in the duchy of Milan, now in northern Italy, was “a monumental legal code and one of the most organized, comprehensive, and influential works of Jewish law.”
The edition was published by Gershom ben Mosheh ish Sontsino, a scion of a pioneering Jewish printing family known as Soncino. A publishing house in the family’s name is still active.