Moses Maimonides (1135–1204) wrote at the beginning of his comprehensive code of Jewish law, the Mishneh Torah, that the most fundamental commandment in Judaism is to believe in the creator deity, that no one can believe in the creator who does not understand creation, and to understand creation requires knowledge of the sciences, especially physics and astronomy. All medieval rabbis agreed that the proper worship of God involves commandments to do what is good and to believe what is true, and many of them agreed with Maimonides that scientific knowledge was a critical way to fulfill this religious obligation.

The early modern period (sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries)

As is clear from the example of religious scientists such as the astronomer Levi Ben Gershom (Gersonides, 1288–1344), Jews followed Maimonides's directives and made...