JEFFREY KATZ (NEW YORK, NEW YORK) is a lifelong student and teacher of rationalist religious philosophy. He became fascinated in his youth by his

discovery of the ancient wisdom of Maimonides and received rabbinic ordination while focusing on disseminating the ancient, life-changing wisdom he had uncovered. He is a practicing attorney, has appeared on national television and lectured widely on a broad range of issues, and is the author of The Secret Life: A Book of Wisdom from the Great Teacher.

The author lives & works in the New York City metro area.

RULES TO LIVE BY: Maimonides' Guide to a Wonderful Life by Jeffrey Katzis separated into seven sections, with practical steps and advice that readers can immediately apply in their day-to-day lives:

1. Physical: Maimonides continually stresses preventative measures for good health. His focus is on maintaining excellent health and preventing disease, rather than on fighting illness once it has set in.
2. Building a Strong Family: By continuing to cherish values such as family, and taking personal responsibility for their well-being, instead of looking to the authorities to do the job, we can recapture for ourselves many of our greatest ideals of honor, initiative and self-reliance that will serve as tools and blessings for us in all other aspects of our lives as well.
3. Character is Key: Earning a reputation for honesty and integrity will raise the tone of your life in dramatic ways. It will cause others to view you as a serious prospect for all sorts of relationships, both personal and professional. It will draw others to you as someone they want to interact with on many different levels, and will propel you and your life forward. When combined with wisdom, your honesty and integrity will join with your wisdom in making you a valuable partner to most people and in most enterprises.
4. Success on the Job: Consider what inspires you. What is it you REALLY care about? What would you like to be remembered for? What might you do that can help many people? Once you discover what inspires you, you will learn the secret of inspiring others AND yourself. MAKE THAT inspirational mission and challenge a part of your personal and professional life.
5. Financial Wealth: One should strive to make the most of one’s financial situation. One way of doing this is to always be trading up from things that are temporary to things that endure. Invest in things with long-term value, real estate being one such example, rather than spending a lot of money on momentary pleasures or even on longer-lasting ones that are very costly.
6. Focus on the Spiritual: By clearing your mind of all extraneous thoughts and purifying your concentration and focus on prayer, you will find it far easier to achieve focus on each of the other matters in your life that demand your attention and best thinking and problem-solving abilities. This is, in essence, a form of practiced meditation, whereby you practice clearing your mind of everything except your single desired focus, whether it be on God, in the case of prayer, or on any other issue in your life that you are intent on focusing on, and eliciting your best thoughts on. The ability to attain this type of focus and directed thinking is a powerful tool that will help you to be your best in many areas of your life.
7. A Positive Mental Attitude: Overall happiness is a key to good health, spiritual development, and even material prosperity. And you can increase your overall happiness simply by acting that way. You may not be able to directly change your mood, but each of us can directly change his or her actions. By changing your behavior in this way, you will have taken a vital step toward improving your overall mood and spirits. Although achieved indirectly in this manner, the results obtained can be very tangible and real.

By following these RULES TO LIVE BY, readers can help make themselves physically, psychologically, and morally sound, as stated in the Bible, “And you shall be holy for My sake, for I, God, am holy” (Leviticus 20:26). Using these rules, readers can take cues from above rather than from below, and retain enough of these time-tested values to keep their bodies and our society at its strongest, healthiest, and most honorable.