The Rambam's thirteen foundations
"The 13 Principles of Faith" is a subject, not a person. The Thirteen Principles — the Shloshah Asar Ikkarim — were formulated by the Rambam in his commentary to the mishnah as the core beliefs of Judaism. This collection is a series devoted to studying them, so treating the title as the name of a "speaker" would misread it. What the series offers is a structured tour through the foundations of Jewish belief.
Giving these principles their own series makes good sense. They are meant to sit at the base of everything else a Jew believes and does, yet they are often recited more than examined. A dedicated series slows down to actually think them through, one at a time.
From belief to daily life
The thirteen principles range across the essentials of emunah: that Hashem exists and is one, that He has no body, that prophecy is real and the Torah is Divine, that Hashem knows our deeds and responds to them, and that the days of Mashiach and the resurrection of the dead will come. A series can take each in turn, drawing out what it affirms and why it belongs among the foundations.
The interest is not only in stating the principles but in understanding them — what it means to hold each belief, and how it shapes a person's outlook and choices. Studied carefully, the ikkarim become less a list to recite and more a framework through which a Jew sees the world.
Ani Maamin and Yigdal
These principles are woven into daily Jewish life through the liturgy. The Ani Maamin formulas restate each of the thirteen in the words "I believe with complete faith," and the hymn Yigdal renders them in poetry sung in shul. Many Jews meet the ikkarim first through these familiar prayers, often without realizing they trace back to the Rambam.
A series like this closes that gap, connecting the words on the page to the ideas behind them. Understanding where the Ani Maamin and Yigdal come from turns routine recitation into something meant — a small but real deepening of the tefillah a family already says.
Finding kosher Torah video for your family
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If your family enjoys exploring the foundations of Jewish belief, search FilteredTube for the speakers and topics that matter most to you. With a daf yomi shelf, a weekly parsha shelf, topic shelves, audio-only listening for the car, and a kids mode with a PIN, kosher Jewish video is easy to reach — and the approved catalog keeps growing every day.
At a glance
Key takeaways
- "The 13 Principles of Faith" is a series on the Rambam's ikkarim, not a person.
- The Rambam formulated the Thirteen Principles as the core beliefs of Judaism.
- They span God's existence and unity, prophecy, Torah, reward, Mashiach, and resurrection.
- They live in daily life through the Ani Maamin and the hymn Yigdal.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.