Maimonides was regarded by his contemporaries as a supreme rabbinical authority, and he was frequently asked to write responsa (legal opinions) to questions of Jewish law, over 500 of which survive. In this responsum, Maimonides was asked to settle a dispute between two mohels (circumcisers). One, a physician who had a grudge against the local mohel, performed a circumcision for free to spite him, thereby undercutting the livelihood of the local mohel. Maimonides ruled in favor of the working mohel, citing Leviticus 19:18: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Competing with another’s ability to make a living, he explained, is not kindness, but harm.